Universal's WICKED Films - News & Discussion Thread — Page 108

Musical Master said: "Big congrats to the cast and crew for Wicked with its 10 Oscar nominations! Best Score was a pleasant surprise and one where it makes sense for it being nominated. It's so refreshing to see a film adaptation of a Broadway musical to be a box office hit and an awards darling at the same time. The last time that this happened to my knowledge was Chicago."

Even though it's divisive, Les Misérables was as well.

I've gotta give major props to Cynthia and Ariana for this. The best case scenario for this film before it's release was that it was liked by fans and was financially successful. Given how pretty much every Broadway adaptation for the last decade or more has lost money, this would have been a fantastic result. And Oscar attention for the roles of Elphaba and Galinda? Forget about it.

But boy did this movie defy all odds. Ariana went from a highly suspect casting choice, to being in high contention to win an Oscar! And Cynthia managed to make it in safely in a notoriously hard category for musical performances to get into. Their dedication and how seriously they took these roles has paid off big time for them.

The Rural Juror said: "Ariana went from a highly suspect casting choice, to being in high contention to win an Oscar!"

With Grande losing the Globe (which she would've easily won like 10 years ago) and Emilia Pérez looking like a serious threat to win Best Picture, I have a hard time seeing Saldana lose at this point.

There are ten Best Picture nominees and 5 Best Director nominees. People are gonna be left out, that’s just how it is. Chu has consistently never been considered a strong contender for this, for a number of reasons (many of which have nothing to do with the quality of his work).

Do we think we'll get another "first look" trailer for FOR GOOD during either the Super Bowl again? Or during the Oscars?

Kinda surprised there weren't a flurry of posts when Wicked lost everything at the Golden Globes except box office. Considering that the Globes are often looked to as a prediciton of the Oscars, I'd have thought there would be more fuss.

WiCkEDrOcKS said: "Do we think we'll get another "first look" trailer for FOR GOOD during either the Super Bowl again? Or duringthe Oscars?”

If I remember correctly, Ariana addressed this to a reporter and said they won’t be showing a trailer during the Super Bowl as they want a longer break between one film’s release and another’s promotion. It may have been Jon, but I’m pretty sure I recall the video being of Ariana saying this.

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "WiCkEDrOcKS said: "Do we think we'll get another "first look" trailer for FOR GOOD during either the Super Bowl again? Or duringthe Oscars?”

If I remember correctly, Ariana addressed this to a reporter and said they won’t be showing a trailer during the Super Bowl as they want a longer break between one film’s release and another’s promotion. It may have been Jon, but I’m pretty sure I recall the video being of Ariana saying this."

Interesting...

I mean - they've got less than a year until Part Two is released and you'd think they'd want to ride the wave of buzz/momentum generated by Part One. The really huge marketing push for Part One didn't start until well after the first Super Bowl teaser dropped, anyway.

Ultimately, it won't matter and Part Two will be another box office success - just seems like an odd approach for them not to mimic the (insanely successful) model that worked for Part One.

Considering the SB is about two weeks away and the Academy Awards telecast is a little over a month away, maybe they'll opt for a FOR GOOD teaser to drop during the Oscars ceremony this time.

Updated On: 1/24/25 at 03:48 PM

Not a huge deal, but looking at Redwood's performance schedule it seems unlikely Idina Menzel will make a Wicked related appearance at the Oscars.

degrassifan said: "Jeffrey Karasarides said: "The Rural Juror said: "Ariana went from a highly suspect casting choice, to being in high contention to win an Oscar!"

With Grande losing the Globe (which she would've easily won like 10 years ago) and Emilia Pérez looking like a serious threat to win Best Picture, I have a hard time seeing Saldana lose at this point."

Jeffrey, no offense, but you stay being proven wrong. You did not think West Side Story would be Oscar-nominated, and then it was. Then you swore up and down the Academy would not be kind to Wicked, and now it has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. You always want to be the contrarian with movie musicals and the Oscars."

Well, when some were speculating if Mary Poppins Returns would land noms in above the line categories early on in 2018, I never once bought it would get in for Best Picture nor Best Actress one bit. I figured it would only show up in craft categories, and nothing else. Which was exactly what happened. Meanwhile, I last year actually expected The Color Purple to be a bigger contender than it ended up being. So I don't always doubt movie musicals at the Oscars. There've been times where I underestimated them (like WSS and Wicked) and other times where I overestimated them (like TCP and Nine). Although there were times where I knew from the beginning it'd be a contender (like Les Misérables) and other times where I knew from the get-go that they weren't going to be huge (like MPR and Into the Woods - both from Rob Marshall).

"Now you're saying Emilia Perez is the serious threat? I don't even like her like that, but I hope Ariana wins just to prove the haters wrong. She's clearly top 2. Also, the Academy is not the Hollywood Foreign Press."

Apparently, you don't know that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association dissolved on June 12th, 2023. Thus, the Globes are now presented by the Golden Globe Foundation. Sure, none of their voters overlap with the other awards groups. With that being said, Emilia Pérez pretty much got nominated for every category it needed to win Best Picture (directing, acting, writing, and editing). Wicked may have gotten in for acting and editing, but not directing nor writing. While we have seen films from the last 10 years still win Best Picture despite missing key categories, they were in situations where they only missed one. Birdman only missed editing, Green Book only missed directing, and Parasite only missed acting. Meanwhile, CODA missed directing and every single below-the-line category. Although in that film's case, it got the three nominations many expected it to get, and nothing else. Yet as the season went on and more voters started catching up with it, momentum really took off.

Plus, if Wicked were to actually win Best Picture, I think it'll more likely happen with For Good next year as the story will be completed on the big screen by then. After all, the Academy waited until Return of the King to award Lord of the Rings Best Picture.

Updated On: 2/23/25 at 09:55 PM

There have been enough precursor awards at this point to have an informed hunch about who’s actually competitive in the Oscar and in which categories. Wicked has likely got Costume and Production design on lock and could possibly get another technical award or two, but for the rest of the categories the nominations are the award. Chu has basically never been competitive and has been regularly left out of most of the precursors and smaller awards even when the movie itself has done well.
As for Best Picture, it’s still unsettled but really does seem to be a race between Emilia Perez, Anora, and The Brutalist.
Wicked as it stands has defied expectations and become a bonafide worldwide phenomenon- surely a more meaningful victory than any number of Oscars.

And a lot of directors will be wanting to work with Cynthia and Ari regardless of whether they win.

I like most of Stephen Schwartz score for WICKED. I've always thought "What is this Feeling?" was a cute song - nothing more, nothing less and I never counted it as one of the show's standouts.

But boy did the movie version change my mind about this particular song. I can only compare it to what was done with "America" or "Do Re Mi" in the film adaptations of WSS and TSOM in that it elevated the song and made it a major production number that just took on a life and scope of its own.

"What is this Feeling?" in the film version is just thrilling and fantastic to watch. The passage of time at Shiz University through a montage showing us Galinda and Elphaba's growing rivalry topped off by soaring new arrangements and orchestrations and thrilling new choreography by Christopher Scott lifted this little ditty to the high heavens.

It's most definitely one of my favorite songs in the score now.

Updated On: 1/30/25 at 03:14 PM