A long-gestating big-screen version of the hit stage musical Wicked could see a release as early as 2016, with the acclaimed British director Stephen Daldry taking charge of the cameras.
Producer Marc Platt, who was also behind the stage version, confirmed in an interview with Film Divider that work on developing the movie had begun, with Winnie Holzman, writer of the novelisation of Wicked, at work on a screenplay. Daldry, who studio Universal has been courting since at least 2012, remains attached to the project.
Platt said a 2016 release is the aim, “but I don’t know whether we’ll make that goal or not. We will make the movie, but … the bar is really high. We’re going to scrutinise our work on the screenplay and our prep on the movie, and when we feel like it’s ready, OK. We’re not going to shoot a release date is what I’m saying. It’s in the works, it’s not in a rush.”
Platt, producer of current witchy stage-to-screen adaptation Into the Woods, said it had taken 27 years to bring Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale fable to the big screen, adding: “Some things take time for a reason.”
Wicked, based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is an alternative telling of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and its source novel, L Frank Baum’s 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It examines the story of Oz from the perspective of witches Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda the Good Witch.
Speculation over the film version’s release was sparked when UK cinema chain Vue listed Wicked as a 2016 release. “Our [stage] show is still so strong everywhere,” said Platt, “and we just set a record in both London and Edinburgh last week, and in Los Angeles, and we did [the same] 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.”
Wicked would be the second riff on The Wizard of Oz to arrive on the big screen in recent years, following Disney prequel Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013. Sam Raimi’s film was a box-office success, grossing $493m worldwide, despite lukewarm reviews.
