Disney+ developing Once on this Island film adaptation - Page 2

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/30/20 at 11:46pm

JBroadway said: "darquegk said: "Not Azula, Asaka. Alex Newell as Azula would be... something else."


Lol! Now I kindawant to start a “Last Airbender Musical Dreamcast” thread"

 

Azula - goddess of air!!!

[Hot Pants]

Posted: 7/30/20 at 11:54pm

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "I actually heard this was in the whispers last year and I was wondering if this was still happening.

Alex Newell reprising Azula. Good night."

I’d rather any other member of that cast reprise their role before Newell.

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 12:16am

I get the hype for Newell's voice.

In OOTI he looked bored as hell, and pranced around the stage as if wondering why he was there and not headlining his solo concert at Madison Square Garden. He comes across as so high on himself that it's such a turn off.

[John Adams]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 6:20am

JBroadway said: "Exciting news! I do kind of wish it could be animated though. I think that could be really cool, if the style is done right."

Me, too! Since they've decided not to go the 'Hamilton' route, an animated version would be SOOOO perfect in creating a version that's significantly different from the staged production. ...and the story itself fits into the category of fairy tale/folklore so an animated version makes complete sense to me.

RE: an animation style, I like to watch the Oscar-nominated entries for animated shorts every year. The creativity is always so impressive. I'm not nearly as inventive, or creative as the Oscar nominees, but my first thought is that a watercolor style would seem very appropriate... ?

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 10:18am

My guess is it’ll be live action with the exception of the gods who’ll be motion-capture CG performances with somewhat well-known actors/singers providing their voices. 

Updated On: 7/31/20 at 10:18 AM

[BJR]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 10:21am

Such fantastic news. And what a fantastic team working on it. Jocelyn Bioh is perfect for this. And while I'm unfamiliar with the director, it's no small think that is should be an African woman. I didn't see her film, Rafiki, but I want to go back and do so.

I hope Disney+ adds to the content-hungry machine that Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have created and it results in more stage to streaming projects!

[Hot Pants]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 10:27am

blaxx said: "I get the hype for Newell's voice.

In OOTI he looked bored as hell, and pranced around the stage as if wondering why he was there and not headlining his solo concert at Madison Square Garden. He comes across as so high on himself that it's such a turn off."

Agreed. I particularly didn’t care for a report that he was breaking character before the show to argue with an ensemble member, who thankfully tried their best to limit the fight and maintain character.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 10:30am

Hot Pants said: "I particularly didn’t care for a report that he was breaking character before the show to argue with an ensemble member, who thankfully tried their best to limit the fight and maintain character."

How can one break character before a show?

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 11:04am

An Airbender musical would probably not be GOOD, but it would be a fantastic “always playing somewhere” replacement for “The King and I” on the resume of any number of indigenous and people of color’s resumes.

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 11:54am

HogansHero said: "Hot Pants said: "I particularly didn’t care for a report that he was breaking character before the show to argue with an ensemble member, who thankfully tried their best to limit the fight and maintain character."

How can one break character before a show?"

The cast was onstage as part of the pre-show.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 12:27pm

Ugh, dammit! I swear I already made this mistake here. But, yeah. Azula is a awesome character on Avatar. 

Updated On: 7/31/20 at 12:27 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 1:06pm

blaxx said: "The cast was onstage as part of the pre-show."

ok. to me that was a part of the show. 

[Joey Ledenio]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 9:04pm

Alex would be a wonderful return, as many others have said! I guess acting appropriately like an earth goddess and one made-up report is too "high on himself" for some people.

would also love to see some returns from the original production! cameos from Kecia and LaChanze would be so cute

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/31/20 at 10:05pm

If I could suggest one obscure cameo for this film, it wouldn't be any Broadway stars; I'd love to see Ron and Natalie Daise as islanders or as Tonton and Euralie. Their television show "Gullah Gullah Island" introduced Afro-Caribbean culture to (mainly suburban white middle class) children in the 1990s, and I have to think that the revival of "Once on This Island" resonated so much with people my age who didn't know the show before in part because the music and warm, storytelling vibe was so familiar to us from "Gullah Gullah Island" three decades ago.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 8/1/20 at 8:28am

So which part will Jennifer Hudson play?

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 8/1/20 at 10:21am

I wouldn’t be shocked if Lizzo’s name was thrown into the mix either

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 8/2/20 at 2:17pm

Soooo Disney had Audra in Beauty and the Beast. What do we think the chances MIGHT be of an Audra as Erzulie casting?

[jbroadway4]

Posted: 8/2/20 at 3:32pm

Chloe. Bailey. (the left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brixVlzc2y4

[Fan123]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 2:48am

Jocelyn Bioh talks about her plans for the adaptation in this recent interview:

https://broadwaydirect.com/jocelyn-bioh-on-the-once-on-this-island-film-adaptation-and-colorism/

Personally I'm really happy that she's interested in updating the ending. "Initially, I actually said no because while I love the musical and it's part of so many of us there is a slightly problematic element to it in terms of what the storyline is -  in particular how the musical ends... It was actually a couple of my really good friends and my boyfriend who encouraged me to really think about it because there is a potential that I could maybe change [the ending] and Disney would be down with it."

