Wicked
- Thread starter scottdisick94
- Start date
He/They
What!!!!
The pacing of this will be a mess... traditional stage musicals already suffer due to the makeup of them, and there's only one memorable number in the second act.
You'd think the recent financial failures of Cats, Dear Evan Hansen, In The Heights and West Side Story would keep the studio from making an awful decision like this, especially for a musical with hardly a plot to be found. It honestly only adds to my doubts that this film will ever finally happen.
It’s a very stupid decision. The show being a massive success does not mean the movie will, see: all the examples above. And Cynthia is not well known enough to pull in audiences and Ariana being a big pop star does not automatically equal ticket sales. This movie has seemed doomed ever since it’s been in development hell.
@ Sentimental Man
Such a frustrating decision. This could be an All Time Great 100 - 120 minute tight movie musical with hit after hit and a swift story. The narrative and the visuals lend themselves to film more than most other stage musicals, and they’re squandering the opportunity. I can literally see the 50% on Rotten Tomatoes already, with every review saying that the pacing is off and the story is boring and that it didn’t need two films. Argh!
He/Him
I don’t know if it’s necessary to split. It seems like a bad decision and you know people are going for Defying Gravity, and it’s like… are they going to use that as the ending for the first film? Or make people wait for it?
And so it’s eligible for a Best Song award at the Oscars.
Those failures can be easily factored out because of the pandemic (in three cases) and the relative lack of global recognition for the original musical (in two cases). And of course Ariana doesn't guarantee bums on seats, but she's a hugely successful singer in a role that requires her to sing, meaning she immediately has a lot more going for her in terms of crowd appeal than anyone in In The Heights or West Side Story.
It's still a horrendous decision creatively and a very risky one financially, though.
He/They
The first two are genuinley awful films (with Evan being the worst musical I have ever seen on stage to go with that), and West Side Story had to do a Death On The Nile and do it's best to hide it's problamatic male lead.
In The Heights is amazing though, it should never have flopped, I mean Popular 1 and Popular 2: Flying Broomsticks, will wish they were half as great.
I don't think the male lead being problematic had anything really to do with the fate of West Side Story (or Death On The Nile for that matter, but that's not for here)
I enjoyed In The Heights a lot but it always had a mountain to climb; it's easily the least widely known of any of the examples mentioned, and there are no big names in the cast. Factor in the number of cinemas that were still closed at the time, and the simultaneous release on HBO Max which will have diluted the box office numbers, and you can see the odds were always stacked against it.
This is an odd decision, I really hope it doesn't hurt the quality of the films.
I think West Side Story failed because its target audience (older folks) wasn't comfortable going back to theatres as Omicron was surging so hopefully Wicked won't have that problem. Ansel Elgort is still gross though.
How are they going to drag out an hour long second act into a 2/2 and a half hour film?... This is sounding like a mess
Sounds like an attempt to make more money.
Seems to me like they are pulling stuff from the actual book as well to pad things out, still a weird decision but I will be there to watch both films.
Can't they just turn it into an arena scale spectacle, get Franco Dragone to develop the production and just film that?
Musicals (especially ones based on fantasy) into films are so risky. I always prefer when they film the musical numbers as though it's being performed on stage e.g. Chicago did this very well, Cats should have just used the COSTUMES from the stage show rather than use dodgy CGI etc.
Musicals (especially ones based on fantasy) into films are so risky. I always prefer when they film the musical numbers as though it's being performed on stage e.g. Chicago did this very well, Cats should have just used the COSTUMES from the stage show rather than use dodgy CGI etc.
He/Him
Inshallah this doesn't turn out to be another Cats situation. I'm excited for the film but really hope splitting it into two movies doesn't sacrifice the quality.
I think there were multiple issues around Cats that shouldn't apply here. People have mentioned Wicked being light on plot, but Cats barely has a plot at all and the decision, as @nathanspears says, to use CGI rather than costumes was a hellish miscalculation.
Plus there's the fact that Cats' heyday was long behind it by the time they got round to the film, so it had less resonance with a modern-day audience. Wicked is still running on Broadway, as well as in London where it's the longest running musical that hasn't yet been adapted into a film (Phantom Of The Opera, Les Mis, Mamma Mia) or wasn't already based on one (The Lion King). Not to mention the number of successful tours it's had over the years, plus the songs gaining extra popularity through Glee, covers, talent shows etc. With that level of name recognition plus the Ariana diehards to rely on, it should be a recipe for success but only if it's done right. The decision to split it into two films is already ringing alarm bells on that score.
Plus there's the fact that Cats' heyday was long behind it by the time they got round to the film, so it had less resonance with a modern-day audience. Wicked is still running on Broadway, as well as in London where it's the longest running musical that hasn't yet been adapted into a film (Phantom Of The Opera, Les Mis, Mamma Mia) or wasn't already based on one (The Lion King). Not to mention the number of successful tours it's had over the years, plus the songs gaining extra popularity through Glee, covers, talent shows etc. With that level of name recognition plus the Ariana diehards to rely on, it should be a recipe for success but only if it's done right. The decision to split it into two films is already ringing alarm bells on that score.
It is a bit presumptuous of them to greenlight two installments before seeing how the first would do.
We just haven't had a live-action musical aimed at families without the help of Disney perform well in... ages. Granted, family films are about the only thing getting people into theaters right now, so in theory, this should be another Beauty & The Beast/Aladdin-type performer, but as @Mike mentions, it's just such a massive gamble to take on a production that's been in limbo for ages - and at a time when things remain so uncertain.