So Tim Burton, once he is finished his version of Alice in Wonderland, is going to film Sleeping Beauty. His twist ('cause everybody needs a twist nowadays) is that it will be from the evil fairy Malficent's perspective.
Ahem... Wicked much?
Look, I know Wicked isn't the first piece of pop culture to take a 'What If?' approach to a beloved fairy tale. Nor is is the best. The book suffers from a having a second half that is virtually un-readable, while the show has a similar problem by being incredibly front-loaded with its best songs.
I don't reflexively hate this idea. I have always thought Maleficent is a fantastic villainess. But I don't really care why she is evil, and she certainly doesn't have the impact on pop culture that the Wicked Witch of the West does.
But Wicked is still insanely popular. It has a huge amount of potential to be re-fashioned for the screen in a leaner, funnier and more intense way. Crikey, Glee spent almost an entire episode promoting Lea Michelle as the perfect Elphaba (I have no complaints - she is the right age, has lungs of steel and has a keen intensity to her emoting. With a strong director she could be ace). Just find the right Glinda (a much more difficult prospect) and get it ready for release in the next 2 years or so and it should be about as close to a done deal as possible.
I actually think this is a bit of a spoiler move by Disney - trying to piggy back off the scary legions of Wicked devotees (who I believe could easily rival Twilight's fanbase, notwithstanding the huge cross-over between the two). Universal have been sitting on the rights to Wicked for ages.
At one point Baz Luhrman was due to direct, which could have been awesome. Wicked needs a strong personality, who knows musicals, to give a distinct vision to the film which would be different but complimentary to The Wizard of Oz. The stage show was somewhat successful at this, but the film would need to be much cleverer. I can't think who to suggest, but in my minds eye I would love to see Julie Taymour being given a shot (after she gets done doing her version of Sunday in the Park with George, of course).
The capper to the Chud article linked above is actually worth quoting, since it made me giggle;
The big question is: what role will Johnny Depp play? I honestly wouldn't put it past him to play Maleficent, although he'd probably have to duel Helena Bonham Carter to the death for the right. How can Burton choose between his muses like this?