Updated On: 1/5/21 at 02:48 AM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 9:08am

I'm okay with changing things for the movie, but I really hope that they don't try to give it a happy ending.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 10:34am

Maybe they can give Ti Moune a BETTER ending then turning her into a freakin' tree.

[Scott Stephen]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 12:56pm

I definitely think they can give the story a better resolution and a less problematic narrative while keeping the original feeling intact. I have a few ideas of how. Maybe Ti Moune sees Andrea and makes the decision to leave? Bioh is a wonderful playwright and I have no doubt she will be able to appease fans of the musical and others who might not have been able to overlook its more problematic components.

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 2:29pm

I hope this doesn’t get me into trouble, but what’s so problematic about the original? Yes, there’s the colorism and Daniel is ultimately a fu*kboy villain, but isn’t that the point? I never felt like the show was endorsing any of those negative things. The tragedy of the piece is Ti Moune’s pure and idealistic pursuit of love being met with the harsh realities of a cruel and unjust world.

That being said, I’m certainly open to a revised ending. When the cast suddenly announces Ti Moune’s transformation into a tree, the tonal shift gives me a bit of whiplash. They try to tie everything up neatly and sell this “love conquers all” message that they just spent most of act 2 undermining. It’s definitely an instance where the writers wanted to send the audience out on an upbeat note.

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 2:41pm

No. Changing the ending is a deal breaker. The tragic ending is what MAKES this musical unique. Not all fairy tales need have happy endings. In fact, many don't. And even the ones that do are pretty dark. The parallels to Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid in the musical cannot be ignored or denied. I loved having this musical that stays true to that original ending as Anderson wrote it right down to the heroine being blessed in death with a higher plane of existence. Ti Moune is not just turned into a tree, she is transformed into a form that allows her to watch over the next generation and unite them in the way she and Daniel were denied. She blesses them. She is not just a tree, she is a spirit within the tree. She lives on even after her death as a spirit and as a story.

Disney has already changed the ending of the tale once, and as I feared looks like they might doing it again. And not only that but this musical is directly based on a book and the ending is from the book as well. So that's ****ting on the source material on TWO levels. The book and the fairy tale the book is inspired by. 

Now I would be okay with more minor changes to the ending that makes Daniel less of a jerk that used her the whole time. I already thought that the revival did a decent job fixing his character to make him more compassionate and regretful. Going a little further with it would be okay. Maybe make him more of a fighter for them as a pair. Maybe make it that he has already chosen Ti Moune and then TWIST catches her with the knife about to kill him. That would be interesting, that Papa Ge looses the bet but wins because him ordering her to kill Daniel and the aftermath results in the pair falling apart for good. And while we are at it, let's make Andrea more sympathetic as well. She's forced into the marriage just as much as he is. I always thought it might be interesting to see Andrea be interested in someone else as well but ultimately they both give up their hearts for their family's desires. Some nameless waiter that she shares some longing glances with that suggests they have feelings. She is just far more subtle about her personal affairs then Daniel is. But for the love of god if the movie musical ends in a happy ending where Daniel picks Ti Moune, no.

[Fan123]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 2:55pm

There was some discussion about the show's ending in the previews thread for the most recent revival a few years back. As with this thread, there were a few interesting takes on various sides. Below is some of what I said then, as I still pretty much have the same perspective:

"The Little Mermaid with racism" was pretty much what Rosa Guy was going for when she wrote the source material novel, 'My Love, My Love'. If anything, I have wondered if the musical sanitises those elements a bit too much. There seems to be a bit of a tonal mismatch between the somewhat brutal original story, and the (largely) joyous, charming vibe of the musical. 

I think some of the discomfort I feel about this show also comes from the way in which it presents a false dilemma for Ti Moune between unhealthy love, and unhealthy hate/death. Ti Moune has to either keep loving jerkface Daniel 4evah, or outright kill him. It's rather depressing that she loves him to the very end, and that some of the show's lyrics present this as a triumph: "Ti Moune...proved that love could withstand the storm...and survive even in the face of death!" Not the greatest message for any young people in the audience. The original novel, IIRC, more unambiguously portrays the Ti Moune character's undying love as the tragedy it is.

In the moment of truth in the show, when Ti Moune has to make her love/death decision, I wonder if it would work for her not to say "I can't... Daniel, I love you!", but rather something like "I can't... I won't harm him the way he has harmed me. But I made a deal, so take my life if you must." That way, Ti Moune stops playing the gods' game, and both gods lose their callous bet: Ti Moune's love (rightly) hasn't survived, but she has also (rightly) not brought death to Daniel. This would be further removed from the novel, but perhaps more suited to the hopeful tone of the musical; what should bring hope is the survival of Ti Moune's goodness, not of her love for an a$$hole.

(I do like the show by the way, most days; I just think it has its flaws.)