What Do You Want the Next Big Movie Musical to Be?

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:19am

Excluding movies that have already been announced, like the Live-Action Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins Returns.

There hasn't been a film adaptation of a musical since The Last Five Years, and one with mass appeal since Into the Woods, so what stage musical would you like to see be brought to the screen?

[hork]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:21am

Alex Kulak2 said:
There hasn't been a film adaptation of a musical since The Last Five Years
 

London Road just came out.

 

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 02:21 AM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:25am

I hadn't heard of that movie or the musical it's based on. I'll have to check it out.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:34am

I'm surprised we haven't heard of a film adaptation of Book of Mormon yet. I'd like to see that get done (but probably won't happen for another 5 or 10 years).

Follies is another one I think could be done well. It's a musical all about mood and films can do that well.

Avenue Q would be great to see in a Sesame Street type of setting (kind of gritty and not trying be all high-tech), but might be pretty confusing for parents unfamiliar with the content (I guess ads would need to be pretty explicit that it's not for children). Actually looking at the recording, the only material that's super inappropriate is The Internet is for Porn and (kind of) You Can Be As Loud as the Hell You Want When You're Makin' Love. I think they could probably get away with a PG-13 rating.

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 02:34 AM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:39am

I'm cautious about a Book of Mormon movie. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, and it'd lend itself to film well, but I'm worried the general film-going audience wouldn't entertain it unless a lot of the vulgarity was toned down. I feel that's why they haven't made an Avenue Q movie either.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:56am

I really want to see a Fun Home as a movie.  I could see it done as maybe a Netflix film.  I don't think that it has the tools to be a big mainstream blockbuster, but I could see it being a great independent film.

Follies is another show that would lend itself very well to film.  Most of Sondheim's shows such as Company, Sunday in the Park with George, and Passion would work beautifully on film.

Wicked just screams for a film adaptation.  It isn't my favorite show, but I think that it would create quite a stunning film.  Avenue Q has always been a little problematic for me.  I think that it is just far too small to work as a big budget film.  This is another show that I think would be lovely on Netflix.

Ragtime is just so cinematic and that sweeping score would lend itself so well to the big screen also.

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 3:21am

110 IN THE SHADE

Always thought how beautiful a movie could have been, filmed in the desert back in the '60s.

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 3:22am

I think Fun Home, done as an animated movie, in the style of Allison's drawings, would be wonderful. Plus the entire OBC could reprise their roles.

I hope Avenue Q, possibly, if it decides to close at NWS, would film and sell their closing performance(s) via Netflix / BroadwayHD.

I would love to see Carrie done as a movie musical.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 3:46am

I doubt it will ever happen, but could imagine how epic a large-scale film of PARADE would be, with sweeping shots of the South and all of those period designs? It would be like a modern-day GONE WITH THE WIND. Likewise, a RAGTIME movie musical would be magical.

 

FUN HOME could do well, on the scale of THE LAST FIVE YEARS. A mix between the cartoons and live action, maybe?

[Dave28282]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 5:12am

Miss Saigon.

But only if they don't take the literal approach like they did with Les Mis. They need to play with the sung thoughts/visions much more. Many scenes in Miss Saigon are actually visions, journeys in their head (this is the hour, movie in my mind, I still believe, nightmare, maybe, last night of the world, etc. It needs to be surreal. Better than life. Not realistic, because this artform per definition is not. 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 7:48am

28282? What, 19 wasn't enough? :P

I dunno if it would be big or come next, but I'd definitely like to see someone take a whack at Pippin. While it has been taped in (more or less) its original version for television, it has not been filmed. I feel the overall concept would be kind of like Big Fish, or Second Hand Lions, or even (a slightly more sane rendition of) what Ken Russell did with Tommy, very heightened and theatrical. Script-wise, I'd stick very close to the Fosse version, with a lot of the Fosse material that failed to make it to the revival re-inserted, and the ending a slight compromise between the Fosse ending and the new "Theo" ending.

The basic premise, if I were the producer, would be that a young drifter in much the same circumstances as Pippin stumbles upon the show at a theater, and is pulled from the audience to become Pippin. Once he enters the world of the show, it leaves the four walls of the theater and travels through many worlds, in which the story unfolds, until it returns at the very end to the original stage.

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 07:48 AM

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 8:50am

Matilda and a Christmas story

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 9:07am

Wicked has already been announced for December 2019.

There of course has been talk before about Beautiful, Cats, In the Heights, Matilda, Miss Saigon, Pippin, and Spring Awakening.

As of now, the next big (live action) movie musical coming out is La La Land.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 4:52pm

I would love to see them do a cool electric indie movie version of American Psycho the Musical.

[SweetLips]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 5:12pm

A commercial success [it's all about the $$s] should follow a proven hit from either on stage or film remake which are presently in the works via film and TV-Wicked and Rocky Horror.

