Sunday, January 9, 2011

IT DOES MEAN WE'D BE SPARED LEA MICHELE AS ELPHABA: While Wicked: The Movie Musical remains in turnaround (finding names with the right look and vocal range for the leads who are in the right age range and who are big enough to support the budget that'd be needed is going to be tricky--best I can do at the moment is Anne Hathaway or Mandy Moore as Elphaba and Reese Witherspoon as Galinda), ABC and Salma Hayek are apparently pursuing the concept of an 8-hour non-musical miniseries based on the book. The book is a lot darker, more complex, and heavier on the political metaphor than the movie, and makes Elphaba the clear protagonist, unlike the musical, where Glinda is a co-lead. Not sure if I'm sold on this as an idea, and the casting Michael Ausiello proposes at the link is godawful (love me some Heather Morris on Glee, but no, this is not the right part for her), but would certainly mean HBO would have some competition in all those Emmy categories we've suggested could be abolished.

12 comments:

  1. isaac_spaceman7:59 PM

    Let's wait until we see the product before declaring it an Emmy contender.  Salma Hayek had a decent turn on 30 Rock and exec-produced a show that had a brief run of critical, popular, and award success (Ugly Betty), but I wouldn't put her in the same category as the HBO heavyweights (Spielberg, Hanks, Simon) in terms of guaranteeing a miniseries nomination. 

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  2. It's almost guaranteed several nominations just by virtue of being a miniseries, the lead role is undeniably juicy, and even if the miniseries were awful, I expect the tech stuff (effects, production design, score, etc.) would be high-tier.

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  3. But, as the NYT reminds us, there is no statistical correlation between movie stars and movie success:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/business/media/28cast.html?pagewanted=all

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  4. calliekl8:44 PM

    I was seriously bored through most of the book. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was much better, imho.

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  5. Because it's a BBC/Starz co-production, I believe "Torchwood: Miracle Day" will be eligible for Emmys either at the 2011 or 2012 ceremony, depending on when it airs--judging from what we know, Barrowman and Bill Pullman could be acting contenders.  "Children of Earth" wouldn't have beaten "The Pacific," but it would have been a worthy nomination, and John Barrowman and some of the tech stuff at least should have gotten in.  (Because it was a BBC primary production, it wasn't eligble.)

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  6. gretchen11:34 PM

    Does Wicked-the-Musical not have an exclusive right to adaptations of the book?

    Like Callie, I did not like Wicked-The-Book.

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  7. Heather K12:28 AM

    Hayak also produced/nurtured into existence the movie Frida. So it isn't like she is a total hack.

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  8. KCosmo9:20 AM

    Having just seen Wicked yesterday for the the first time in some years (Cosmo Girl's inaugural foray), i was reminded of the degree to which Wicked the Musical improved on Wicked the Book.  The plot made sense, everything was connected, all those other things one likes in a plot . . .

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  9. Genevieve10:55 AM

    Yes, that was one of those cases where I strongly felt it should've had a win for Adaptation, as it improved hugely on the source material. 

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  10. isaac_spaceman11:03 AM

    Didn't say she was a hack, or even that she wasn't a smart creative type.  Just said she's not Spielberg/Hanks/Simon, which I don't think is a particularly controversial opinion. 

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  11. The book for Wicked is really good, but the book it lost to (Avenue Q) is also pretty darn good.  The problem that year was that the best parts of the Wicked score ("For Good" and "Defying Gravity") are better than anything in the "Q" score, but the Wicked score also has more than a few misses (the material for the Wizard, "Dancing Through Life"), while Q is solid throughout.

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  12. Natalie11:49 AM

    Thank God! The musical is a mes of sugar and spice niceities. I hope they get as dark as possible on network TV and try to get this right.

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