Finding Neverland: The Musical is going to be a movie?

If I could say one thing to Harvey Weinstein...

You know what would thrill me? If some of the orig ensemble members got cast in the movie. Imagine this movie with Jonathan Ritter, Josh Lamon, Melanie Moore, Mary Page Nance, Emma PFaeffle, Tyley Ross, Ron Todorowski. I'd watch it no matter how bad it was. Hell, if those people were in it, I'd probably buy it.

I think he's having a pipe dream in regards to a movie. Sure, I'd love to see a movie with the original cast and ensemble, but I doubt it would be very successful. You need a show that really does well to make it into a movie. Plus, everyone still remembers the original movie and enjoys that. Let's see what happens, though.

The only way it would be a small budget would be if they filmed a stage performance. Anything else would cost a minimum $20 million. Even if it went straight to video, they would need movie stars to make it marketable. Grammer and Morrison are TV stars, not movie stars.



I'm guessing that Weinstein looked at the poor grosses of the last few weeks, saw an advance that didn't give him a lot of confidence that he could reverse that trend, and decided to close the show to stop the bleeding. All the talk about branding, a tour, a movie and a return to Broadway is just putting lipstick on a pig. Some of that stuff will happen, and some of it won't, but a movie that is more than just a recorded stage performance makes no financial sense.

The estimated budget for Rocky Horror is $20 million, and that's just a TV show. And Smash was by no means low budget. Unless Harvey is willing to finance the project out of his own pocket, I just don't see a movie happening. Harvey is a big time producer but sometimes his efforts to put a positive spin on things are transparent and clumsy. That's what I see here. (I felt the same way when I read his press release about Morrison replacing Jordan in FN. It was over the top defensive, and it didn't help his case at all.)



Movie musicals almost never make money, even if the original material was a critical favorite and a Broadway hit. I can't see the original investors doubling down on their gamble when they are already in the hole on their first investment. Harvey may sincerely want to make a movie, but I just don't see it happening.

Updated On: 5/7/16 at 11:06 AM

An example of a low budget movie musical is The Last Five Years, which was made for $2 million. That's for a sung through musical shot on location in New York over the span of a couple of weeks, with only one legitimate movie star (Anna Kendrick). Even at $2 million, any money that it makes will have come from Cable TV and DVD sales. Movie musicals cater to a limited audience. That's why they don't make money. If Harvey wants to film the stage production, send it straight to video and promote it with the names of a couple of TV stars on Showtime or Netflix, yeah, that's doable. Any ambitions beyond that are unrealistic.

Guys, this isn't a real thing.



It's like the Vegas production of Spider-Man being celebrated at the closing of the Broadway show.



Or every flop that announces a tour in the closing notice.



I will be shocked if this happens.

Updated On: 5/7/16 at 12:24 PM

Actually remember who headlined the $ 200 million grossing Hairspray movie ? A complete unknown, Nikki Blonsky. Look who the $ billion movie fanchise Star Wars has just added as a leading man, that little know kid from Hail Ceaser.

I constantly see complaining that when stage musicals are turned to movies that musical theather trained actors are shut out well IF this happens why shouldn't the producer use the OBC?

While Nikki blonsky did headline the hairspray movie, they didn't advertise her, they focused on the supporting cast who were the big names.

The bottom line here is why would an experienced successful producer like Weinstein announce a movie when no one knows better than him the almost insurmountable obstacles that would be encountered if anyone attempted to make a movie of this particular project? Budget issues, casting issues, trying to compete against the memory of the original film, and a diminishing lack of interest in the subject matter, just to name a few of those obstacles. The answer is, of course, that businessman Weinstein knows it can't be done, but promoter Weinstein knows that it adds value to the franchise if he can convince people that a movie might be coming, even when he knows it's not. Harvey gonna Harvey....

Could the Broadway return also be for PR or did the Nederlander's actually offer Harvey a house?