We couldn’t be happier! Finally, we have received some news about the long-awaited, highly anticipated film adaptation of the Broadway musical phenomenon Wicked. According to Deadline, John M. Chu, acclaimed director of the award winning film Crazy Rich Asians (2018), will sit in the director’s chair for this musical movie event. Chu is also the director of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s In The Heights, which had an initial release for Summer 2020 but due to COVID-19 has been delayed to June 2021.
Wicked is a three-time Tony Award-winning stage musical, adapted from Gregory Maguire’s bestselling novel and composed by Stephen Schwartz, who has musically contributed to many animated films like Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and Enchanted (2007). Marc Platt, producer of Academy-Award Winning Musical Motion Picture La La Land (2016) will produce this film, as well as future musical adaptations Dear Evan Hansen and Oliver Twist.
Wicked lost its previous director, Stephen Daldry, in October 2020 despite his name being attached to this project since 2012, claiming that the film was moving at a quicker pace than Daldry was comfortable with. Universal Pictures confirmed that the film is planned for an 2022, already pushed back from its initial late 2021 release (but maybe the best things are worth the longest wait!)
According to Deadline, John M. Chu left the original Disney+ series Willow recently due to delayed production due to COVID-19, and therefore his diary is now more open for an alternate and equally exciting fantasy fictional land. As this film has undergone multiple delays, the news is all the more pleasing as this proves that production is finally moving forward… Thank goodness!
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