Lapine Wants To Make SUNDAY IN THE PARK Movie- Page 2

[tazber]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 1:26pm

I love Wes Anderson, but not for this.

[Jay94]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 1:30pm

So Lapine wants to do Sunday in the Park with George, Mark Platt wants to do Company and Rob Marshall wants to do Follies. Let's hope they all get what they want.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 1:33pm

I think they would do best to keep the leads on the younger (or younger-looking) side, which is why I suggested Jake and Scarlett.

Seurat was 31 when he died.

... and ray, I agree with your thoughts on the play being cinematic to begin with.

EDIT: And Lapine should adapt the material. He did a great job with Into the Woods, and if he were to cross-cut between the acts (and eras of time), he would handle it well, no doubt. He's well familiar with intertwining multiple stories simultaneously.

Updated On: 1/8/15 at 01:33 PM

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 1:49pm

I think Spike Jonze could potentially do something very interesting with this film.

This seems to me like a musical adaptation that Lapine should do what he initially was gonna do for Into the Woods and completely rethink it with Sondheim. I like the idea of intertwining the acts but especially if Act Two George could feel as compelling as Act One George is. Focus more on his divorce, the importance of Marie, him creating the disastrous chromolome. Visually making Color and Light come alive and have the scenes in the park be stylistic and wild and trippy even. The image that keeps coming to mind is that scene in What Dreams May Come where Robin Williams rolls in the painted flowers. Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor is an inspired idea. Especially Emily Blunt. If they wanted to go for younger I think Eddie Redmayne could play an interesting George.

Very exciting that ITW success has created serious discussions in Hollywood about other Sondheim adaptations.



Updated On: 1/8/15 at 01:49 PM

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 1:55pm

They should just film this thing at the "Into the Woods" cast party.

George: Chris Pine
Dot/Marie: Emily Blunt
Old Lady/Blair: Meryl Streep
Celeste #2/Elaine: Anna Kendrick
Boy with his clothes off: Daniel Huttlestone
"I want my glasses" girl: Lilla Crawford
Louis: James Corden
Yvonne/Naomi: Christine Baranski
Jules/Bob Greenberg: Simon Russell Beale
Frieda: Lucy Punch
Nurse/Harriet Pawling: Tracey Ullman
Soldier: Billy Magnussen
Soldier #2: Johnny Depp
Celeste #1/Waitress: Tammy Blanchard

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 2:17pm

I'd probably prefer a film version to seeing it on stage again as I've always found the second act far too sluggish after Putting It Together. Layering the two stories over each other with robbie's idea of the ending culminating in the sole rendition of Sunday with the final shot being the only shot of the completed painting we see in the film could be absolutely thrilling.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 2:26pm

Ugh. Baz Lurhmann?? Yes, he can make pretty, shiny things, but I can't remember a single moment of emotional truth (or anything beyond surface prettiness) in any of his films. Surely we'd want someone with a bit more depth and sophistication?

As for screenwriting - anyone but Lapine. You need someone who isn't going to be overly reverent to the original material and who isn't afraid to make big changes that make sense for the screen.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 2:54pm

Can Lee Pace sing???

*swoons*

[Kad]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 3:03pm

He sings *a little bit* in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. He sings backup for Amy Adams' "If I Didn't Care."

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 3:08pm

I think every Baz film has been one whose subject matter was, on some level, a question of "is there substance under the style?" SUNDAY is no different.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 3:11pm

"And going in and out of a painting has been done before--and with great success!"

MARY POPPINS!!

[binau]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 4:16pm

I've always thought that Kate Winslet would make a good dot, but is she too old now? (she is about the same age as Bernadette was, but Bernadette is Bernadette, and it was on stage).

