If “Wicked” had been one movie as originally planned, the subplot involving all the animals of Oz and the backstory on the magical book the Grimmerie were due to be left on the cutting room floor. Instead, Winnie Holzman — who wrote the book for the stage musical and co-wrote the screenplay for the smash-hit “Wicked” film — said that by expanding the adaptation into two parts, they now “have room for everything.”
Holzman pulled back the curtain on the long process of turning “Wicked” into a movie during TheWrap’s “Art of Adaptation” panel at Power Women Summit on Tuesday in Los Angeles alongside producer Lucy Fisher (whose “Gladiator II” is currently in theaters), producer Nina Jacobson (the “Hunger Games” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” franchises) and actress Ariana Madix (a recent revival of “Chicago”) for one powerhouse conversation.
The first part of “Wicked” is in theaters now and has amassed a whopping $365.9 million worldwide and counting, with the second part following in theaters next Thanksgiving. And while the first film has a running time that is almost equal to the entire stage musical’s run time, the decision to split the show into two movies has been far from a deterrent for audiences.
“It didn’t start out as two movies. Long, long ago it was going to be one movie,” Holzman explained. “It made a lot of sense to us at the time. We wanted very much not to cut any songs because we were fans and we love those songs. In fact, Stephen [Schwartz] wanted to write more songs. We wanted to go into more depth and add to the experience and give more. That was part of the fun of turning it into a movie.”
Holzman continued: “There were things we thought of when we were making the musical that you couldn’t do on stage. When we were adding it up – not wanting the songs to be cut, wanting to explore… The show, we go lickety-split. Things go by in a flash.”
Among the things that they wanted to explore further were the Grimmerie (a magic spell book in the world of Oz), the role of animals in the story and, according to Holzman, “the two women themselves.” “All of that takes so much real estate,” Holzman said, “We started to come to an organic understanding about the story.”
It dawned on them that if they split the story into two movies, “we have room for everything we wanted. That was amazing freedom.” Holzman credits Universal for having the confidence to make two films. And Holzman said that the creative team had to find that confidence within themselves, as well.
“You want to feel this inner motivation. I was putting this out there in a good faith way and I believe in this, in terms of whatever happens with it being two [films], our whole creative team felt like it was the right decision,” Holzman said. “It felt good.”
Fisher, who has adapted everything from “The Great Gatsby” to the “Divergent” series, remembered an interaction with author Tom Wolfe. At the time, Fisher was vice president of worldwide production at Warner Bros. and the studio had mounted an ill-fated adaptation of Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities” (a debacle beautifully captured in Julie Salamon’s delicious book “The Devil’s Candy”). “Tom Wolfe said, ‘Hey, when you sell your house, you don’t get to drive by and say you don’t like the curtains,’” Fisher remembered. She added that, when adapting something, you’re in it for the long haul. “Another thing that, as I get older, is – am I going to still love it in 5 years or 10 years when I am still trying to get things made?” Fisher said.
“I don’t know that it’s ever really one thing,” Jacobson, who throughout her career has been known for gutsy adaptations – everything from “The Hunger Games” book series by Suzanne Collins to “American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson” — said of what makes a great adaptation.
“For me, to quote a book I just read, it’s a book that sets your heart on fire. Or you pick it up, you cannot put it down, you can’t let go of it, you don’t want to leave it. Anybody who interrupts you, you wish they would go away,” Jacobson said about finding the right material. “And when you put it down, it stays with you. It leaves a mark. It doesn’t happen very often. It’s a feeling. It just takes you by storm. For me, often that comes down to – is there something I want? Is there something I feel? If there’s a strong sense of both of those things, it’s usually pretty good. Does it deserve space in the universe? Is it worthy of communal viewing? Is it long form? Is it short form?”
For Madix, who is essaying Roxy Hart in “Chicago,” she was struck by the character when she first saw Rob Marshall’s Oscar-winning movie and of course saw the stage show, but wanted to make sure she had proper distance. “I was being very careful to not take on too many of those things,” Madix said. “Otherwise it feels like you’re just trying to fill someone else’s shoes.”
The key for Madix was during the rehearsal process, where she really got to dig into the character. “It was important to me to find my Roxy and who Roxy is. As time went on … in the beginning you’re trying to figure out how to do it right. As time goes on you find yourself morphing into this person,” Madix said. “You want to take care of this character. She can be quite the villain. But it was important to me to not fall into those traps. It was about the humanity, about her connection to other people on stage and her desire to survive. That’s something that her and I have – a determination to survive and succeed.”
This is the type of determination all of the panelists, when faced with the daunting task of adapting another piece of media, certainly had to find in themselves.
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