Hairspray Film to Be Shot in Toronto, Not Baltimore

According to the Baltimore Sun, the starry upcoming film version of Hairspray will not be singing "Good Morning, Baltimore."  Instead, the movie musical will be entirely filmed in Toronto, a popular shooting site for films and TV shows.

"No offense to Baltimore is intended, insisted producer Craig Zadan. Though financial incentives also swayed the filmmakers, the key factor in the Canadian city's selection was that the Baltimore area lacks large soundstages - buildings with spaces wide and tall enough to meet the demands of shooting a big-budget musical," states the article. 

Zadan had originally planned for the film to be shot in the Maryland metropolis, and was disappointed that none of the movie's action will actually be shot in Baltimore. Due to budget constraints, the idea of second unit photography (described as "background shots that add local flavor") has also been abandoned.  Instead, parts of Baltimore will be rebuilt on the Toronto soundstages and still photographs will be added to the film through computers. 

John Waters, who directed the film on which the Broadway musical was based and who will serve as a consultant on the new movie musical said, "Do I wish the film was shot in Baltimore? Yes. But I'm not going to go against the film because of that...They certainly didn't change the name of the song to 'Good Morning, Toronto.'"

However, some Maryland state and city officials have not lost hope that at least some portions of the film might be shot in Baltimore. "We are in the process of trying to find and work on putting together a soundstage large enough that we could put on some of these large production numbers," stated Dennis Castleman, assistant secretary in charge of film with the Maryland Department of Economic and Business Development.

The Hairspray film will boast a starry cast that so far includes John Travolta as Edna Turnblad, Queen Latifah as Motormouth Maybelle, Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle, Amanda Bynes as Penny Pingleton, Brittany Snow as Amber Von Tussle, Zac Efron as Link Larkin, Elijah Kelley as Seaweed and newcomer Nicole Blonksy as Tracy Turnblad, who helps to integrate a Baltimore dance show-and wins the heart of Link in the process.

The film version of Hairspray will be directed by Adam Shankman (Bringing Down the House) produced by Zadan and Neil Meron, for their Zadan/Meron Productions, which previously executive produced the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning Best Picture Chicago. 

Hairspray is originally based on the 1988 Waters  comedy. The new version of the film will be based on New Line's hit Broadway adaptation of the film, which debuted in 2002, and went on to win eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Director.

Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman will contribute new songs to their existing Tony Award-winning score. Shaiman will also serve as the film's music supervisor and will compose the music score for the film as well as produce its songs. Wittman and Shaiman will also serve as executive producers on the film. The new screenplay for Hairspray will be written by Leslie Dixon (Freaky Friday, Outrageous Fortune).

Toby Emmerich, New Line's president of production, is overseeing the project along with New Line's Executive VP of Production Mark Kaufman, and Creative Executives Michael Disco and Daryl Freimark.

Visit www.hairsprayonbroadway.com for more information on Hairspray.