海角大神

Disney鈥檚 live-action release聽聽is a revisionist take on the聽Sleeping Beauty聽fairy tale, which tells the centuries-old story from the perspective of its traditional antagonist 鈥� and thus, reveals more about her backstory, as well as聽, so as to paint the sorceress as a more complex and sympathetic figure (making her a tragic villain, in essence).

The project has (fairly) prompted many a comparison to聽: the hit Broadway stage musical 鈥� adapted from the Gregory Maguire 苍辞惫别濒听Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West聽鈥� that explores in depth the shared history of the Witches of Oz, as filtered through the experiences of the most famous 鈥渆vil鈥� one.

Walt Disney Pictures, as it were, has offered its own alternate (and聽farless satisfying) spin on the Wicked Witch of the West鈥檚 origins in the film聽, but now a proper cinematic version of the聽Wicked聽story 鈥� in musical form 鈥� appears to be slowly, but surely, lurching forward. This project would not be based on the Maguire book either, unlike聽听迟丑补迟 ABC started developing a few years ago (but which, for the time being, has yet to come to fruition).

Stephen Schwartz, who created the music/lyrics for聽Wicked聽-聽in addition to having worked on Disney animated musicals like聽The Hunchback of Notre Dame聽and the live-action/animated princess comedy/satire聽Enchanted聽鈥� provided the following update on a Wicked movie to聽:

鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to do some work on it. We鈥檝e actually started gearing up on it a little bit鈥β營 don鈥檛 know exactly how many years away it is. What are we going to change? What are we going to keep? How do you use a whole new language and medium to tell the story? [We can] really look at it again and say, 鈥極h, we can do this, and we鈥檝e always wanted to do that and we couldn鈥檛 onstage, but we can in a movie.鈥� We鈥檙e actually having a blast.鈥�

Celebrated Broadway alum Idina Menzel (fresh off voicing Elsa and singing the Oscar-winning 鈥淟et It Go鈥� tune from聽) starred in the original run of聽Wicked聽as Elphaba: a young woman whose green complexion makes her an outsider, even after she forms a friendship with Glinda during their early school years 鈥� before ideological differences drive the pair apart and lead them to adapt their more famous Wicked Witch/Good Witch personas. The Broadway musical won three Tony Awards during its initial production and celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2013 (making it one of the top 15 longest-running Broadway shows of all time).

罢丑别听Wicked聽stage musical book was written by Winnie Holzman, who also created the cult 1990s drama series聽My So-Called Life聽(starring young Clare Danes and Jared Leto). Much like the聽聽stage musical writers聽Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Sch枚nberg assisted in bringing that show to the big screen, it seems logical for Holzman to likewise be a key player in refashioning her聽Wicked聽play book as a screenplay for a full-length film treatment.

Wicked聽certainly lends itself to a movie adaptation, between its setting 鈥� a rendition of the magical land of Oz that is聽just聽different enough than聽聽鈥� and its 鈥渟ympathy for the villain鈥� approach, which is very much in fashion for storytellers right now.聽

Sandy Schaefer blogs at .