Isn’t this information fantastic? After almost 10 years of improvement, the long-awaited movie adaptation of Broadway’s Wicked is making headway because it lastly landed its stars, director and potential begin dates.
The musical, a longtime Great White Way staple since its debut in 2004, has gone by means of loads of discussions and adjustments relating to a possible movie model after it was beforehand revealed in July 2012 that Universal hoped to adapt it for the large display.
The present, based mostly on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, tells the interconnected story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch lengthy earlier than Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale dropped in. In the prequel, the two aspiring witches meet whereas college students at Shiz University, navigating friendship, romance, magical coaching and studying to embrace their very own identities.
By 2012, Deadline reported that Stephen Daldry was in consideration to direct the big-screen occasion, nonetheless, by October 2020, he had exited the mission due to scheduling conflicts. In February 2021, it was confirmed that John M. Chu — recent off the success of directing Crazy Rich Asians and In The Heights — had been tapped to lead the musical adaptation.
“Most of my life I have felt out of place, weird and different,” Chu wrote by way of Instagram at the time, sharing a screenshot of the information. “I hid behind my camera because people liked to be filmed and I could disappear. I used my short films to wow people so I could feel valued. I felt GREEN in all the ways. But when I saw Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s WICKED over 15 years ago as it was being workshopped in San Francisco I couldn’t unsee it. So to think that I have been invited to bring this timeless story to the biggest screens all around the world for people to experience with their family, best friends and total strangers … of all walks of life, ages, shapes and colors is like I’ve been invited to Oz by the Wizard himself.”
After a prolonged casting course of, the filmmaker introduced by way of the social media platform in November 2021 that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo had landed the roles of Galinda and Elphaba, respectively.
“These two witches!!,” he captioned his Instagram snap, alongside screenshots from FaceTime calls with the two songstresses. “The emotional moment I got to tell @cynthiaerivo and @arianagrande that they were our Elphaba and Galinda in the @WickedMovie for @unistudios 😭😭😭wait until you see what they bring!! It is other worldly. Ahhhhh!!!”
The viral casting information quickly gained the consideration of the OG Elphaba, Idina Menzel, who wrote by way of Instagram, “Congrats to two amazing women. May it change your lives for the better forever and ever as it has for us. So much love. @cynthiaerivo @arianagrande 💚💖.”
The Rent actress, who starred reverse Kristin Chenoweth throughout the unique Broadway run, reunited with the Oklahoma native throughout the 2021 Tony Awards that September, the place they sang an emotional rendition of “For Good” from the manufacturing.
Keep scrolling to discover out every thing we all know to date about the extremely anticipated Wicked motion pictures:
Credit: Rob Latour/Shutterstock
‘Wicked’: Everything to Know About the Ariana Grande-Led Films Based on the Broadway Musical
Isn’t this information fantastic? After almost 10 years of improvement, the long-awaited movie adaptation of Broadway’s Wicked is making headway because it lastly landed its stars, director and potential begin dates.
The musical, a longtime Great White Way staple since its debut in 2004, has gone by means of loads of discussions and adjustments relating to a possible movie model after it was beforehand revealed in July 2012 that Universal hoped to adapt it for the large display.
The present, based mostly on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, tells the interconnected story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch lengthy earlier than Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale dropped in. In the prequel, the two aspiring witches meet whereas college students at Shiz University, navigating friendship, romance, magical coaching and studying to embrace their very own identities.
By 2012, Deadline reported that Stephen Daldry was in consideration to direct the big-screen occasion, nonetheless, by October 2020, he had exited the mission due to scheduling conflicts. In February 2021, it was confirmed that John M. Chu — recent off the success of directing Crazy Rich Asians and In The Heights — had been tapped to lead the musical adaptation.