New remake as a movie with popular appeal and not just for Broadway devotees--The Bodyguard, and for an original[almost], the music written for GOYA with a story/art and of it's period, this would make a wonderful filmic canvas-could combine art and artistry like that beautiful work done on Da Vinci's Demons.

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 05:12 PM

[John Adams]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 7:53pm

Call_me_jorge said: "Matilda and a Christmas story"

Definitely A Christmas Story, but I'd like to see it done as a made-for-TV movie (even though it would compete with the MGM version starring Peter Billingsley). I'd like to see it lumped in annually with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, et.al.

It's hard to suggest something for the big screen because it's so difficult to produce a musical that doesn't already have a positive reputation with the general public. Putting that aside, I'd like to see LaChiusa's Giant done for movie theaters.

I'd also like to see the new Chicago version of Smokey Joe's Cafe on the big screen.

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 07:53 PM

[jo]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 2:08am

Looking forward to  20th Century Fox's THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ON EARTH which has an announced release date of December 25, 2017!


It is not a film adaptation of a stage musical ( and bears no relation to a previous musical with a similar subject) but the first " studio-produced and  studio-distributed " original live-action movie musical in approximately 2 decades.  It is a musical biopic based on the life of Phineas Taylor Barnum.

 
Announced cast : Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya. 

Last February, a photo of  a workshop/reading  ( before the studio final greenlight) was shared by Pasek and Paul ( if I remember correctly) which  showed quite a few Broadway actors who participated in the reading ( Jackman, Jordan, Erivo, Settle, Bowman, Weiss, etc.).

 
Creative Team : Final script by Oscar-winner Michael Arndt ( with inputs from Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon),  musical score by Pasek and Paul, and film direction by Michael Gracey.

 
According to a recent casting notice from Backstage.com, rehearsals are due to take place in October and filming to start sometime in November 2016!

 
http://www.backstage.com/news/casting/now-casting-hugh-jackmans-greatest-showman-earth-and-more-59194/

Updated On: 9/26/16 at 02:08 AM

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 2:25am

"Beautiful" with someone with star power (Sara Bareilles?) as Carole King could be fantastic! 

[Adair Haywind]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 10:20am

I may be in the minority, but I'd love to see a film adaptation of Memphis.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 11:01am

Said it before and I'll say it again...it has been my pipe dream to direct a proper film adaptation of A Funny Thing...Forum and get the FULL score recorded by some Hollywood heavyweights. I have such a vision in mind for it! Now all I need is a few million dollars.

I also think Follies could make a beautiful movie, if done right and with a kickass cast.

On the stranger side, I wrote a treatment for Bat Boy as an indie musical, ala L5Y. I think it could be very good, perhaps elevate the source material.

[sarahb22]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 11:34am

The Secret Garden

Kiss of the Spider Woman

[sarahb22]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 11:40am

Dave28282 said: "Miss Saigon.

But only if they don't take the literal approach like they did with Les Mis."

And no live singing! Geez, that destroyed 'Les Mis'.  The only number that benefitted from it was 'I Dreamed a Dream'.  'Bring Him Home' is my favorite song from that show, and I can't even watch it in the movie because you can see the pain in Hugh Jackman's face as he s-t-r-a-i-n-s to hit those high notes. I can feel his vocal cords bleeding.

[whatacharacter]

Posted: 9/26/16 at 12:20pm

In the Heights please!!!!

[Dave28282]

Posted: 9/27/16 at 6:41am

sarahb22 said: "Dave28282 said: "Miss Saigon.

But only if they don't take the literal approach like they did with Les Mis."

And no live singing! Geez, that destroyed 'Les Mis'.  The only number that benefitted from it was 'I Dreamed a Dream'.  'Bring Him Home' is my favorite song from that show, and I can't even watch it in the movie because you can see the pain in Hugh Jackman's face as he s-t-r-a-i-n-s to hit those high notes. I can feel his vocal cords bleeding.

 

"

I know, one big showcase of actors struggling with notes. And then try to use that struggle to look miserable on screen, and therefore crying is the only emotion they get away with in this film. Horrific.

 

They should also realize that film is not theatre, so you need singers with a more filmic finesse, like John Owen Jones, instead of Hugh Jackman trying to reach for the backrow on a pavement, and most importanty, this artform is about sung thoughts, so there is no need to see the person mouthing the words into the camera all the time. This is film, so use elaborate editing, music as voiceover and beautiful cinematograhy and editing. And yes, pre-recorded stuff. Live singing is too literal for film.

 

 

[Dave28282]

Posted: 9/27/16 at 6:51am

Ps. I am very curious abut the Miss Saigon 25th cinema version, because I always felt that the Miss Saigon revival had singers that sang in a very filmic way. Very natural and with a filmic finesse. Combined with all the close-up shots where they lip-synched to themselves, which creates a better than life feel, almost magical, because it enhances the literal given of this artform (like what you hear exceeds the reality of what you see), from what I have seen in the promotional shots, that is what I want to feel when watching a musical on film.

This "better than reality" approach of sung thoughts makes the emotion for the audience more raw.