Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?- Page 4

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 1:36pm

Yeah I'd rather have Rob Zombie direct WICKED than Daldry what's-his-name.

Updated On: 12/2/14 at 01:36 PM

[SweetLips]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 1:40pm

True tazber-my bad.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 1:42pm

I'd like to see Rob Marshall find a way of doing "Kiss of the Spider Woman" without making it too similar to "Chicago"

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 1:44pm

It would be so cool if Rob Marshall have the ghosts think they're still doing their job and seeing the guests and the guests acknowledging them.

Nathan Fillion as Buddy Plummer, make it happen Marshall! Make it happen!

[Kad]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 1:49pm

I don't think Follies would make a very good movie... despite a wonderful score, its book was and always will be a mess.

However, if ever there were a musical for Marshall to film with the "the musical numbers are in their heads" concept, it'd be Follies.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:04pm

I'm all for a film version of FOLLIES-- it actually seems like a property ideally suited to the screen. Let them use every corner of the theater, much the way BIRDMAN does and does fantastically. I actually think the weaknesses in the book allow room for rich new explorations in the screenplay, new ways to weave flashbacks of their lives 30 years before into the events happening on the stage during the reunion. Look at Ken Russel's THE BOYFRIEND to see how well a feature film can make a cinematic meal of a stage-bound property and make it soar. Look at ANNA KARENINA for a recent breathtaking example that mixed fantasy and choreography and stage magic dazzlingly well.

Speaking of Anna, I'd be thrilled if Joe Wright took on the directing of a FOLLIES, as long as Sarah Greenwood was his designer again.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:05pm

The Widow Goldman will find some way to f*ck it up.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:12pm

I think any movie adaptation of Follies is doomed to fail.

We'd be far, far better off if Craig Zadan and Neil Meron did a television version of it in an actual old theater.

They could get any of a number of 50-something performers for the four leads (including Christopher Walken for Buddy) and some old broads for the specialty acts. They could have cameras all over the theater and tape the book scenes in the lobbies and lounges and the pastiche numbers on the stage.

Since they wouldn't have to construct sets, perhaps they could spend the set budget on Loveland, reconstructing Boris Aronson's Loveland designs.

But I worry for what unimaginative ghost effects any film version would feel compelled to create.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:12pm

Actually, while we're talking of remakes- A Funny Thing...Forum needs one that doesn't excise 3/4 of the score.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:13pm

THE WIDOW GOLDMAN

[lovebwy]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:17pm

YES, PLEASE!

I think it could be absolutely fantastic.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:19pm

I don't know about that PalJoey, there's some creative and imaginative people in Hollywood out there who would do justice to FOLLIES without resorting to live production on television which would be a HUGE disservice to FOLLIES big time.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:26pm

I'm just thinking of how magical the first moments of the most recent revival were, with the ghosts wandering the theater and that lush score washing over you. That could be very cinematic.

Also, make the Loveland sequence in 3D!

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:32pm

BTW growl, THIS is Widow Goldman.

Updated On: 12/2/14 at 02:32 PM

[madbrian]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:38pm

Christopher Walken is 71, way too old for Buddy. Robert Downey, Jr turns 50 next year, and would be my first choice for the role.

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:41pm

PalJoey, of course your ideas for a Follies movie are best. I think filming in the New Amsterdam would be the best idea because that was were most of the Ziegfeld Follies were. I think they could do a little more than the Loveland designs for the OBC and do someting insanely lavish, because in the script they describe as the most lavish Folly imaginable. They could do something like The Great Ziegfeld with the beyond spectacular sets.

Updated On: 12/2/14 at 02:41 PM

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 2:45pm

^I agree Loveland needs to be more lavish than Boris' great original sets. Something along the lines of the great musicals of MGM's golden age.

If Rob Marshall does want to go authentic he'd find the perfect dilapidated theater in the country. He DID scout around for places to film CHICAGO before filming began.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:13pm

You should know that the CHICAGO theater was a set built on a soundstage in Toronto. Credit to John Myhre's cool design.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:30pm

Vincent Minnelli, only man to do it (and only in his prime), isn't with us, alas. I'm terrified of it becoming "cinematic" in the worst sense. All those iconic musical numbers, appropriately framed by the proscenium, opened up. One of the thrills of "Loveland" was its startling ability to transform the Winter Garden into a Broadway theater of the past, literally before our eyes (the Marquis couldn't pull that off). The Winter Garden became, the Winter Garden of the 1940s. I don't know how a film will match that special magic, no matter how cleverly it's designed.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:40pm

Auggie27, you're very lucky to have that memory. Most of us don't.

But I do have memories of what made the revival special, and a talented film maker could bring out even more.

Follies strikes me as the kind of show that could make an amazing movie, if all the stars align correctly.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:40pm

Auggie27, you're very lucky to have that memory. Most of us don't.

But I do have memories of what made the revival special, and a talented film maker could bring out even more.

Follies strikes me as the kind of show that could make an amazing movie, if all the stars align correctly.

[madbrian]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:44pm

In a few years, Toni Collette will be age-appropriate for Phyllis. We should wait until then.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:51pm

Too bad Bob Fosse's dead.

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 3:57pm

^ yes, and not because of Folies

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/2/14 at 4:41pm

Toni Collette has to do the NEXT TO NORMAL movie first.