Would prefer someone who can sing but I'd take Johnny Depp for the novelty of a Finding Neverland reunion (and his brooding shtick suits the character), if that's what would get a studio on board.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 6:37pm

as i found the second act somewhat boring except for PUTTING IT TOGETHER and MOVE ON, both amazing songs that deserve a better book...sorry Mr. Lapine...i love the idea of interweaving the first act George with the George of the second act to make a better movie...fading in and out of both periods would be very cinematic...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 6:56pm

Scrap the entire Act 2 and just film Act 1. SITP has always been a long one act musical anyway, with Act 2 just being filler so they could charge full price. Act 2 is dreadful and doesn't add anything interesting to the story. "Move On" is the only decent song in Act 2 anyway. Lapine can write extra storylines for Act 1.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 7:16pm

The entire point of Sunday is the second act. If you feel that act 2 is just filler, you obviously don't understand it.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 7:29pm

Act two is important. It's the resolve of the show and relationships.

I like the idea of starting with act two George: a man in doubt of his family's past, begins a journey of discovering his family history/tree, inspired by his ailing grandmother.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 7:45pm

I agree that Act II is the whole point of the piece. Without it, Act I wouldn't have nearly as much power or resonance.

But I also think much of the plot and the points made in Act II could be made more succinctly and it could be tightened up considerably.

Putting It Together, Move On, You Would Have Liked HIm, and Sunday are the musical moments that I can't forget. They're the ones that if cut would hurt the overall piece. But I"m fine with shortening or cutting some of the other material.

And of course the end, where they all bow to him, should have us all in tears if it's done right.

I think in the right directorial hands (no one with a conventional approach should be allowed anywhere near it), and with Lapine adapting, it could be a movie masterpiece.

I also hope the visual effects team would get to shine. In addition to walking around in the paintings, I can see the individual dots and paint brush strokes coming to life and moving around the canvas.

So many possibilities.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 8:19pm

I love this show so much that I wouldn't even want to run the risk of it changing in any way for the screen. SITPWG is absolutely stunning, and I would be devastated if it didn't translate well, or had an any cuts.

Also, how would this sell? I guess with the right stars it would do well, but a lot of non theatre people don't know who Sondheim is. Into the Woods had the fairy tale thing going for it, which is something that is universal, and with Disney's backing it was destined to succeed. Yes, most people have seen this painting, but will the average person want to see a movie-musical about it? Then again, Sweeney Todd did well with no mainstream point of reference, and it's a movie musical about cannibalism, so I guess Sunday could be a box office success.

All this aside, I'd love to see Sissy Spacek as Old Lady/Blair

[Kad]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 8:48pm

So much of Act Two takes place in a museum, and with Act One having moments of presentation and critique of Seurat's work, it seems like a pretty obvious way to intertwine them.

But something like Julie & Julia should be avoided at all costs, in which the contemporary character and timeline actually gets in the way of the historical and, by comparison, becomes much weaker.

Updated On: 1/8/15 at 08:48 PM

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 8:54pm

Why not film it with the structure that it has.
End the first act with the painting and then as it zooms out it reveals it hanging in a museum with people looking at it.
Time passes and the museum closes for the night. We see the painting and the characters in it begin to sing "it's hot up here." It then continues into the rest of the second act.

Updated On: 1/8/15 at 08:54 PM

[Jonwo]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 8:57pm

^Sweeney Todd had Tim Burton and Johnny Depp at its main selling point, Sunday would need names plus a reasonable budget to be successful.

I would like to see Assassins as a film but I imagine it would be no go for studios in this current climate.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 9:07pm

Time passes and the museum closes for the night.

And it turns into EVENING PRIMROSE!

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 9:13pm

I wouldn't mind an Evening Primrose remake actually.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 9:19pm

I rolled my eyes when I read the title but hot damn you are all brilliant I need this now.

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 1/8/15 at 9:43pm

I think because it is such a wonderful concept stage piece, seeing a literal translation of the show would do it a disservice and end up awkward and there is so much that is exciting about using the film medium to reinvent it. This is a film that I'm sure Sondheim would want to write new music for even. So long as much of the wonderful songs remain, the relationships and beats that need to happen stay the same, and the themes and original intent of the musical are intact, I am completely open minded to an exciting and new Sunday in the Park with George experience.