Swing Joined: 10/29/03
Miss Saigon should really be made into a movie. It doesnt matter what people have to say about the stage show, the point is it is a show that can easily be made into a film version...even easier than Phantom I believe. A lot of people have been talking about it and I see where they are coming from. Miss Saigon as a movie would be a hit!
Swing Joined: 12/31/69
i always saw saigon as a movie, but a serious one. take the setting for full metal jacket, or war movies of the 80's, very seedy, smokey and desolate. then add the marvelous saigon charcaters and let it fly. Evita seemed to work that way. it was done as a normal film, with music in it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
I know this sounds defeating, but Miss Saigon might work as a film if they cut the songs.
I had a real problem with this show. Again, I realize this sounds mean-spirited, but by the middle of the second act I just wanted everybody to stop singing so she could kill herself.
This is one of those shows I file under unnecessary.
But the story minus all that music could work as a straightforward drama. Not a happy tale, but it works conceptually.
If you want this story done with music, head to Lincoln Center.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
wow, i think that it's the songs that gives the story such depth and richness. but that's my opinion.
Saigon has some excellent music, no doubt about it.
Swing Joined: 10/29/03
It really does, the music is what carries it and would be a total hit on film. If you get a good director, cast and someone that knows how the camera angles need to be shot is would be stunning
MISS SAIGON will be playing at NJPAC from 11/4-9.
I always considered Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth" to be the MISS SAIGON movie...minus the singing of course.
I'm afraid I have to concur with WOSQ. I saw it, and also wanted the second act to end so she could off herself. The performers were good, the set was FANTASTIC, but...it left me "eh".
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
I have been a fan of Miss Saigon for years!
I do hope that the show is made into a movie, to a new fresh and younger audience who would not normally visit west end shows.
If it were would it be considered another Vietnam war movie or a musical? I believe it would work and that there is a vast potential audience out there who whould appreciate the shows songs, message and stunning visuals in the film medium.
I too see Heaven and Earth as a movie like Miss Saigon. Just imagine the emotinal resonance in the movie audience in scenes such as the evacuation of Saigon, the bar scene and Hotel Room scenes if they were sung in a real movie that someone had realised with their mind.....
Lets hope that Sir Mackintosh is already secretly making plans!
I would love to see this show made in to a movie. I actually like the music in the show, and would hope that it too would be in the movie version.
I've always thought Miss Saigon to be the most sophisticated of the London Pop imports... and the best written. Not the best staged... but the best material.
kmc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
I think in the right hands Miss Saigon would work very well on screen, but if the wrong person gets a hold of it, it would bomb.
I actually think this is one of those musicals that should not leave the stage...all those ballads would kill it as a movie, they are so sentimental and overly passionate that with the war background it could borderline on the ridiculous on screen.
yeah ~
i can just see it now: LUCY LUI and BEN AFFLECK in MISS SAIGON
Directed by Oliver Stone.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/14/04
a Miss Saigon movie without the music? that would be very sad...I love the music.
I'm with you WOSQ all the way! What a shocker!
I hope it is not a movie I hated the musical.
Perhaps if they kept just the main songs and took out all of the "dialogue" singing it would work. I don't know, something about the show makes me think that it might work, too. There have definitely been worse ideas for movie musicals.
~Steven
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/15/05
I just find a lot of musical movies to be kinda awkward. Just imagine how the "Telephone Song" would be done on film...
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
Instead of turning this recycled MADAME BUTTERFLY story into a movie, they could do MARTIN GUERRE instead. The score of MG is so much better than MISS SAIGON's and the story is far more engaging and interesting.
The story of MARTIN GUARRE has already been a film several times. It was not a hit on either side of the pond, and would be super expensive to make as a movie musical. I can't imagine it ever happening.
I've long felt that SAIGON would make a better film than stage show - in the right hands of course. I've always wondered what Oliver Stone would have done with EVITA, so if he were to make a film of MISS SAIGON, I'd definitely line up to see it.
The material lends itself to being a potentially good movie much more so than the recent PHANTOM and RENT films. It's your basic tragic love story w/ a few supporting characters, i.e., the Engineer, John and Ellen. The focus could be from Kim's perspective, which would serve as an allegory for the confused state of relations between Vietnam and the U.S. during the war. And I don't think the recitative portions of the score need to be changed to spoken dialogue.
As long as it's not directed by either Joel Schumacher or Chris Columbus, this film would already be off to a good start.
I think that it could be a really good movie if they gave it to someone like Rob Marshal and the rest of the people who did Chicago, because with the right cast and the right director it could be a oscar worthy movie musical.
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