Could SUNDAY in the Park with George work as a film?

[binau]

Posted: 7/18/09 at 11:56pm

Director: Marc Foster
Dot: Kate Winslet
George: Johnny Depp
Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer

I guess you can see I like the sensibility of FINDING NEVERLAND

Never ever going to happen but still.

[Lumen2]

Posted: 7/18/09 at 11:57pm

It could, but not with that team.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/18/09 at 11:57pm

I've always wondered this. The love story would be perfect, but Act 2 would be pretty hard to transfer to film.

[Lumen2]

Posted: 7/18/09 at 11:59pm

I don't think Act 2 would prove to be any more difficult than some of the other shows they've been turning into films lately.

[musikman]

Posted: 7/18/09 at 11:59pm

Take out the musical numbers, and it could be an extremely interesting movie. The brilliance of the the musical, and how everything comes together on stage slowly but surely until that final tableau is complete, I feel would not translate well to screen.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:02am

Act 1 could. But then again, I think Act 2 doesn't really work onstage, either.

[Plum]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:03am

I don't think a direct approach would work with this show. You'd need a really creative director to think of a way to capture the spirit of the show...not Bill Condon or Rob Marshall, in other words, as much as I've liked some of their work. It has to be someone who can be a bit more of an oddball - Steven Soderbergh or something.

[Lumen2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:03am

I just had a teeny stroke.

[binau]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:12am

Call an ambulance :).

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:17am

Act II worked beautifully in the recent Roundabout revival, in fact, it worked better than Act I which sometimes had a slow pace IMO. I think both acts worked great in the Lapine production as well. The show is not complete without Act II, same as INTO THE WOODS.
I would love to see it and I would love to see it with that cast, add Maggie Smith or Judi Dench as the Old Lady and Alison Janney or Tilda Swinton as Yvonne and it'd be perfection.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:29am

And I would actually love to see Anne Hathaway as Dot! George on the other hand... if Paul Giamatti could sing he might be good. Or maybe Robert Downey Jr. for a more sexier George?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:32am

It would be funny if they filmed the entire movie on a green screen and then filed in the animated sequences from the revival.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:52am

I agree, a direct translation wouldn't work. Maybe something like THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. Basically, instead of simply adapting the novel to film, the filmmakers decided to make it a love story within a love story. They invented two new characters, actors who are filming an adaptation of John Fowle's book while engaging in a love affair of their own. Thus, the movie shifts back and forth between the finished product (the movie of THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN set in Victorian England) and the actors rehearsing their scenes, discussing the book/screenplay, and analyzing their own affair circa 1981.

They won't have to invent new characters for SUNDAY, but maybe they could tell both acts simultaneously, shifting back and forth from 1884 France to 1984 America. And since the actors in Act I play different characters in Act II, it'd be a nice echo of the past and present, so to speak. I don't know.

[geniuswithADD]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 1:10am

Now, don't go by my opinion, because I'm biased, but I feel like this show is not good enough to be film. It just doesn't have the flow of a film.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 1:21am

I agree with StageManager and Plum. I think that the material would work (and flow) better for film if they were presented simultaneously (as opposed to one story ending and then another beginning). To make that work, you would need a really bold director. One who isn't afraid to make choices. It COULD work, but the original material is very theatrical and it makes it delicate to transfer.

It has the potential to visually be one of the most simplistically stunning films.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 1:58am

Having the two time periods weave in and out hadn't even occured to me, but it could be the key to the whole thing. That might really work in a film. Good thought. The only downside would be difficulty making "Sunday" as emotional as it becomes at the end when it probably would only be used once.

Obviously, the whole pointillism thing would be gorgeous on film, and could be a truly creative use of CGI.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 2:21am

I think if you have "Sunday" used as the final point of both stories (the completion of Georges' painting and the catalyst to George's new mindset) it could be just as (if not, perhaps even more so) moving. The stories weaving in and out really is the best way, but it's not at all the easy way. As previously said, some liberties would have to be made with both stories in order for the two to coexist on film. You would really need a brave and visionary director (and screenwriter).

Also, and I'm about to contradict myself here, but the theatricality of the original piece can be the biggest asset to a movie adaptation as well as its greatest liability. Because the piece is so theatrical, it can help create a world on film that is lavish enough to establish itself as an environment where a musical can occur, all the while never crossing over the border to ridiculousness because of the all-too real characters and personal conflicts they go through.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 3:50am

I was just thinking, Act I ends with the tableau of the painting Georges has been working on the entire first act, and Act II opens with the painting hanging at the Art Institute of Chicago 100 years later (if I remember the DVD correctly). Well, since we agree that as a film it would work best to tell both acts simultaneously, and since both acts end with "Sunday," thus instead of the tableau, the film could end with a dissolve into a close-up of "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" at the Art Institute and the camera pulling away as the final notes of "Sunday" are played so we're left with the image of Georges' finished painting (which he'd be working on throughout the movie, but we never see save for a few strokes here and there) being admired by present-day museum-goers before it slowly fades to black, a pause, and then the end credits/music begins.

Does anyone follow?

Updated On: 7/19/09 at 03:50 AM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 3:54am

Definitely could be beautiful.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 3:59am

This could be the last shot of the film. Pretend the people pictured are the extras.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 4:07am

... or this one...

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 5:47am

I do like StageManager2's ideas here.

When Johnny Depp was being interviewed on British TV prior to the opening of the Sweeney Todd film he was asked if he and Tim Burton would consider filming Sunday. He gave an enthusiastic but non-commital response.

[mattonstage]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 6:35am

I've never been crazy about 'rotoscoping', like 'Waking Life', but for this film, for 'It's Hot Up Here',it would work perfectly.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 6:42am

To expand on the film's finale, Georges Seurat was renowned for his use of pointillism, or small "dots" of color that blend from a distance to create an image. So at the end when the camera dissolves into an extreme close up of the painting (Dot's face), all the viewers see at first are blotches of paint. As the camera slowly pulls back and the last chords of "Sunday" are sung/played, the image eventually comes into focus as the painting is revealed in its entirety. Then when the music ends, the camera fades to black.

Updated On: 7/19/09 at 06:42 AM

[binau]

Posted: 7/19/09 at 6:45am

"
When Johnny Depp was being interviewed on British TV prior to the opening of the Sweeney Todd film he was asked if he and Tim Burton would consider filming Sunday. He gave an enthusiastic but non-commital response."

I read somewhere that Depp wouldn't do another musical.

Also, Tim Burton isn't really a musical fan, according to Sondheim - I'm surprised they'd even know the show well. (Sweeney Todd is the exception)

But I suppose it's something.

It would be Kate Winslet as Dot that I'd be most looking forward too, however.

Updated On: 7/19/09 at 06:45 AM