Lorrell loses her solo in DG movie — Page 2

"From what I now hear, Dreamworks is planning to campaign Beyonce for Best Actress and Jennifer Hudson for Best Supporting Actress."

Hasn't Effie always been considered a supporting role? J. Holliday won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress, not Lead. So it's not surprising that J. Hudson would be pushed for Best Supporting.

silent wrote --- "This ain't right. Effie is NOT a supporting character. She is just as much a lead as Deena. "

I completely agree. But the same situation occured with Catherine Zeta Jones being considered (and winning) supporting actress for Velma in Chicago, when the role is just as much a lead as Roxie.

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Updated On: 3/26/06 at 01:12 PM

I don't know why I thought she won for Supporting. Oh well. I agree, Hudson may have a better shot at winning Supporting, so it's probably a good thing.

Huh-just a TAD confusing now. Just a bit. So silent-Now it's IN? Are these the people at imdb.com saying this? Or representatives for the movie?

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"It's All Over" is going to be in the film? That is rather surprising. If dialogue is going to be added to the movie, the fight is exactly the place to replace with dialogue. I keep on trusting Condon, I just hope he doesn't ruin the film.
I believe in the Chicago film, Velma Kelly's role was supporting. The concept behind the film suggested it thus at least, the fact that we saw the whole film through Roxie's eyes pretty much implied that she was the lead. So, I'd argue in the film Velma Kelly is supporting while in the stage piece she is a lead.
Back on topic, I believe the reason why they'd make Deena the lead role is because of Beyonce, not for any artistic reasons.

In the interview with Seth he said that there is sung recitative and songs like "When I First Saw You" which are not "performance songs" so lets all wait and see...

everyone should just calm down. I listened to the Seth Rudetsky Interview and Kreiger(who is awesome by the way) said that "Ain't No Party" isn't in the film anymore because it wouldn't work the way Bill's doing it. "It's All Over" is not sung anymore because personally I would think it would look a little "chitlin circuit" onscreen. i mean it's so beautifully done and exciting on stage, but onscreen i dont kno that it would work very well. Condon is such a talented writer, I think that scene in particular would just be his moment to shine. he's soooo talented and with a premise like that, he'd just go crazy with the dialogue and it could be just as effective if not more. He also stated that recitative is definitely in the film, it's just this is an ADAPTATION ladies, it's not being preserved on film for us fans exactly. It's being adapted for a film audience. for film period.

As far as the whole Oscar thing goes, I dont know. somebody already stated the whole catherine zeta jones thing. there's a whole politics that goes along with that, and i just want the film to be finacially and critically successful, and in the hands of bill condon who made the guy who made 'frankenstein' and his maid, and boring ass Alfred Kinsey two of the most compelling characters the screen has ever seen.

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The deal with why it worked shifting Velma to supporting is because it's not her story. But Dreamgirls belongs to Effie. No matter what anyone says. It's Effie's show. To make her a supporting character would literally ruin the story. Deena can much more easily made into a supporting character because, as Leander said, she has no arc. She's the same person and has (essentially) the same character at the end. They would have to not only adapt the show, but change the storyline.

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Agreed. While it's understandable that people don't want to see too much focus taken from Effie, it's a little disingenuous to claim that the Deena at the end of the show is the same Deena from the beginning. Part of what the show is about is the effect that fame and success has on everyone. The only person who really doesn't change is Curtis.

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I will argue that Deena doesn't have much of an arc. Granted, at the end of the show she's a mature woman and she's a wide-eyed kid in the beginning, but that's simply a time thing. Her big change is leaving Curtis. And the arc we are SHOWN, the one that is most obvious in the overall arc of the show as a WHOLE is Effie's. Of COURSE Deena has an arc, but it's much less prevelent than Effie's. We see Effie's make it through so much: being kicked to back-up, being kicked OUT of the group, being left by her man, overcoming her pride to work again, confronting her man, and reuniting with her group. What's Deena's arc? Get's pushed to the front of the group, gets the man, wants to be a movie star, leaves her man, reunites with old friend. Far less dynamic than Effie's. So you're right Tonya, Deena has an arc. I don't want to deny that. The thing I wanted to bring up is that we want to see Effie's arc, not Deena's. (at least I do)

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Just because Dreamworks is pushing Beyonce as Lead and Jennifer as Supporting doesn't mean that they changed the whole story, just that Beyonce is a bigger name. This is strictly an Oscar move. I mean, sure, they may have changed the focus, but this does not guarantee that. It just goes to show that the Oscars (and every other award show) are a tool to make more money.