The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Wicked creator Stephen Schwartz, who insists that the movie version is still on the way. Just not as soon as originally anticipated.
“I will tell you 100 percent there will be a movie of Wicked and it won’t be that far away, but it won’t be next year because we’re still writing,” Schwartz said, referring to an announcement made in June that the film adaptation of the popular stage musical would hit theaters in December of 2019.
“That was always a fake date. There wasn’t a prayer in hell,” adds Schwartz.
Schwartz says he and his team are working to bring the musical to the big screen. “I will tell you 100 percent there will be a movie of Wicked and it won’t be that far away but it won’t be next year because we’re still writing. Pre-production hasn’t even begun but that could start in the not-too-distant future.”
Prior to becoming a globally touring smash as well as one of the longest-running shows on Broadway, Platt was originally developing Maguire’s novel for the big screen. 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.
The Wicked movie will be brought to the screen by director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) and producer Marc Platt (Into the Woods, Bridge of Spies). The three time Tony Award winning stage musical was adapted from Gregory Maguire’s bestselling novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by book writer Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life) and three-time Oscar winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin), who are also collaborating on the screenplay adaptation.
The Wicked movie will face off against a still unrevealed live-action fairy tale film from Walt Disney Pictures. Quite a few live-action takes on Disney animated classics are in the works at the studio, but the December 20, 2019 date is, for the time being, just a placeholder set by the studio earlier this year.
Wicked is produced on Broadway by Platt, Universal Stage Productions, the Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.
