People Focus....News of a Jesus Christ Superstar Movie Remake and A Wicked Movie....I Kid You Not — Page 2

yes, there does.

bow down to the excellence of JCS. Huzzah!

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 05:12 PM

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 05:21 PM

(Yeah, it's highly unlikely that he reads this forum, but someone out there who will pass it on to him does.)

Marc Platt:

Let's be sure we have an understanding. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar first exploded onto the stage in 1971 and it was clear that the musical world would never be the same again. A dramatized version of the last seven days in the life of Jesus of Nazareth with a rock score...sounds crazy, no? Well, it turned into what Variety called "the biggest all-media parlay in show business history" following its opening on October 12, 1971 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.

In spite of all this, it is first and foremost an irreverent show. In its heyday, it was banned in South Africa where it was deemed to be irreligious. A theater in Argentina was burnt to the ground for presenting the show. On the back of this controversy, Superstar went on to become the fifth longest running musical in West End history, to be produced in over 15 countries, and for the original 1973 film featuring Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, and Yvonne Elliman to gross £8.6 million at the box office.

That is why I must say this right now. Superstar is not a shiny plastic commercial piece of crap aimed to appeal to teen girls to make them feel sorry for Mary Magdalene when she sings "I Don't Know How to Love Him." It is not an excuse for a vehicle for stars who can't sing. While it is deemed a simple rock score by much of the theater community, who are often quick to dismiss the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, it contains two of the most vocally demanding tenor roles ever written. If a single note is changed, if a single song is dropped, if a simple character is miscast, you will feel the reverberations all the way to Hollywood.

Do Jesus Christ Superstar right, or you will suffer serious career crucifixion on opening night.

Till tomorrow,
gvendo2005

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I don't want JCS remade. You can't beat Ted Neely and Carl Anderson's performances in the movie easily, especially not with today's tendency to do crappy casting in movie musicals.

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You know what, I will get crucified for this (forgive that same pun), but I say let's put Ted back in the sandals for the film too. A different view of Jesus...the aging guru type, like the Beatles and their Maharishi. A different view of his relationships with the characters, a more master-teacher/father-daughter type thing with Mary for example.

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Kristen Bell can sing but I've never heard her sing anything that shows she has a higher range than Amy Adams. I'd love to see Bell in a movie musical, but after falling in love with her playing the anti-Glinda, I'm not sure I'd buy her in the role.
I'd be glad to see Anne Hathaway as Elphaba, Leighton Meester or Emily Blunt as Glinda, Julie Walters as Morrible, Joel Grey as the Wizard (he is an Oscar winner after all), and a James McAvoy type as Fiyero. The only Hollywood name that I could think of that could sing the role of Glinda as written is Anne Hathaway.

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You're right about Hathaway, Spork. She is more of a soprano, I just think that although she could sing Glinda, her persona and acting style is better suited for Elphaba. Whereas someone like Blunt and Meester have proven themselves wonderfully at playing Glinda-ish roles (and both can definitely display the range of emotions from "Popular" leading lady to distressed woman in Act II). I guess I was casting more according to what each actor/actress has done before.

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Wicked movie:

I'm almost sure that Kristin Chenoweth has a play or pay contract for a film adaptation so look for her name to be attached in some form because it makes fiscal sense. I'd also be looking for Idina's name because she's had some commerical success in the last few years. (really though, lets not debate this, kay?)

Amy Adams has expressed interest in playing Elphaba. If I'm not mistaken she's been quoted as saying that is the only role she'd be interested in. I know Reese Witherspoon expressed interest in Glinda as early as several years ago, but she's an alto. Go figure.

So... I think creatively it will probably suffer, why not keep the obc and hopefully keep the peace?

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Don't hate on my OBC.

It doesn't matter who they cast. They aren't banking on names to sell tickets. The only name they need is "Wicked" and they'll do just fine.

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I think Wicked would lose a lot in it's transfer to the screen.

I was just talking to a good friend of mine who is a big Wicked fan and she says that originally, the concept of a Wicked adaption from the novel was going to be a screenplay, not a musical: but -- it DID NOT WORK.
They realized it would be better suited for the stage. The following is from the book "Wicked: The Grimmerie, A behind-the-scenes look at the hit Broadway Musical"

Says Schwartz:
"after several months, I met with Marc in 1997 and basically tried to talk him out of doing Wicked as a movie.
I believe they were awaiting their second draft of the screenplay. That's how far they'd gotten.
I told him that I felt it had to be a musical and more specifically begin life onstage.
I was lucky that Marc had a background in musical theatre. My plea was not falling on entirely deaf ears"


Says Marc Platt:
"The screenplay was kind of dense, and I kept wanting to go deeper into the story of the relationship between Galinda and Elphaba. What are these two women doing in the same frame?
The screenplay didn't quite get at that.
It stuck more closely to Gregory's novel.
In order to get at that kind of story, we needed inner dialogue, which is very hard to accomplish cinematically."

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it would work onscreen now because it's so damn popular. the only thing i'm iffy about is the special effects.