Pippin: The...movie?

[romgitsean]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 10:17pm

Redirected from a thread on IMDB musical boards. I don't think it's a secret after Chicago's success that Mirmax bought the rights to Pippin...but nothing's been done.

A lot of people have argued it couldn't work. My response?

"I think it could work but they'd have to alter it so that instead of it being a traveling group of players playing the same film over and over, it'd have to be like, a line of films about Pippin that they've made over and over and picked some actor off the streets to be him. It'd have to be like, a reality TV show-type style thing, which could either work incredibly well and be awesome and cool and very underground (ala Hedwig the Angry Inch) or be a really failed adaptation (ala Nine or Godspell).

An example of what I'm talking about can be seen here. VERY interesting take on the material:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wolczo#p/u/32/OEEKeWnq13U

Full thread and my full response can be seen here:
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000027/thread/157759905?d=158225757&p=2#158225757

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 10:23pm

They bought them back in...what? 2003? I believe it was at the same time the rights to DAMN YANKEES were obtained. *NOTHING* has happened with PIPPIN since.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/1/10 at 3:24am

Rights are obtained all the time: for books, for stage shows. VERY often it's simply to keep some one else from doing so.

Can't tell you how many (new) book authors get all excited because some one optioned their work - only to realize they acted too soon and there is no real interest in a movie: just an interest to have control.

Posted: 3/1/10 at 10:52am

The guy from Scrubs was interested in doing this (Directing? Starring? Producing?) but as everyone has said nothing came of it.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 3/1/10 at 12:20pm

The take on "Magic to Do" is kind of interesting, but I'm not over the moon about how "Corner of the Sky" is sung by three competing Pippins. I'm also not quite sure how the concept would sustain itself without being able to watch the entire show, since I'm having some trouble envisioning a lot of the material.

But it's not really like "Chicago" was only a success due solely to Fosse, but that almost seemed to be Miramax's logic there. Really I don't expect to see a film version of "Pippin" any time soon.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 3/1/10 at 4:17pm

Wasn't Terry Gilliam born to direct this?

[Oldschool]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 10:21am

I don't think Schwartz could stomach having Gilliam direct this. Fosse, would approve, but not Schwartz. Schwartz didn't like the darkness that Fosse brought to the production.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 12:33pm

However, Schwartz's rewrite of the score for Papermill embraced the darkness that the score had never included before. So he's come to terms with the show the way it is.

I think on film, the concept of Pippin being a play performed again and again would be dropped, and Pippin would be a film character gradually achieving self-realization and realizing that he's in a movie. The finale would pull back and reveal the green screens, direcotrs, cameras, etc. as the film implodes around him.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 3:14pm

Ok, then I elect Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze to direct. Just please not Rob Marshall.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 4:28pm

Unfortunately, I'm very afraid that the spectacular bomb that was Nine will give any major studio pause before they fund a movie adaptation of a highbrow, somewhat risky musical.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 5:17pm

The movie would more than likely reflect the new sounds of the Papermill score, as that seems to be Schwartz's "revision" as of late, incorporating some of his lyric changes and drastic rewriting to many of the songs, so it's safe to say that the film wouldn't look anything like Fosse's Pippin.

However, that's a good thing, as Fosse's Pippin staging (meanign teh stage show, not that the film wouldn't include his additions to the script, which it probably would) is damn near unfilmable.

[romgitsean]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 7:04pm

What are the differences between the regular score and Pippin at Papermill? D:

I'm sorry, but I like Fosse's version SO much better. His ending is better than Schwartz's, (except for on the filmed-for-TV-ending...yuck). I mean, Pippin is a dark show. There's no getting around it. Fosse just wanted to be more upfront with it than Schwartz.

But I would agree, darquegk, Fosse's version would NOT translate to film. I think it would either have to be a filmed stage version and use a play-within-a-play concept, or just completely change it and be a musical film within a musical film.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/2/10 at 7:07pm

The licensed score now uses Fosse's script, but with Schwartz's original 70s score. Only through elaborate negotiations can one get the Papermill score for productions- and it uses so much click tracking for certain parts that it's hard to use then either.