And might I remind you folks that Chicago and Moulin Rouge were both succesful, but Phantom was a bomb. People won't see just any movie. Chicago and Moulin Rouge were also succesful because of the names (Renee Zelweiger, CTJ, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah.) Those names exceed Broadway and reach out to the theatre illiterate. As did Moulin Rouge (Nicole, Ewan, and John Leguizamo). But Phantom? Who the hell is Emmy, Gerard and Patrick? The only two recognizable names to mainstream non-theatre folk was Minnie Driver and Miranda Richardson, and even they aren't huge box office draws. If they make Wicked into a movie, hopefully Idina will be huge (which she isn't, despite what you may think - I work across the street from Wicked, and whenever I mention Idina, I have to tell them she's Taye's wife.) But, as I was saying, the movie would never be huge if they had Kristin, Idina or even Jennifer, as sad as that sounds. An example - My Fair Lady. Audrey was the bigger star at the time which is why they used her. No one outside of NYC and LA had heard of Julie Andrews. Hollywood is all about the bank, and if you want to sell a movie to an audience that doesn't know what they are getting, you better use some very familiar household names. So, is Wicked going to be made into a movie? Not anytime soon.
"Do you know what pledge time is, Andrew"? said the PBS Executive.
"Yes", Lloyd Webber replied. "My 50th birthday special must be one program that gets done a lot."
"No", mused the man from PBS heedlessy. "Not so much. Our Stephen Sondheim Carnegie Hall concert. That's a big one."
Spoons, forks and knives seemed suddenly to suspend their motion in horror, all around the table.
