Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?- Page 5
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
#100Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 4:49pm
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.
At the risk of sounding like an Old-Follies-Queen-for-Whom-Nothing-Will-Ever-Compare-to-the-Original-Production, no, there are not.
Name one...
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#101Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 4:52pmPalJoey, Jean-Pierre Jeunet Updated On: 12/2/14 at 04:52 PM
#102Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 4:53pm
George Romero's Follies
Seriously, Jeunet is not at all the person for this musical.
Whimsical is not what Follies is or should be.
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 12/2/14 at 04:53 PM
#103Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 4:56pm
I'd like to see Madonna with a great director in another musical. I can't think of which one, but it's something I'd like to see her do.
Madame Armfeldt in the new film version of A Little Night Music?
#104Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:05pm
"At the risk of sounding like an Old-Follies-Queen-for-Whom-Nothing-Will-Ever-Compare-to-the-Original-Production, no, there are not.
Name one..."
Darren Aronofsky
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#105Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:05pm
In my French film binge, I saw many of his other films, and A Very Long Engagement has a sense of longing and suffering in it, plus beautiful cinematography. If JPJ decided to take on that tone for Follies, he could make it work.
Updated On: 12/2/14 at 05:05 PM
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#106Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:09pmAnd I hope you're joking MM, unless you want SDP to be a heroin addict and PRS to be a bipolar murdeing sociopath
#107Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:13pm
I'm also a fan of his work. Delicatessen and City of Lost Children are examples of how even when he goes dark he still imbues a sense of whimsy into every scene.
He might be able to do something creative with the chorus girls' numbers and Loveland, but I've never seen him handle anything as emotionally complex as the two main couples of Follies.
Still, who knows? I'd still rush to see it if he directed it.
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 12/2/14 at 05:13 PM
#108Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:20pmLOL: PalJoey is as over-protective about FOLLIES as I am about WEST SIDE STORY. I totally get it.
#109Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:23pm
Don't worry Fantod I was. 
For me it's a toss up between Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Rob Marshall.
#110Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:25pm
Look, I mean, I have no doubt that the original version of Follies can never ever be recreated, and it was a special production. But this doesn't negate the fact that it's a wonderful show with an even better score and could work well as a movie.
Again, very few people who are currently living got to see the original Follies production. It really wouldn't take away from anything.
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#111Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:26pmThe only problem is Jean-Pierre hates, and I mean HATES, musicals.
#112Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:29pm
@Fantod Well, that settles that then. Rob Marshall for me all the way and I'm NOT going to change my opinion about it.
Thank god Chris Columbus and Adam Shankman are not interested...phew.
Updated On: 12/2/14 at 05:29 PM
#113Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 5:50pm
The original production of FOLLIES required two visionary directors to create what it was. Egos are too big in the industry for this to happen, but I think a brilliant FOLLIES would require two creative geniuses at the helm again.
And I honestly don't see how the book of FOLLIES is such a "mess," but then again I just adore FOLLIES.
Marshall has talked about FOLLIES since the CHICAGO days, and you can see his love for the show in a lot of how he staged NINE (I even remember MichaelBennett's original review of NINE on this board calling the film Marshall's version of FOLLIES). He'd never get it financed, even if big stars signed up for it. I'd still love to see it, I don't see a reason not to. It's not like the godawful versions of A CHORUS LINE, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and GUYS & DOLLS hurt the reputation of those shows.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#114Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 6:02pm
"Name one..."
I still think Joe Wright can weave magic spells between stage and screen realities. He loves theater, he can scramble time periods effectively within the same frame, and he can get a whole ballroom full of dancers and camera operators to move in sync to create thrilling visions of dance on screen. The real question is: does he have any interest in FOLLIES?
#115Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 6:05pm
@ray I remember that in NINE when Judi Dench begins the song, in deep blue lighting, a chorus girl appeared out of the shadows and slowly descends the stairs with two other girls appearing as well. When I saw that I thought: "Wow he could do a great job with FOLLIES". What do you know, he wanted to do it since CHICAGO, so I could tell from what you've said that this has been his dream project like Bill Condon's dream of doing DREAMGIRLS.
Rob Marshall if you want to do FOLLIES as your next musical film, go for it and good luck! 
#116Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:00pm
All of these people would only be capable of turning Follies into an expensive and stupid-looking bomb--especially Rob Marshall--the way Ken Russell overinflated The Boyfriend to the point that the material made little or no sense and the spectacle was interesting to no one.
None of them would have the subtlety combined with the musical-comedy know-how to do what Michael Bennett and Hal Prince did with the staging. So please spare me any British, French or Australian directors who don't understand the entertainment tradition that Follies comes out of--or who would take it as an opportunity to critique American imperialism and the hollowness of the American dream.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet would make overstress the fantastical, turning the whole thing into Loveland.
Darren Aronofsky would make the whole thing bleak. We've had bleak Follies: They're no fun, even for the cognoscenti.
I'll wait to see Joe Wright's take on Pan before forming an opinion on whether or not his Follies would be good, but in general, if British directors want to do musicals, they should stick to British musicals. I'm tired of listening to people defend Trevor Nunn's direction of American musicals just because he's Trevor Nunn. he still was stupid about Oklahoma and Night Music. (And don't get me started about the Brit who messed up the Roundabout Follies.
And please don't suggest Bill Condon. I like Bill Condon, but he's only going to **** it up as well.
The only directors who could have done Follies are dead: Stanley Donen, Robert Wise and Chuck Walters.
And confidentially to the poster who said:
Again, very few people who are currently living got to see the original Follies production. It really wouldn't take away from anything.
I've been through Brenda Frazier, but I'm still here, baby.
#117Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:09pmPal Joey, you should direct it! :)
#118Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:14pm
Great read PalJoey, sure I don't necessarily agree with it but I can understand where your coming from.
Yeah Darren would've made the whole thing bleak and I don't need to remind you of THAT production 13 years ago.
But still there is still some upcoming talent in Hollywood who would do a great job with it, I don't know who but they're out there in the dark.
A Robert Wise FOLLIES would've made my dreaming brain explode.
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#119Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:21pmThe real person who should have directed it was Lloyd Bacon with Busby Berkeley choreographing, but they both died before the movie could be made. Judy Garland should have been Sally, but she died too.
#120Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:22pm
The fabled 1971 MGM Follies film is the only one that could have done the material justice. This 2013 article from The Paris Review (of all places) is frequently gasp-inducing.
THE PARIS REVIEW: Loveland
Claudia Draper
Featured Actor Joined: 6/14/11
#121Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:25pmStreisand can tackle this after GYPSY makes 1 billion worldwide...
#122Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:40pmPJ - that was a great read. Thanks for sharing.
#123Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 8:45pm
That article was amazing beyond my comprehension despite the big change from dilapidated theater to run-down studio sound-stage, it all sounds so interesting to get the great MGM stars of old to be in FOLLIES.
However time and fate could conspire on this sort of thing, only in our dreams could Donald O'Connor dance his butt off in "The Right Girl", Gene Kelly giving the performance of his life as Ben, or Judy Garland (if she was still alive during the 70's) soaring above everyone as Sally; phantasmagoria indeed...
Passion was on Harold Prince's mind.. So can others in this generation. We just need to wait and see what happens. If Rob Marshall DOES get the job/project off the ground, I think we'll be fine, it's not the end of the world or something. At least the 1971 footage of the original production is here for all to watch anyway.
Updated On: 12/2/14 at 08:45 PM
#124Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Posted: 12/2/14 at 10:22pm
Start at 1:20
Hats off. Here they come ...
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