Dream Cast For Movie "Follies"

I can't think of one Hollywood actress who would have the vocal chops for Heidi, to be honest.

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I'll take a shot: I imagine it will have to be updatred somewhat- so it's a TV studio being torn down! And so:

Buddy Matthew Perry
Phyllis Courtney Cox
Ben David Schwimmer
Sally Jennifer Anniston

Is that perfect or what?

If only they can gender reverse and have Matt LeBlanc sing "I'm Still Here!"

...and I'd want my money back if I saw that

Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken should play Sally and Buddy.

No.

No no no.

FOLLIES is about the world of the *theatre*. Not TV. Not 1930s MGM musicals, like they tried before the last time this came up. *Theatre*. Call me a purist (HEY, YA DUMB PURIST!), but the biggest obstacle standing in the way of getting a film off the ground is that people think they need to "reconceptualize" it for the screen.

LEAVE IT IN A DAMN THEATRE AND BE DONE WITH IT.

Lord, it's cinematic enough a stage play as it is. But if Hollywood got its claws on it, we'd have to do this and this and this to the script to "open it up!". Then they'd have to pull half the score because no one wants to sit through a three hour movie musical about failed marriages and growing old.

Guys, I love FOLLIES quite possibly more than any of you. I saw the original production when they moved it to LA. It remains one of the most breathtaking scores in Broadway history, bar none.

But.

It.

Is.

Not.

Movie.

Material.

Not unless they rework everything from Ground Zero and introduce a few explosions and perhaps a car chase scene or two. Hollywood isnt gonna know what to do with Chekovian material like this, because cut through it all: there's no story. There's not supposed to be. But your average movie goer, who's about 17 and has the attention span of a gnat, wont come unless they impose a story on it. Then it's not FOLLIES anymore.

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Sally - Emma Thompson
Phyllis - Vanessa Williams
Carlotta - Goldie Hawn
Whitmans - Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme
Stella - Kathy Bates
Hattie - Shirley MacLaine

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Sally - Emma Thompson or (even though she can't sing it, but she'd act the hell out of it) Judi Dench
Phyllis - Meryl Streep
Carlotta - Kathy Bates or Carol Burnett
Hattie - seconding the Shirley MacLaine section or, dare I say it-- Carol Channing? (probably a bit too old for this cast)
Buddy - Tom Hanks or Alec Baldwin

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If Sam Mendes was to direct it, it would have to be Kevin Spacey as Buddy.

Catherine Zeta Jones would be an ideal Phyllis in 5-10 years, depending on the age you cast the others of course. The same for Kate Winslet and Sally.

I think Faith Prince would be perfect as Sally, on stage or in a movie.

If i could revive one artist for one song, it would be Judy Garland to sing Losing My Mind.

LEAVE IT IN A DAMN THEATRE AND BE DONE WITH IT.

No offense to SeanMartin, because I've heard other people say this or similar before. Since you are the most recent, I'm just jumping off your comments.

Anyway, I NEVER get this argument when it comes to this show being turned into a film. Yeah, it's about the theatre but why does that mean that a movie can't be made about it? It's a circular argument that makes no sense. Why can't there be a movie about the theatre? Is there some of sort of artistic paradox that will boil the brains of all who experience it?

And it's ABOUT the theatre only to the degree that the theatre is the metaphor for everything the show is actually about.

Now, do I think Hollywood could do it justice? Probably not. Not because it's unfilmable, but because most movie adaptations of musicals tend to miss the mark as it is.

Also, Susan Sarandon as Solange.