Universal's WICKED Films - News & Discussion Thread- Page 99

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 2:34pm

Wicked has now become the highest grossing movie domestically for a film adaptation of a Broadway musical, outgrossing the likes of Chicago and Grease. We movie musical fans are being fed a feast in this timeline, and I couldn't be happier. The legs this movie has, even against the likes of Moana 2, is a very good sign of things to come indeed (it oddly reminds me of The Sound of Music in a way with how extremely well that movie did with audiences).

I wonder if this causes some other movie musical adaptations of Broadway shows to get fast tracked in development. I know we're getting Kiss of the Spider Woman very soon.

[joevitus]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 4:02pm

kidmanboy said: "For those complaining about the Wizard reveal, Joel Grey’s singing voice was even more recognizable when it was performed in the original cast."

I can believe it--which makes me wonder why they'd bother to put a name in the role if they really wanted the plot twist to surprise anyone. Was there more of a wink-and-a-nod quality to it with the original production?

I keep trying to come up with actors who could have been cast and been even more vocally recognizable. James Earl Jones? Matthew McConaughey? Gilbert Godfried? 

[jlindsey865]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 9:24pm

I doubt that people who are unfamiliar with Wicked would recognize that as Goldblum’s voice. The scene is so fast-paced and packed with action that viewers new to the story might not immediately think, “Oh, the Wizard is the Wicked Witch’s dad.”

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 9:33pm

Plus audiences have a year to forget

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 9:41pm

To be completely fair, nothing about Wicked happens as a surprise. It's all very telegraphed so if you got to the end of Part 2 and hadn't pieced it together before Glinda announces it... I'm gonna have to put that on you and lack of observational skills.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 10:00pm

Musical Master said: "Wicked has now become the highest grossing movie domestically for a film adaptation of a Broadway musical, outgrossing the likes of Chicago and Grease. We movie musical fans are being fed a feast in this timeline, and I couldn't be happier. The legs this movie has, even against the likes of Moana 2, is a very good sign of things to come indeed (it oddly reminds me of The Sound of Music in a way with how extremely well that movie did with audiences).

I wonder if this causes some other movie musical adaptations of Broadway shows toget fast tracked in development. I know we're getting Kiss of the Spider Woman very soon."


I can’t stress how much the promo, interviews, and red carpet have contributed to the major success of this film. The marketing budget must have been astronomical. Cynthia and Ariana should be very well paid for how viral of an event they’ve made this.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 12/2/24 at 11:11pm

TheatreFan4 said: "To be completely fair, nothing about Wicked happens as a surprise. It's all very telegraphed so if you got to the end of Part 2 and hadn't pieced it together before Glinda announces it... I'm gonna have to put that on you and lack of observational skills."

 

I mean, the lyrics to Dancing Through Life....it would be less obvious if Fiyero just broke out into If I Only Had a Brain. 

That said, to the uninitiated, I do think it's easy to be surprised by the wizard reveal, if only because by the time we actually meet the wizard, most people have forgotten about the man with the green bottle, who appears briefly in the middle of a big opening number with a lot of exposition.   

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 12/3/24 at 8:17pm

I was very skeptical of how this would translate to film but I was pleasantly surprised that it worked. Ariana was giving Cat from Victorious at the beginning but got it together. The Defying Gravity sequence was executed perfectly for a song that is very much stagey. I was literally bawling before Elphaba took flight and Cynthia did so good in the scene where Madame Morrible was making Elphaba into the villain (the skin comment definitely had some subtext of racism to it). Oz was not overdone visually and that was a relief to see.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 12/4/24 at 12:55am

I agree that Oz doesn't feel too overwhelming with saturation because 1: we already have the classic 1939 film for that, 2: there are many moments in the film where the colors pop like crazy and is better than the compressed videos on YT have shown. But I will sort of understand where people are coming from with the glare/lens flares that happen from time to time. It is a little annoying, but Spielberg's West Side Story was also guilty of doing that quite often, so I don't mind it personally.

After seeing this movie, I would love to see what Jon M. Chu could do with a film version of Follies. That "Wizmania" moment in "One Short Day" was giving me all sorts of "Loveland" vibes.

[MezzA101]

Posted: 12/4/24 at 2:33pm

Wicked’ Named Best Picture by National Board of Review

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/awards/national-board-of-review-winners-2024-wicked-1236225469

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/4/24 at 4:51pm

For context, the NBR is similar to the Drama League or Outer Critics Circle: not an awards body that should be taken seriously or viewed as an indicator of Oscar success, and they often gravitate to more populist fare.

