LEOPOLDSTADT limited TV series in the works

https://deadline.com/2023/05/tom-stoppard-leopoldstadt-series-patrick-marber-script-stephen-daldry-direct-amblin-steven-spielberg-ep-1235375758/

EXCLUSIVE: This is early stage, no deals are done and it might not land until the strike’s over, but the most celebrated play to come along in a good long time is to be turned into a limited TV series with top talent. The play is Sir Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, which had a successful West End run before moving to Broadway last September. I’ve heard that Amblin and executive producer Steven Spielberg are shopping it with Patrick Marber adapting (the Closer writer/director was the play’s original director when it opened in London and he directed the current Broadway incarnation also), and the series will be directed by Stephen Daldry, The Crown multiple Emmy winner.

Updated On: 5/22/23 at 01:52 PM

Looking forward to it. Immediately, after seeing this I said to my friend, “how long before they adapt it into a series?” - while I admired the play, the breadth and depth of the story will probably be served better as a series. 

Excited to see who they cast, too (assuming the cast will be filled out with a lot of great & notable character actors).

This would work very well as a mini series- it’s the rare Stoppard play that I felt needed to be longer to give more time to the characters in each time period. 

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MemorableUserName said: "https://deadline.com/2023/05/tom-stoppard-leopoldstadt-series-patrick-marber-script-stephen-daldry-direct-amblin-steven-spielberg-ep-1235375758/site

EXCLUSIVE: This is early stage, no deals are done and it might not land until the strike’s over, but the most celebrated play to come along in a good long time is to be turned into a limited TV series with top talent. The play is Sir Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, which had a successful West End run before moving to Broadway last September. I’ve heard that Amblin and executive producer Steven Spielberg are shopping it with Patrick Marber adapting (the Closer writer/director was the play’s original director when it opened in London and he directed the current Broadway incarnation also), and the series will be directed by Stephen Daldry, The Crown multiple Emmy winner."

I remember when I saw the news I could not believe it at first. I am personally looking forward to it and hope it works out for them!

 

Dollypop said: "This brings to mind the "supposed" TAKE ME OUT miniseries on Netflicks. Whatever happened to THAT?"

That was announced in August 2021, before Broadway fully reopened. I don't know what the status is –– but Netflix was never announced to be attached to it. Like Leopoldstadt, it didn't have a streaming home.

The involvement of Daldry, Spielberg, and to a lesser extent Stoppard make this Leopoldstadt series much more likely to actually happen. It's also more culturally relevant and "prestigious."

As a limited series, it would be a very different work of art. Even a four-hour series would almost double the length of the play. I certainly think an adaptation (and expansion) could work very well for all the reasons stated above, but I wouldn’t want it to lose too much of the momentum it had on stage.

Alex Kulak2 said: "Why wouldn't Stoppard be writing the adaptation himself? No disrespect to Marber, he's a great writer too, but Stoppard's an Oscar-winning screenwriter who's adapted his own material before, and even worked with Spielberg before (he was a script doctor for the 3rd Indiana Jones movie)."

Maybe it is as simple as he does not want to, nor does he need to!  He is, after all, 85 years old, and based on what I've read, if he is going to tackle another project at this point in his life, it seems he would rather it be another play. He told Maureen Dowd in the NYT last year "that he did not want to work on any more movies 'because I’m a playwright, and if I have a play to write, that’s all I want to do.'" 

I would imagine if he does not want to work in movies, that goes double for television - a limited series to boot - it would be quite time-consuming and for what? Sir Tom likely said all he wanted to say about Jewish identity and the Holocaust within the neat confines of the play and thus happy to hand it over Marber. Though the play was greatly impacted by Stoppard's coming to terms with his own Jewish identity, it is not based specifically on his own family and, as such, probably easier for him to turn this over to others. He is likely confident Marber will not bastardize his blueprint.

As Stoppard is, to many, the world's greatest living playwright (English language), with an Oscar, as well as a raft of Tonys, Olivers and BAFTAs on his shelf, I doubt he needs or covets a (yawn) Emmy that his television authorship might yield (that being said he should have won several years ago for PARADE'S END - losing to BEYOND THE CANDELABRA). He'll probably get a producer credit so if the production distinguishes itself, he can always collect one that way with no heavy lifting required.

Lastly, doesn't need the money, for sure.

I am one of those who was (perhaps in the minority) terribly disappointed in LEOPOLDSTADT.  Despite some intelligent dialogue, beautiful staging by Marber and some lovely performances, for me, it was a bit staid, ordinary and obvious (thematically and narratively) - and mostly, sadly, so non-Stoppardian-- no better than an above average special event network television movie circa 1970's. Given Stoppard self-reproach for not knowing more about his past, if he was going to do an assimilated family-faces-the-Holocaust story, I expected something a little more skewed and challenging (other than keeping the characters straight). It only really began to grab me in the last act. Since he took the more conventional, sprawling family history approach, a limited television series is probably where this should have landed originally. It might benefit by Marber's further development, but it seems likely to lean even more heavily into the traditional narrative and though it likely it will be smart, I feel I will still be disappointed. 

 

 

Bettyboy72 said: "I’ll believe it when it’s in production. It would be great to expand the story.

I’m still waiting for the pro-shot of Girl From The North Country. Talk of that seems to have disappeared."

There's a film in production so if the proshot comes out at all it likely won't be until long after the film. Unless the proshot was only recorded so they could show potential film producers what the show is.