The long yellow brick road to Broadway musical Wicked finding its way to the silver screen has just gotten one step closer as producer Marc Platt (Into the Woods) told Film Divider that the movie is eyeing a 2016 release. Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Daldry (The Hours) will direct.
The site previously-reported that Vue Cinemas’ CEO Tim Richards mentioned the film as a highlight of the 2016 release calendar, and Daldry’s name has been in the mix since 2012, but Platt responded with a resounding “yes” to the rumor, adding that, “it’s not set in stone. The process of developing that movie has begun, we’re working on it, and whether it makes 2016 or not, I’m not so sure.”
“2016 is the goal, but I don’t know whether we’ll make that goal or not,” Platt continued. “We will make the movie, but like I said, 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, okay. 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. It took 27 years to make ‘Into the Woods’ into a film from its original stage production, and 30 years with ‘Les Mis.’ Some things take time for a reason.”
Platt also confirmed that Winnie Holzman, best known for writing the book for Stephen Schwartz’s musical, is in the process of fashioning her work into a screenplay for the Wicked movie.
Prior to becoming a globally touring smash as well as one of the longest-running shows on Broadway, Platt was originally developing Gregory Maguire’s novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” for the big screen until Universal Pictures decided to take it to The Great White Way first in 2003. An alternate retelling of L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wizard of Oz,” Wicked follows two opposing witches–Elphaba and Glinda the Good– from their first meeting in college to Elphaba’s ultimate downfall and transformation into the Wicked Witch of the West.
