McG Goes Musical With 'Spring Awakening'
Filed under: Drama, Music & Musicals, Deals, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Politics
The short-but-sweet McG wants to return to his music man days, and get in on Hugh Jackman's Musical Renaissance ... and he's going to take the edgier route to get there. According to The Hollywood Reporter, McG is bringing Broadway's Spring Awakening to the big screen with help from its original creators Steven Sater and Duncan Shiek. Based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 play, the rock musical follows a group of 19th century German teenagers as they discover their sexuality, and deal with the hot button topics of masturbation, abortion, rape, sexual abuse, and suicide. The play was banned Wedekind's native land, and played once in New York in 1917, though it narrowly escaped being shut down for being poronographic.
Despite the risky content, the 2006 musical adaptation fared a lot better. It was a critical and box office success, and took home a ton of Tony awards, including best musical, best book, best original score and best actor.
The project isn't set up at a studio yet, but it might find a home at Warner Bros where McG has a first-look deal. But a musical with masturbating characters might prove too edgy for any studio, forcing the director to take the indie route. It's an interesting project for him to take on given his fondness for splashy blockbusters ... is he going to grow up and go all serious on us?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-14-2009 @ 9:55AM
David Fendley said...
I have high hopes for McG. This shows me even more that he is a serious director and not the next Michael Bay.
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4-14-2009 @ 11:40AM
Ryan said...
Saw this on Broadway.
YES PLEASE on the movie.
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4-14-2009 @ 3:49PM
garettap said...
Definitely!
Reply
4-14-2009 @ 5:10PM
Jonathan Kuhn said...
I've got nothing against McG, but he shouldn't make this movie. I think it would be really difficult to make this show into a successful movie. There's hardly anything to the story. It's all about the music (which is great), but it's hard to make the music as exciting when it's not live.
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