wicked Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What do you do after vampires become the hottest thing since sliced bread? You get werewolves. And when you need to break beyond that? Witches, of course! Variety reports that DreamWorks has grabbed its own potential teen romance phenomenon by grabbing the rights to Wicked, a young adult series by Nancy Holder (of Buffy book fame) and Debbie Viguie. (To be adapted by brothers Aaron and Matthew Benay.)

Having nothing to do with the popular musical, Wicked follows a young girl who movies in with her aunt and cousins after her parents are killed in an accident. Soon her grief is sidelined by witchy occurrences, like whispering secrets to her cat and watching them come true. And then, well then there's the romance. Rather than being town between a cold and sparkly vamp or warm and furry paramour, she's mesmerized by a boy who turns out to be in a rival coven.

I'm surprised they didn't turn to L.J. Smith and her The Secret Circle trilogy, considering the popularity The Vampire Diaries has had on television. But then again, this other series takes place in Seattle, so Twihards can pretend this is going on alongside Bella and Edward's adventures. At the very least, I like that the ever rampant teen musicals seem to be giving way to less song and dance fare. Now if we could only get more brains with the romance and supernatural fervor...

It wasn't too long ago that I was talking about how Jersey Boys should be adapted for the big screen. In that same post (and in another one as well), I said how Wicked was one of Broadway's best (if not the best) and yet it still hadn't gone the movie-musical route. Fans of the musical finally have a chance to rejoice, however, because Variety tells us that as part of producer Marc Platt's (Wanted) new, extended five-year contract with Universal, he'll be working on a movie version of Wicked, along with a sequel to Wanted and a remake of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.

Here's what Uni's production president Donna Langley had to say about Wicked: "Our goal now is absolutely to make the 'Wicked' film, but much like Judy Craymer wouldn't give up screen rights to 'Mamma Mia!' until the stage show had reached its pinnacle, Marc and Stephen Schwartz are very mindful of the right timing. But we're dying to do it." Wicked, for those not in the know, is based on the best-selling novel about the two witches in the Land of Oz -- Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North -- and is set mostly before The Wizard of Oz, kinda like a prequel. It'd also be an interesting adaptation because there's that fantasy element that hasn't really been present in the last round of movie-musicals; thus, I'll be curious to see how they pull this one off.

What say you? Is it time for Wicked to hit the big screen? Down for Wanted 2? Itching for more Jesus Christ Superstar?

So after what's felt like a gazillion years, I finally managed to catch Jersey Boys on Broadway last night ... and all I could think about the entire time was why this hasn't been turned into a movie yet. (But in a good way.) In the past few years, we've had Chicago, Rent, Hairspray and The Producers, with Mamma Mia and Nine on the horizon. Where's Jersey Boys? The damn show gets a standing ovation every night, not to mention it's got a great story, great characters and, well, fantastic music. It'd be like Goodfellas: The Musical -- and something like that would probably rake in more cash (from both men and women) than most of these movie-musicals to date.

I haven't had this much fun watching a musical in years; probably since Wicked (which is another one that needs to hit the big screen at some point). But when I sat there, picturing how they could adapt each scene and make it really work on the big screen, one annoying issue kept beating me over the head: Who in the world do you cast? Since Hollywood is all about sticking names in these sorts of roles, you'd need four young guys who not only can sing (Valli gets UP there), but also come with thick Jersey accents. Off the top of my head, I don't know of any young, Hollywood stars who fit the bill. MAYBE Zac Efron, but he might be a tad too young ... and I've never seen him do a tough, Jersey accent (honestly, I don't know if I want to ...)