mmm it says they have owned the film rights for years but haven't done anything with it ....I guess now that the revival is out they figure there is more of an interest....
wonder if they would cast a man or a woman for Leading Player? who ever gets Berthe would probably get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress .
I can't see this show as a film at all. We already have a great revival of it why can't that just be enough? I feel like this would bomb if it was a movie. But if it does get made into a film then Taye Diggs as LP and Joseph gordon levitt as pippin would be awesome!!!!!
Pippin is a stage play that, if it's ABOUT anything, it's about the way that the glitz and glamour of the stage can distract from the realities- in other words, the magic of suspension of disbelief. Let's hope that Ponsoldt can find a way to make this theme cinematic and not literal or stagey, because with only a few exceptions, stagey does not work well on film.
This will have to be HUGELY rewritten and reimagined, though. There are very few defenders of Pippin's book as its strongest suits, and even if there were, it's little more than a collection of meta-referential stage directions and vaudeville gags. This one is going to be rewritten from the ground up.
Best case scenario: The whole show is radically revamped from its stagebound and theatrical starting point and it works, despite an almost entirely new book and concept wrapped around the plot and characters we know. It will join successful reimaginings like Cabaret and Reefer Madness.
Worst case scenario: The same thing happens but the changes don't work. It joins unsuccessful reimaginings like Rock of Ages or Nine.
Pippin has no book is one of the biggest wheelbarrows full of donkey poop in theater history. It has a great book- witty, wise, touching and fast-paced. For some reason, Pippin always has to be a portrayed as a clanking jalopy that Fosse turned into a Mercedes. Great book, great characters, great message, GREAT score.
i say for the movie make it about Hollywood. al the glitz and glamour while pippin is trying to find something real. Maybe the LP as an agent or something like that.
Just a thought, could work to a more widespread, mainstream audience
They'll just have to bump up the "I've known the fears of 66 years . . . " to 86. 66 was too young for the character anyway (at least the way it was typically performed before the current revival.)
If this happens, I'd almost bet on Usher as the Leading Player. I completely agree with the suggestions of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Pippin. Also, I'd propose Jayma Mays as Catherine.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson