hardest/worst/almost impossible show to adapt to screen...- Page 3

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:22pm

"I could see "Spelling Bee" working as an animated movie filmed as a documentary, in that it could use adults as the voice of kids. The only song I could see as problematic is the I Love You song."

Why animated? And why adults as kids? A live-action mockumentary would work perfectly. Erik Per Sullivan as Leaf, Brett Kelly as Barfee, Daveigh Chase as Olive, Raquel Castro as Logainne, Stephen Root as Panch, Megan Mulally as Rona, and so forth.

[blaxx]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:29pm

I never understand why Wicked comes up in this "impossible for it to work on film" threads, where one its major sources is one of the most succesful movie musicals of all time.

As I've said many times before, if there is one film where singing in random places would be accepted, it would be one that in many ways comes from very well known musical sequences- Wicked.

[eeperr]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:36pm

The only thing that comes to mind as "impossibe" to me would be the live action version of The Lion King.

[i.heart.link]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:45pm

Now that i think of it, Last 5 Years would be a very weird movie!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:59pm

I'm with Best12Bars on most of his choices.

I'd love to read some of the screenplays that were written though--two full drafts were made for Follies, in the late 80s Goldman also came on board to adapt Company (he said he found a way to make it work brilliantly as a film with more of a story--saying, and I'm not sure if I agree or not, that a film needs more of a narrative thrust than a play) though nothing became of that and of course the screenwriters of Splash finished a full treatment, which got a few readings before everything fell apart, if Into the Woods which qwas to be done with Jim Henson's creature shop and focus more on the comic Act I.

The Follies script of course was to be more about old movie stars (Hal Prince has said that MGM got a bit of the idea for their subsequent That's Entertainment anthologies)
Cats was in the works--character designs were even done--by Spielberg's Amblimation studio (things ended when the studio closed--they had done pretty poor films like We're Back and the superior Don bluth films American Tail and Land before Time--to amalgamate with Dreamworks). It was meant to be VERY stylized and even surreal which could be kinda neat (and maybe would bring in some of the teenaged stoner crowds to Cats--an odd prospect).

I wish we coulda seen Bennett's planned movie of Chorus Line--which he was gonna make about them casting a film of Chorus Line--very meta but making it about films, again like Follies, as opposed to stage coulda worked.

Bennett also came VERY VERY close to making a film about a the struggles of a road company of his Seesaw--which would have a bit of a meta concept too.

E

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:27pm

Oh, and anyone who thinks Ave Q wouldn't work best rent "The Great Muppet Caper" and then tell me there's ANYTHING that puppets can't do.

[i.heart.link]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:32pm

Personally i just don't think Avenue Q could work because of the show itself, i'm sure the puppets would be fine in making the transition. I just think the movie would be awkward, imagine like If you Were Gay or Fantasies Come True. It might work, but it would be weird i think.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:48pm

I might be unimaginative, but I just can't see Wicked working. At all.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 9:23pm

AVENUE Q would be perfect if done with the same concept as a MUPPETS film for HBO or Showtime.
A movie about SEESAW's struggles, now that I would have loved to see.

[jg4892]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 9:29pm

I think SA would be cool on film. Having very grey tones, and then blasting out with color and rock music in the songs. The juxtaposition would be cool.

[Weez]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:58pm

If 'Memento' worked as a film, there's absolutely no reason why any show with a non-linear structure (eg - 'The Last Five Years') would fail as a film.

With the right creative team, of course.

[shakejake6282]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 1:00am

Ragtime
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Bat Boy The Musical
Sunday In The Park With George
Candide
Anything Goes
Caroline, or Change
Wicked

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 1:09am

Um,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027302/

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:45am

"If 'Memento' worked as a film, there's absolutely no reason why any show with a non-linear structure (eg - 'The Last Five Years') would fail as a film. "

I agree and don't agree James Goldman was asked by someone (SOndheim? the Studio?) to look at possibilities of a film adaptation of Company in the late 80s. He said he found two ways to make it work (though in the interview didn't give anymore details except that he thought it was a great piece but that both George Furth and Sondheim were hiding from the fact that Bobby was obviously gay--)--anyway he said he had to put more of a story on it while not ruinign the piece--because films need more of a narrative (even a scrambled narrative like Memento--which is VERY VERY plot driven) whereas theatre doesn't necesarily.

I think he overstaed things but I also think there is some truth there

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 6:34am

>> Sunday In The Park With George
Candide
Anything Goes
Caroline, or Change
Wicked

All of these could be filmed -- and easily so. There's nothing challenging in the structure of the story; some are straight forward, plot-driven works (like ANYTHING GOES). To say these would be "difficult" to film is, to be bluntly honest, absurd. If we can make movies with 500-foot lizards stalking Manhattan or, as was the case with a small film from England, one with 17 characters and 12 neatly tied plotlines that all wrapped up successfully in only 90 minutes... then any of these are a piece of cake.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 6:36am

>> anyway he said he had to put more of a story on it while not ruinign the piece

I have to disagree. Part of the problem with the stage script is that it's, at times, too cinematic: it wants to create the impression of a close-up small moment on a great big stage. If anything, a film would allow the script to enhance those moments without making them theatrical. I'm betting the original play would actually film far better than anyone's given it credit.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 10:49am

My mind jumped to animated right away because I think part of the show is the fact that they aren't actually kids, they're 20+ people playing kids. I think you lose something when it's an actual kid.

[Weez]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 1:27pm

'Company' is more a series of vignettes with no overall narrative. I was referring specifically to shows with an overall narrative that doesn't necessarily go from beginning to end, a la 'The Last Five Years'.

But again, I say any show can be filmed with the right creative team. It's just a matter of finding them. XD

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 1:41pm

Speaking as someone with experience in this area I agree with Weez. Any show COULD be adapted, given a smart and sympathetic adaptor. It's a question of the market and who would pay for it. In today's climate only a select few blockbusters will ever be attempted. In that regard, I fully expect Wicked to be filmed, sometime soon.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 7:09pm

">> anyway he said he had to put more of a story on it while not ruinign the piece

I have to disagree. Part of the problem with the stage script is that it's, at times, too cinematic: it wants to create the impression of a close-up small moment on a great big stage. If anything, a film would allow the script to enhance those moments without making them theatrical. I'm betting the original play would actually film far better than anyone's given it credit.

"

I agree with you to an extent but I think what Goldman was talking about was not it's cinematic sense (which was common of course to Prince and Bennett's musicals) but the actual STRUCTURE--a through line story to keep the audiences interest. (Again not sure I agree but you're talking about something very different--though your point is one I really agree with--the cinematic qualities would make a great intimate film at least for some scenes)

[Dirty_Rotten_Guy]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 9:20pm

1.COMPANY
2.COMPANY
3.COMPANY

ive been trying to imagine it all day, and i cant think of any way it would work as a film.

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 9:56pm

ooh, ,thats a good one. i guess it could work.... :-/