Wicked Movie

When it was released I went down to the BFI where they were holding a talk about the making of the Les Mis film with the director Tom Hopper, Claude Michelle Schoberg and the sound recordist. It was explained that in the book Valjean has three life changing moments; the first where he turns his life around for God, the second when he not only get Cossette from the Thenardiers and realised the responsibility of his actions in doing so and the third is when he has confessed his secret to Marius and knows that Cossette is happily married and asks God to take him.

The first and last were covered in the existing musical, the second wasn't and that's the reason it was included.

And whether is stuck out like a sore thumb is a matter of opinion. (Maybe) because everyone is so familiar with all of the existing songs that the introduction of a new one caught them off guard.

My point exactly! Millions of people have listened to their Les Mis recordings for 30 years, they know it like the back of their hand, and all of a sudden a huge curve ball is thrown in. It jarred. 

Meryl would be amazing, so too would Helena Bonham-Carter!

I do think Lea Michelle would be a great Elphaba, she's got to be a serious contender where she has the voice and the A List fan following which the producer will no doubt look for... There aren't many people (movie celebs) who can sing that role!

MERYL! MERYL! MERYL!

LEA! LEA! LEA! 


Shrill, annoying soprano you mean? Warbling like a budgie peering through a bog-brush? Well yeah I suppose she certainly has those qualities. Is she funny though? It needs humour and she doesn't strike me as that type. 

Rebel Wilson as Glinda! If she can't hit the high notes they can Marni Nixon it.

YES to Julianne!

No I think she is a very good actress - in Mamma Mia she was great as Sophie. She also has a good signing voice. Okay there could be maybe better actresses for the humour part but I don't think she would be a bad choice

Amanda Seyfried can do comedy, am I the only person who's seen Mean Girls?

Yes true, Baemax!! She's very pretty too so would make a good Glinda - looks wise.

I think it would be brilliant to do a movie with people who are the best for the role with minimal celebs and star names.

Otherwise it will go down the Les Mis route where Crow couldn't sing and it was obvious who were the musical singers and who weren't (in my opinion Jackman and his harsh face and sound should have been Javert)

Oh that show would have been different had they cast SINGERS! It's the same for wicked please.

The difference is Mamma Mia works with names because it's a fun, silly movie. Plus Meryl, Julie and Christine are all seasoned stage performers and know how to use what they have to great effect.

The difficulty with Wicked is that it's so theatrical and written for the stage. Those huge belty numbers are perfect on stage but on film, it takes work to do those moments well as well as getting performers who can do those roles justice vocally. Elphaba and Glinda were written to be performed by musical theatre performers and even MT performers can struggle to sustain those roles.

I could see Wicked being phenomenal, it has that potential, but I could also see it failing massively

So was 'Evita' and that score (and essentially the entire film) was adapted to fit Madonna - convincing people that she was a much better singer and actress than she actually was (she's pretty average at both).

They can easily do the same for 'Wicked'. So long as they have some flashy sets, some special effects and a cast that can hold a tune they'll be able to make it a passable film. The actors won't be performing it in the same way as the theatre actors, they'll have numerous takes, a professionally recorded soundtrack and a whole host of gizmos and gadgets in the recording studio and editing suite to put together a performance that does the 'Wicked' score some kind of justice.