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“Most of my life I’ve felt misplaced, bizarre and completely different,” Chu wrote by way of Instagram at the time, sharing a screenshot of the information. “I hid behind my camera because people liked to be filmed and I could disappear. I used my short films to wow people so I could feel valued. I felt GREEN in all the ways. But when I saw Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s WICKED over 15 years ago as it was being workshopped in San Francisco I couldn’t unsee it. So to think that I have been invited to bring this timeless story to the biggest screens all around the world for people to experience with their family, best friends and total strangers … of all walks of life, ages, shapes and colors is like I’ve been invited to Oz by the Wizard himself.”
After a prolonged casting course of, the filmmaker introduced by way of the social media platform in November 2021 that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo had landed the roles of Galinda and Elphaba, respectively.
“These two witches!!,” he captioned his Instagram snap, alongside screenshots from FaceTime calls with the two songstresses. “The emotional moment I got to tell @cynthiaerivo and @arianagrande that they were our Elphaba and Galinda in the @WickedMovie for @unistudios 😭😭😭wait until you see what they bring!! It is other worldly. Ahhhhh!!!”
The viral casting information quickly gained the consideration of the OG Elphaba, Idina Menzel, who wrote by way of Instagram, “Congrats to two amazing women. May it change your lives for the better forever and ever as it has for us. So much love. @cynthiaerivo @arianagrande 💚💖.”
The Rent actress, who starred reverse Kristin Chenoweth throughout the unique Broadway run, reunited with the Oklahoma native throughout the 2021 Tony Awards that September, the place they sang an emotional rendition of “For Good” from the manufacturing.
Keep scrolling to discover out every thing we all know to date about the extremely anticipated Wicked motion pictures:
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The Stars
It was introduced in November 2021 that the Harriet star and the “Positions” singer had landed the spectacular roles of Elphaba and Galinda, roles which had been originated by Menzel and Chenoweth on Broadway.
The casting information even fulfilled the Florida native’s long-held desires after she tweeted in 2011, “Loved seeing Wicked again… amazing production! Made me realize again how badly I want 2 play Glinda at some point in my life! #DreamRole.”
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The Director
The Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker was enlisted to helm the mission in February 2021, writing by way of Instagram, “Thank you Marc Platt, Stephen [Schwartz], Winnie [Holzman] and Universal Pictures for trusting in me to translate this incredible story for all the fans and future fans of Elphaba and Glinda. I will protect this vigorously and hopefully bring a few new surprises along the way.”
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Production Dates
The movie is slated to start manufacturing in June 2022 in the U.Ok., in accordance to an October 2021 report from The Hollywood Reporter.
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Making Plans
The In the Heights director beforehand teased his work on the musical throughout a June 2021 interview with Collider.
“Yes, of course, we’re going to have Oz, and you’re going to be in this crazy world, and you’re going to revisit this innocent place and you’re going to see that it’s not as innocent as it had been in the past,” Chu advised the outlet. “But you are additionally going to see that the relationship between these two girls [Elphaba and Glinda] is extra actual than ever, that we’re going to be that shut to them. We’re going to root for them to strive to get into that college or when one crosses the different. You’re going to hate the different one in some unspecified time in the future. You’re going to need them to make up at one other level, and you are going to really feel once they separate. That’s the most essential factor. The spectacle? That’s the simple half, we are able to rent lots of people to try this. It’s these little moments … That’s what is going on to make that.”
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Getting Musical
The unique musical songs — together with the likes of “Popular,” “Defying Gravity” and “One Short Day” — have turn out to be classics in their very own proper. However, composer Steven Schwartz revealed his intentions to pen “at least two” new songs for the filmed model.
Schwartz advised Variety in May 2017 that there are “new songs planned” and the film received’t be a precise duplicate of the Broadway present. “There are things that work on stage but won’t work on film. In order to do something that will work on its own merits, you have to do something different,” he said at the time. “The only concern is people who would be coming expecting to see a filmed version of the play. They’re not going to see that.”
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James Corden Scandal
More than 30,000 followers signed a Change.org petition begging Universal Pictures not to solid James Corden, who just lately appeared in the Cats film, in the film adaptation. “James Corden in no way shape or form should be in or near the production of Wicked the movie,” the petition, hoping for 50,000 signatures, reads. “That’s pretty much it.”
