The movie adaptation of the wildly popular musical Wicked has been in development for a long time. With scores of young girls belting out “Defying Gravity” for over ten years, it is an inevitability the film version will get made. One of the producers of the film adaptation is Marc Platt, who is enjoying some success at the moment as one of the producers of Into the Woods, which had the largest opening for any Broadway musical adaptation ever.
In a recent interview with Film Divider, Platt talked about the status of the long gestating film, stating that they have a “loose goal” of getting Wicked into theaters in 2016.
It’s a loose goal. But the bar is very high for the creators of Wicked. Our show is still so strong everywhere, and we just set a record in both London and Edinburgh last week, and in Los Angeles, and we did on Broadway. Audiences enjoy that show so much that we are intending to move forward on the movie but aren’t going to do so until we’re satisfied in the material we have as a screenplay, and that the film will be every bit as satisfying as what we have on the stage.
Winnie Holzman, who wrote the book of the show adapted from Gregory Maguire‘s novel, is writing the screenplay. Stephen Daldry is still signed on to direct.
Platt is not in a rush to get the film out though, knowing it takes a long time to get something on screen.
It took 27 years to make Into the Woods into a film from its original stage production, and 30 years with Les Mis. Some things take time for a reason.
I, for one, could wait forever to see this movie. Wicked is far from one of my favorite shows, and I could think of plenty of shows I would rather see adapted for the screen before this one, such as these. But the stuff I want to see does not have the name recognition Wicked does. Oh, well…
Original report from Film Divider.