While the NBR winner is often a Best Picture Oscar nominee, the only time the winner overlapped in the past 15 years was Green Book. The directing side has even less overlap with the Oscars.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/4/24 at 4:56pm

Yes, the better barometer of Oscar chances is what the various guild awards do. They more accurately reflect the Academy. 

[Owen22]

Posted: 12/4/24 at 8:50pm

Yes, it is telling that the NBR completely ignored The Brutalist which is almost universally considered the front runner...

[MagicalMusical]

Posted: 12/4/24 at 10:14pm

AEA AGMA SM said: "For what it’s worth, in Baum's original novel the Wizard builds a new balloon after Dorothy returns from the Witch's castle, so the destruction of what is presumed to be the balloon he arrived in during the end of this film is not going to throw some major wrench into the story if the second film"

Thank you for telling us that, I think that does provide a legit answer/excuse!

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 12/5/24 at 6:39pm

Wicked is one of the top 10 films of the year according to the American Film Institute.

https://variety.com/2024/film/awards/afi-awards-top-10-wicked-anora-dune-2-1236236697/

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/6/24 at 3:29am

Musical Master said: "
I wonder if this causes some other movie musical adaptations of Broadway shows toget fast tracked in development. I know we're getting Kiss of the Spider Woman very soon."

Spider Woman has such a different audience (even if I did see and love the Chita tour when I was 13) I don't see it benefiting too directly from all of this  At any rate, they're still looking for a distributor despite all the very positive word of mouth from test screenings.

 

[Theatre Fan3]

Posted: 12/6/24 at 3:13pm

I downloaded "Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score" album last night and am really enjoying John Powell's work.  Only thing that disappointed me was that it doesn't contain the End Credit music which I really was hoping for after seeing the film.  Anybody else listen to it yet?  John Powell has uploaded a playlist of the entire album on Youtube.

Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score

Updated On: 12/6/24 at 03:13 PM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 12/6/24 at 4:21pm

Just saw it again, in IMAX.

"Optimized for IMAX”

What does that even mean? I didn’t notice any difference from the regular screenings. The picture didn‘t even use the full screen.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/6/24 at 4:25pm

If I remember correctly, "optimized for IMAX" indicates that it was not shot using the IMAX cameras. Similar to how it was not shot using 3D cameras and all of the 3D was a post-process conversion

[Seb28]

Posted: 12/6/24 at 4:55pm

I watched this movie yesterday. I deliberately stayed a way from listening to any soundtrack or interview clips in advance. It is not very often you get the chance to experience a movie like this for the first time, so I wanted to be surprised.

Overall I loved it, the audience was very respectful and quiet too.

I wish they had used a different rendering/look for the colors. Like the technicolor look in the West Side Story remake. More filmic and authentic. Now it looked and felt like a cloudy set somewhere in the UK filmed with a video camera. It almost felt like behind the scenes footage at certain points. The chosen rendering did not match the sets, costumes and story.

I think the 2 leading ladies carry this movie. I was one of those people who wasn't happy when they announced the casting, as I don't like Ariana's pop songs and I can't stand Cynthia Erivo (which is also part why I avoided interviews).

Ariana Grande's Glinda is subtle, elegant, funny and she sings the score well. After watching it I can't think of anyone else who could have done it better. I think it's cool that a whole generation who only listened to recent pop and rap with only 3 chords will be introduced to more chords, articulation, elegance and head voice now. She was great. One thing I did hear beforehand was that the producers and Stephen Schwarz wanted to turn "Popular" into a rap and r&b track and that Ariana has called them and said that she definitely did not want that and suggested that they should honor the material. That makes me respect her even more.

I was surprised about Cynthia Erivo's performance. Her acting was actually believable and good, and her singing too. I tried to be as neutral and open as possible and she was great. In her previous roles there was always something about her "characterization" that felt pathetic/victim role-ish. I often wondered if this was just how she plays everything/who she is or a directorial choice. I'm still not sure but it fitted this role. I believed her to have low self-esteem, also because they showed the story behind it, I believed her views towards others and situations (like the scenes in public with Nessa, the lack of understanding others, etc, and Madam Morrible who says "you could do great things if you would learn to control your emotions", the defensiveness which she is also confronted with by other characters such as Fiyero (before "I'm not that girl" which she sang beautifully by the way), and I believed her standing up for herself at the end, and I found that to be a powerful and emotional scene.

