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Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

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#1

Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/30/09 at 2:40pm

I was just thinking, How on earth will the be able to make wicked a movie. What about defying gravity? Will they use the lift? And what about make up like the monkeys and stuff and the one thing i cant stop thinking about is the set. What do you think
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#2

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/30/09 at 2:58pm

I didn't think a movie had been confirmed or announced?

They wont use the lift for a movie, at least I hope they wont. Surely it'd be a bit of green-screen with elphaba flying over Oz. I imagine it cant be that spectatcular a sit'll look cgi'd... although you never know.

I'd LOVE to see a Wicked movie made with manga style animation. Think it could be beautiful! Alas, it'll never happen.

#3

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/30/09 at 3:11pm

It has been both announced and confirmed.

Defying Gravity will most likely be done through a green screen.
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#4

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/30/09 at 3:43pm

I could see Defying Gravity and Thank Goodness becoming one sequence showing the vilification of Elphaba by Morrible and the Wizard. They will definitely not use the lift in the show, more like CGI or Green Screen.

They'll probably just use the basis of the Broadway make up and make it more detailed and realistic.

I could definitely see a few songs being cut, as they always do with most movie musicals. Sentimental Man and its reprise will probably be the first to go, and then they'll seriously cut down Thank Goodness to fit it into the montage with Defying Gravity.

Dancing Through Life will probably lose a verse.

There will definitely be some restructuring to make the show more cinematic (ala the best movie musicals - Sound of Music, West Side Story, dare I say Hairsrpay)
#5

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/30/09 at 5:00pm

Wicked will only work as a movie if it were a basis on the novel. And not a musical. It will ruin the musical.
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#7

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/30/09 at 6:51pm

Because Wicked is such a successful on stage, one of the most popular in the world at the moment, does not guarantee it will work on screen.

The biggest musical of all time bombed on the silver screen, which I mean The Phantom of the Opera!
#8

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/31/09 at 3:29am

I agree that a film should be based on the novel. A film version of the musical would just destroy the show. Mamma Mia! was fine because the film just had people running around in the sunshine like drunk mental patients, which is more or less what happens on stage. As spectacular as Wicked is as a show, I think a movie would be so full of effects, it would detract too much from the show. I reckon a musical movie should only be attempted when the show is long gone.
#9

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/31/09 at 3:32am

God how I wish they would re-make Phantom, with another director and different cast. Something darker and more gothic..calling Tim Burton!
#10

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/31/09 at 5:08am

They'll definately have to cut some of the songs. It's a shame because i think it will look quite effective... problem is, like everyone has said, they shouldn't do it whilst it's still playing. I think 'defying gravity' is an impressive thing to see... but if you've seen her go up a lot higher, a lot faster and a lot easier on screen the effect is going to be lost re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?
Jesus Loves You... Everybody else thinks you're an idiot!
#12

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/31/09 at 1:19pm

Well, naturally a few of the songs will become montages, or at least partially - which lends itself to cramming in a lot more information from the book that wouldn't have been possible on stage:

I imagine there will be an extended Prologue/No One Mourns the Wicked, which will include a lot of history behind Elphaba's come about - the affair, the birth and the Dragon Clock.

The journey to Shiz University and the train journey to the Emerald City.

Oh, and actually show what happens between Defying Gravity and Thank Goodness.


I'm looking forward to the inevitable new songs being written for the film, maybe the replacing with dialogue of Sentimental Man, Wonderful and Something Bad?





#13

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 3/31/09 at 2:54pm

Hmm, the novel was no great shakes either - over fussy plotting, much of which doesn't pay off or even make sense, and some of the worst dialogue outside of a Dan Brown novel.

And following the special effects of Spiderman and especially the Quidditch scenes of the Harry Potter films, Defying Gravity will have to be completely re-imagined to have any impact at all. Sticking Elphaba in front of a green screen and playing in 'The Wizard of Oz' in behind her won't cut it.
#14

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 4/1/09 at 8:35am

Because the differences between the book and the show are so huge, I think they'd have to do a film of one or the other as combining the two would mean even more changes and might actually render some songs pointless. Talking of pointless, did anybody else find that there was a lot of poo and wee in the book? I'm no prude... I love poo and wee and I will find farts hilarious until the day I die, but there was a lot of misplaced and completely superfluous poo and wee references throughout. The main ones I remember are:

1. When Elphaba's a baby, she's on the floor doing something or other. End of paragraph? No, she does a wee on the floor. End of paragraph.

2. Fiyero runs into the building where Elphaba has been hiding. He's looking for Elphaba. He's frantic. He runs up the stairs looking for her. He decides he needs a poo. He goes for a poo. It's runny. He carries on looking for Elphaba.

3. The children watch the caravan coming towards Kyamo Ko. Some of the animals pulling the caravan do a poo. The caravan keeps moving.

See? Pointless.
#15

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 5/12/09 at 12:05pm

I thought it was a joke but I guess not. and look who they have rumored already:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1262426/
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.

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#16

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 5/12/09 at 12:19pm

The year 2010 in that imdb link has changed every year for the last 5 years!
It¡s been announced but nobody seems to know what to do with it.
I do...
----don't do it!
#17

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 5/12/09 at 4:11pm

I figure they would probably use the time dragon clock as it is in the book and have the story told from the point of view of the guy that was pushing it around, him telling the story to a bunch of kids through the puppets and toy people or whatever, then it would switch to the real actors and this would go back and fourth (like they did in Phantom, blah)so the whole thing would be told in the "future" and at the end when the story is done and the kids run off to play they will zoom in on one kid who was watching it from the back and you would see that the kid is green, or something like that. that way if it is successful they can squeeze a sequel out of it.
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#18

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 5/12/09 at 6:38pm

For Elpheba the biggest casting search since Scarlett O'Hara will soon begin - the producers are hoping to find a phenomenal female singer with naturally green skin.
#20

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 5/12/09 at 7:30pm

I don't want to deprive Hollywood's stars of a major film role but I always thought a Wicked movie would be interesting done in stop-motion. I just can never "see" a live action film. . maybe it's because I have zilch imagination when it comes to these things. Think animation would suit it, especially with the recent record of stop-motion films, Coraline, Wallace and Gromit etc.

Of course, we'd have to wait years! Personally, I really enjoyed the show for what it was, but wouldn't be crossing off the days untill the film came out.
#21

re: Wicked the movie- How will they do it?

Posted: 5/13/09 at 3:55am

I reckon they should do it with string puppets, but have close-ups of human hands like on Thunderbirds. When Elphaba's flying, they can just cellotape a little broom to her and hook her strings onto a ceiling fan.

Updated On: 5/13/09 at 03:55 AM

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