Weinstein Company pursues PIPPIN the Movie — Page 2

g.d.e.l.g.i. That sounds like a dream! I would love to see a Fosse style adaptation.

Justin Timberlake as "Pippin"
Amanda Seyfried as "Catherine"








...just kidding

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Pippin
Zooey Deschanel as Catherine




...not sure if I'm kidding

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Considering how much visual stylization the book of the musical requires to make it work on stage, it sounds like a natural fit for film.

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^ That's one choice I think people would love, given how much he looks like his father... er, godfather...

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I'm just really interested to see how they do it. The last screenwriter had a really great concept for it that worked, but if they're trying to go more like the revival (or, on the other end of the spectrum, pursuing what Greg [darquegk] posted as a possibility), I don't think it will work quite as well. I could be wrong, though.

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If I were the prospective producer, I'd be calling Darren Criss's agent ASAP. Pippin is a pleasant score but not the world's most demanding one, and it would give a rising star like Criss a chance to do the two things he does best: be a good-looking, somewhat moody young heartthrob, and engage in goofy awkward moments of comedy. His rise to television fame and internet fame came at the expense of polarizing his two natures, making him the "serious guy" on Glee and the "comedy guy" on the internet. Something like Pippin would give him a chance to unite the two.

I'd kind of like an unknown as Pippin and surround him with stars.

Elaine Stritch as Berthe.

"It could work in dozens of ways. It just needs to be re-imagined for the parameters of film"

Yea... like Chorus Line or Man of La Mancha or Nine.

^ Oh, you're doing a "two sides of the same coin" thing! Yay! I love that! xD

In all seriousness... here's a casting idea I've been thinking about. Especially in the Fosse version of Pippin, sex was a barely concealed subtext to everything that happened in the bulk of the show. With this in mind, I took another look at the role of Berthe and some of her lines (particularly "You could use some frolicking..."). It hit me that there is the barest hint of innuendo in the lines, and the possibility that maybe Fastrada evicted her because she was a threat and not because of a "personality conflict," and I decided to maybe cast the role (in my head) in a way that would up the ante on that.

It needed to be someone that you don't think grandmother of when the name is mentioned. Someone who is clearly old enough for the part, yet still looks like a knock-out. Someone who could give an extra charge to those lines, suggesting that Pippin's immediate family aren't the only fucked-up ones. To be blunt, and excessively crude, for a moment, someone who turns around and her tits nearly hit him in the face, y'know? Where you're struck with the stateliness and voluptuousness of the person, but they're older. A fitting legendary actress/singer from a generation or two back.

Here's the list of possibilities I came out with:
* Debbie Harry. (Shockingly she sneaked up to the right age.)
* Linda Ronstadt.
* Raquel Welch.
* When I initially thought of Dolly Parton, it was a joke, but the more I thought about it, she seemed kind of right for what I had in mind. I began picturing a country singalong "No Time at All," a great surreal moment not unlike her fantasy sequence in the 9 to 5 film... Berthe in a cute little cowgirl outfit, fastening Pippin to the chair with her lasso as she lectures him and the film audience about letting her sing the verses.
* And last but not least, the inevitable "safe" casting choice. Someone that the suits would insist on for the "funny old lady with vim, verve, and charm" part twenty seconds after they heard about it. It doesn't really hit the hallmarks of what I planned, but if she resurrected her Sue Ann Nivens sensibility, Betty White could work.

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What is a two sides of the same coin thing and who is doing it?

I'm thinking Shirley MacLaine will probably go after Berthe.

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