Could SUNDAY in the Park with George work as a film?

Director: Marc Foster
Dot: Kate Winslet
George: Johnny Depp
Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer

I guess you can see I like the sensibility of FINDING NEVERLAND

Never ever going to happen but still.

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I've always wondered this. The love story would be perfect, but Act 2 would be pretty hard to transfer to film.

Take out the musical numbers, and it could be an extremely interesting movie. The brilliance of the the musical, and how everything comes together on stage slowly but surely until that final tableau is complete, I feel would not translate well to screen.

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I don't think a direct approach would work with this show. You'd need a really creative director to think of a way to capture the spirit of the show...not Bill Condon or Rob Marshall, in other words, as much as I've liked some of their work. It has to be someone who can be a bit more of an oddball - Steven Soderbergh or something.

Call an ambulance :).

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And I would actually love to see Anne Hathaway as Dot! George on the other hand... if Paul Giamatti could sing he might be good. Or maybe Robert Downey Jr. for a more sexier George?

I agree, a direct translation wouldn't work. Maybe something like THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. Basically, instead of simply adapting the novel to film, the filmmakers decided to make it a love story within a love story. They invented two new characters, actors who are filming an adaptation of John Fowle's book while engaging in a love affair of their own. Thus, the movie shifts back and forth between the finished product (the movie of THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN set in Victorian England) and the actors rehearsing their scenes, discussing the book/screenplay, and analyzing their own affair circa 1981.

They won't have to invent new characters for SUNDAY, but maybe they could tell both acts simultaneously, shifting back and forth from 1884 France to 1984 America. And since the actors in Act I play different characters in Act II, it'd be a nice echo of the past and present, so to speak. I don't know.

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I agree with StageManager and Plum. I think that the material would work (and flow) better for film if they were presented simultaneously (as opposed to one story ending and then another beginning). To make that work, you would need a really bold director. One who isn't afraid to make choices. It COULD work, but the original material is very theatrical and it makes it delicate to transfer.

It has the potential to visually be one of the most simplistically stunning films.

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I think if you have "Sunday" used as the final point of both stories (the completion of Georges' painting and the catalyst to George's new mindset) it could be just as (if not, perhaps even more so) moving. The stories weaving in and out really is the best way, but it's not at all the easy way. As previously said, some liberties would have to be made with both stories in order for the two to coexist on film. You would really need a brave and visionary director (and screenwriter).

Also, and I'm about to contradict myself here, but the theatricality of the original piece can be the biggest asset to a movie adaptation as well as its greatest liability. Because the piece is so theatrical, it can help create a world on film that is lavish enough to establish itself as an environment where a musical can occur, all the while never crossing over the border to ridiculousness because of the all-too real characters and personal conflicts they go through.

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Definitely could be beautiful.

... or this one...

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I've never been crazy about 'rotoscoping', like 'Waking Life', but for this film, for 'It's Hot Up Here',it would work perfectly.

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"
When Johnny Depp was being interviewed on British TV prior to the opening of the Sweeney Todd film he was asked if he and Tim Burton would consider filming Sunday. He gave an enthusiastic but non-commital response."

I read somewhere that Depp wouldn't do another musical.

Also, Tim Burton isn't really a musical fan, according to Sondheim - I'm surprised they'd even know the show well. (Sweeney Todd is the exception)

But I suppose it's something.

It would be Kate Winslet as Dot that I'd be most looking forward too, however.

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Updated On: 7/19/09 at 06:45 AM