I just finished reading the fan screenplay of ASSASSINS and I have a good amount of problems with it. I'll start off with the good.
1. I really appreciate the fact that this person took the time to write a screenplay of what might be one of Sondheim's most difficult musicals to be a film medium.
2. I really like the updates (like one or two new assassins and adding 9/11) that are used to accentuate the dark cynical point plus using a documentary as a framing device.
3. The bizarre surreal moment when The Proprietor was really Charles Guiteau in disguise.
But the PRETTY BAD parts outshine the potential good.
1. Some scenes drag WAY TO LONG between songs, this bothered me especially after "Unworthy of Your Love" and "The Ballad of Guiteau". The pacing of it could make or break a musical film (other than the execution and a cast), the script could need some SERIOUS trimming.
2. Way to many characters added. What was my favorite aspect of ASSASSINS is that there is a limited number of them and we can keep up and follow along in their stories, but the two new ones in this script would've been enough. Plus adding the terrorists as characters feels cumbersome and pointless, in fact they should only be IMPLIED and not seen.
3. Some of the songs are staged in a erratic, clunky way. Seriously this makes NINE look like FIDDLER ON THE ROOF by comparison. The idea for "Another National Anthem" is bewilderingly stupid that it feels like a rip off of TOMMY and SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, and UNCUT, and not something that fits naturally with Sondheim's music and lyrics at all.
4. I really don't care for "Something Just Broke"... It feels like it stops the musical cold for you to care and while the concept of it in this script feels like it could work; it ends up being like an EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE feeling, and it's not a natural feeling of emotion.
5. I would love an ending that despite all of the work the characters had done, they STILL FAIL when they see that people can recover and move on with their lives. Of course it defeats the purpose of the "Finale" but it would be cool to see that.
6. Speaking of the "Finale", why oh why did the add the American Anthem songs in the end? I understand that it's supposed to leave audiences with goose-bumps but it feels forced and unnecessary. The little "production credit" at the end is laughably bad.
I guess that it will become one of the projects that won't translate as well to film, but with the right cast, the right director and the right writer, it could prove something wicked, hilarious, dark, heartbreaking, surreal, and reeking with controversy, that it may end up as a musical film for the ages.
But yet, we already have Steven Sondheim's songs and John Weidman's original 1990 book to thank for that.
Updated On: 10/31/14 at 03:54 PM