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A Long Time Coming
Following the musical’s acclaim inside its early Broadway run, Platt and Universal began growing a movie mission almost a decade earlier than Grande and Erivo’s casting was introduced. The Daldry-directed flick was initially scheduled to premiere in December 2019 earlier than additional delays set the mission again.
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Getting Musical
Erivo teased certainly one of her Wicked character’s most iconic duets throughout a March 2022 look on The Late Late Show With James Corden. She sang a rendition of “For Good” with an worker of the CBS speak present throughout a spherical of “Instant, Mystery Duets.”
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Will She Be Green-ified?
“I haven’t seen myself as Elphaba yet,” Erivo advised Entertainment Tonight in April 2022. “We’re sort of trying to decide, like, how green we’re gonna go and, like, what the stages are and whether or not it changes as she changes. [John Chu is] really open to making this as creative as we possibly can. He asked me at one point if I wanted to be actually green or CGI green and I was like, ‘I’d like to actually be green because I’m not sure that the CGI will sit the way you need it to sit.’ I want it to still feel like it’s my skin.”
She added: “I will feel like I’m playing this character [with green-painted skin] as opposed to looking at myself as I am now and then they fill in the green. I think it will help me perform because I will know when I look at my hands, I’ll see someone who is green.”
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Two Movies
Chu introduced in April 2022 that the movie adaptation could be cut up into two motion pictures.
“Here’s what occurred: As we ready the manufacturing over the final yr, it grew to become not possible to wrestle the story of WICKED right into a single movie with out performing some actual harm to it,” the director wrote in a press release by way of Twitter. “As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one WICKED movie but TWO!!!! With more space, we can tell the story of WICKED as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters.”
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Release Dates
The first Wicked film will hit theaters in December 2024 and the second will premiere in December 2025, Chu confirmed in April 2022. Exact dates haven’t been launched.
Credit: Courtesy of Cynthia Erivo/Instagram (2)
Behind-the-Scenes Love
Before kicking off filming, Erivo and Grande have proved they’re already as shut as Elphie and Galinda. The Tony Award winner posted a candy July 2022 Instagram video through which the pair embraced after her Royal Albert Hall live performance in London.
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Singing Her Heart Out
In September 2022, Erivo opened up about the challenges of recording a few of the musical’s iconic songs for the large display. “I’ve been listening to it, and I’ve sung it. I kind of just go with it naturally,” she advised Entertainment Weekly about making ready to report “Defying Gravity,” Wicked‘s most well-known quantity. “There’s the temptation to push and to do too much with it. I don’t know that that’s what my method will be. I think my method will be to communicate the meaning of the song as much as I can.”
Credit: Brett D. Cove/Splash News
Ready to Dance Through Life
Chu confirmed in September 2022 that Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey would be part of the solid as main man Fiyero.
“He’s perfect, they’re perfect. They’d be perfect together. Born to be forever….. I am too excited to pretend this hasn’t been happening. We have a Fiyero,” the director excitedly tweeted at the time, shortly earlier than Bailey and Grande applauded the information by way of their respective Instagrams.
Credit: Courtesy of Ariana Grande/Instagram
Pink and Green Besties
“I love you @cynthiaerivo,” the “Dangerous Woman” singer captioned a September 2022 Instagram Story of the two girls’s dancing footwear. While Grande’s Galinda wore delicate pink ballet slippers, Erivo opted for black slip-ons and inexperienced socks.
Credit: Courtesy of Cynthia Erivo/Instagram
Rehearsals in Progress
“Somewhere in Oz,” Erivo captioned an October 2022 selfie along with her fellow Wicked witch.
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From Broadway to Boq
Ethan Slater, finest identified for his Tony-nominated position of SpongeBob SquarePants, is ready to play Shiz University scholar Boq (and Nessarose’s eventual love curiosity) on the large display.
“@EthanSlater it is an honor to have you attending [Shiz University],” Chu gushed by way of Instagram Story in December 2022. “I’ve been a giant fan of yours for a very long time and I can’t watch for the world to see you bringing Boq to life!”
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