Will Gluck On Directing ANNIE Film: 'I Was Scared Going In To This'

Speaking before an audience at the Billboard/ Hollywood Reporter Film & TV Music Conference yesterday, Will Gluck, director of the highly anticipated film adaptation of ANNIE revealed, "I was very scared going in to this, if I was going to ruin a lot of kids' childhoods." He continued, "A lot of people who love Annie were Annie, their sisters were Annie, their moms were Annie, they have this memory of being Annie when they put it on stage in middle school. So we didn't want to touch that memory, we wanted to create our own. And I hope we did it."

Added ANNIE musical director Matt Sullivan, "There are songs that people love in the show. So we knew there were a couple that really needed to stay pretty close to what they were, like 'Tomorrow,' 'Maybe,' 'Hard Knock Life,' so those we kept pretty close to the original but with the updated 2014-pop-really-energetic-percussive vibe to them, but still treating the melodies the same so when kids are singing along it doesn't take a left turn on them." Yet he added, "some of the other songs we took a little more liberty with, with the melody and some of the lyrics to make it fit into our story and tell a dialogue."

Gluck explained that the reason the upcoming film is set in 2014 is due to the fact that the Depression-era setting of the original Annie would not be "too interesting for the kids theses days." Yet assured the crowd, "it's a much different movie, but it's all rooted in the same story."

The men cite fan favorite tune "It's the Hard Knock Life" as the perfect example of how they fit the music seamlessly into the film without disrupting the flow of the story. "No one ever breaks out into a song and dances in this movie," said Gluck. "There's no breaking out into singing. And if someone sings and dances in this movie, someone else is going to comment on it."

Both agree that it was the original source material that made the project a joy to work on. Comments Gluck, "Because of the original Annie, we kind of started on third base with the great melodies and the lyrics, so we just kind of took it home. But when you start with such a good base, it's easier than having to start from scratch."

Read the article in full here.

Source: THR

A Broadway classic that has delighted audiences for generations comes to the big screen with a new, contemporary vision in Columbia Pictures' comedy Annie. Director/Producer/Screenwriter Will Gluck teams with producers James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith & Will Smith, Caleeb Pinkett, and Shawn "JAY Z" Carter, Laurence "Jay" Brown, and Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith with a modern telling that captures the magic of the classic characters and original show that won seven Tony Awards. Celia Costas and Alicia Emmrich serve as Executive Producers. The screenplay is by Will Gluck and Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the musical stage play "Annie," book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and on "Little Orphan Annie," © and ® Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Academy Award® nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who's also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they'd be back for her someday, it's been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything's about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) - advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale) - makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he's her guardian angel, but Annie's self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it's the other way around.