She also did the little acting nuances well. I loved the scene in "Dancing through life" where Nessa tells her that she has just been invited by Boq, and where she sings "I do". Beautifully played.

The one factor that I did not like was Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. I don't understand his casting and his acting choices. His singing is fine but I don't believe his acting and he comes across as an "unattractive mean gay" to me. I am gay myself, please don't clutch your pearls, but the way the audience was chuckling at his scenes in displeasure and aversion felt more like the reaction to the Duke in the Moulin Rouge movie than to what I imagined Fiyero to be. Bordering on sly, frustrated drag queen in his acting, gestures and eyebrows. The shots of his introduction and in the forest were also anything but flattering. Very unattractive to me. The opposite of how I see a Fiyero. The ensemble reactions to him (swooning and moaning) felt misplaced and there was no romantic connection between his Fiyero and Glinda or Elphaba at all. I can't imagine "As long as you're mine" to be remotely sincere. Maybe from the point of Elphaba wanting to be loved or accepted, which in my opinion was what "I'm not that girl" was about, not about him.

The song of the Wizard with the moon was surprisingly sweet and lovely. 

The sound and all the vocal tracks were impressive. It was also fun to hear exactly where all the cuts were from live-singing on the set to the studio tracks, which I loved because that is where the songs truly take off. A great combination.

I like the character story lines, scenes and songs more than the ensemble scenes, which felt a bit too puppet show and insincere to me.

But overall, it was entertaining and beautiful. I laughed a few times, got emotional a few times and I cringed a few times.

Wicked is not my favorite show, story or score so I went in with an open mind. I have always kind of liked it, never loved it. Because of the beautiful orchestrations and versions of these songs in the movie I like it a bit more and have been listening to some of them on repeat today.

I am looking forward to part 2, in a way it felt like half a movie. Boq and Nessa just disappeared, Fiyero and Elphaba just met, Defying Gravity is a moment of complete chaos, it's a pity we have to wait so many months now.

Edit: I also think this movie comes at the right time. There seems to be a trend in story telling and characters. I have always thought that Frozen was a rip-off from Wicked, girl with powers but doesn't know how to handle them, recognizable power ballad, quirky Glinda-esque second lead. The bonding between the 2 girls. Being an outsider, misunderstood, fighting for your place, this seems what the world knows, recognizes and loves nowadays. And the world was longing for some decent music.
 

Updated On: 12/6/24 at 04:55 PM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 12/6/24 at 5:30pm

Ah, thanks AEA, that does make sense. In other words, not IMAX at all.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/7/24 at 11:00am

Theatre Fan3 said: "I downloaded "Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score" album last night and am really enjoying John Powell's work. Only thing that disappointed me was that it doesn't contain the End Credit music which I really was hoping for after seeing the film. Anybody else listen to it yet? John Powell has uploaded a playlist of the entire album on Youtube.

Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score"

The full End Credits music is included on the “not for the public” For Your Consideration release sent out to awards voters. 

[Theatre Fan3]

Posted: 12/7/24 at 2:18pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Theatre Fan3 said: "I downloaded "Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score" album last night and am really enjoying John Powell's work. Only thing that disappointed me was that it doesn't contain the End Credit music which I really was hoping for after seeing the film. Anybody else listen to it yet? John Powell has uploaded a playlist of the entire album on Youtube.

Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score"

The full End Credits music is included on the “not for the public” For Your Consideration release sent out to awards voters."

Unfortunately that doesn't do me much good since I'm not a "Voting Member" ... though, even if in an unofficial capacity, I cast my vote that they please make it available for the rest of us lowly fans. 

[Azúcar!]

Posted: 12/7/24 at 4:49pm

He just likes the bragging.  

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/7/24 at 11:59pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Theatre Fan3 said: "I downloaded "Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score" album last night and am really enjoying John Powell's work. Only thing that disappointed me was that it doesn't contain the End Credit music which I really was hoping for after seeing the film. Anybody else listen to it yet? John Powell has uploaded a playlist of the entire album on Youtube.

Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score"

The full End Credits music is included on the “not for the public” For Your Consideration release sent out to awards voters."


Hi! Thanks for this totally irrelevant information.