"Wicked" the movie is starting to take shape, and the dream cast includes One Direction frontman Harry Styles and Glee actress Lea Michele. Billy Elliot's Stephen Daldry is rumored to direct the movie adaptation of the Broadway hit musical.New York Magazine spoke with Stephen Schwartz, the Wicked composer, and he said about the possible movie adaptation, "We're starting to do some work on it. We've actually started gearing up on it a little bit."
"Wicked" is a new take on the classic Wizard of Oz story, written by Gregory Maguire in his 1995 satirical novel of the same name. The Broadway musical broke box-office records both on Broadway and in London, where it has been showing at the Apollo Victoria Theater since 2006.
Styles is apparently on top of the producers' wish lists to play the romantic lead role of Fiyero. A source told the Sun, "Moviemakers see him as a new Zac Efron and think he would be a perfect casting for a movie musical. He is top of the Wicked team's wishlist to play the romantic lead role of Fiyero." Lea Michele, who has been nominated for both Golden Globes and Emmys for her role as Rachel Berry on Glee, performed Wicked's hit song "Defying Gravity" on the Fox TV show; with her singing and acting chops, she would make a great fit for the movie adaptation. Whatsonstage.com created a list of their dream casting for the musical, which includes Amy Adams as the good witch Glinda, Meryl Streep as headmistress Madame Morrible, Kelsey Grammer as the Wizard and Daniel Radcliffe as the put-upon Boq.
While some initial plans are being made, it's hard to say when the film will actually come out. "I don't know exactly how many years away it is," admitted Schwartz, who's currently pondering how faithful the movie should be to the beloved stage production. "What are we going to change? What are we going to keep? How do you use a whole new language and medium to tell the story? [We can] really look at it again and say, 'Oh, we can do this, and we've always wanted to do that and we couldn't onstage, but we can in a movie.' We're actually having a blast."
Watch Lea Michele sing "Defying Gravity" on Glee here:
