06 April 2011

I call it Wonderful

Let's name all the mediums with which a story can be told:
- oral
- books/graphic novels
- film/TV
- stage performance

Quite recently, the same story has been passed around from medium to medium. The Hunger Games is working towards a 2012 movie release. (Are you keeping up with the casting news?) John Scalzi announced a while ago that his book The Old Man's War was signed to be made into a movie. I heard a series by Amanda Hocking was signed for movie production as well. 

It's been a trend in recent years to make movies into musicals. Starting with Disney movies, we have The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. Most recently are the Legally Blonde and Flashdance musicals. Less famously is Young Frankenstein, which was recently in my town but not seen by me, which is why I think of it. Various books were adapted to musicals as well. Les Miserables started as a book, then a musical, then a film (without music). Most famously (for me at least) is The Phantom of the Opera. I practically grew up with this musical, mostly because my mom's such a big fan of listening to the original London cast from start to finish. (I am too for that matter).

And both my mother and I agree that the film adaption for Phantom of the Opera is done very well. Not only are there a few scenes featured in the film that couldn't be covered in the stage play (I'm thinking about the flashforwards to Raoul here), but the acting and the costumes were done very well. 

Chicago is another movie made from a musical. As with The Producers, Oklahoma!, and Grease.

If you haven't noticed, these are all done by live-action actors and actresses. With the exception of Disney in this case the musicals came from animated movies. But what if someone decides to make a hand animation film of an already existing live-action musical?

For all you fans of Wicked, wouldn't this be wonderful? (NOTE: the text below the video is the video description on the actual site and not written by me.)

Dear Stephen Schwartz,

I know you can relate to the plight of loving a story, loving a medium, and trying to convince someone in power to see your vision! You did it with Marc Platt when you convinced him to make it a stage musical. I’m just approaching you with the same sincerity. Is it possible to talk you out of doing a live action movie adaptation? Would you consider doing a traditionally animated adaptation? In my heart I think the musical needs the medium, and I think the medium needs your musical. I just love them both so much and hopefully that shows through in the story reel.

Sincerely,

Heidi Jo Gilbert

5 comments:

  1. Actually "The Producers" was a movie musical then a stage musical and then a movie musical again. Very odd. I've watched the original 1967(ish) movie a couple times and always wonder why they don't just take the money and run during the performance instead of sticking around to get caught.

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  2. I didn't know that about "The Producers". My parents mentioned seeing the stage performance, and I have a friend in love with the movie. So I just assumed.

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  3. Great post! Thanks for the insight. :)

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  4. I think the Hunger Games movie adapatation will probably be sucking canal water something fierce. However, despite it being "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes (which I'm sure it will), it will still generate a gazillion dollars thereby ensuring that the sequels will be made.

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  5. Changing the medium of a story pretty much guarantees changing parts of the story itself. I'm not against making movies into books. I like the Lord of the Rings movies more than I like the book, and the Harry Potter movies aren't half bad. I'm optimistic with the Hunger Games movie because Suzanne Collins herself is writing the screenplay. However, I'm not following the development as closely as EW.com, so I'm not sure how closely she's working with the director to make sure things turn out as she wants. But I can't wait for the movie adaption, personally.

    And the movie business is a business. Of course they think with their pockets. Leave the artistic mumbo-jumbo to the directors. When Quentin Tarantino made "Jackie Brown", he was told to cut the movie by a certain amount of minutes or else he'll end up making $37 million at the box office. He didn't because he didn't want to cut the movie, and he did make that amount of money.

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