skygiants | (no subject)

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/359040.html

Entry tags:

(no subject)

next_to_normal asked me to talk about the upcoming Into the Woods movie, which is a great topic for Friday the thirteenth because I am really terrified that this film is going to be a DISASTER.

Okay, here's the irony: I was fully prepared for Les Miserables to be a disaster. I was ready to embrace the disaster! I mean, I love Les Mis, but if it had been as bad as I mostly expected, I would have laughed the whole way through and enjoyed myself enormously, it would have been great.

But Les Mis was not a disaster. So now, in penance, I am really afraid that Into the Woods IS going to be a disaster, and if it is then I will CARE, I will care SO MUCH. And normally I could just come back and make jokes about it and that would help, but in this case, I WILL CARE TOO MUCH TO MAKE JOKES. My only recourse will be seething incoherently, and/or weeping

Reasons I think Into the Woods may well be a disaster:
- JOHNNY DEEP AS THE WOLF
- against a PRETEEN LITTLE RED WHY
- also James Corden as the Baker which

innerbrat assures me is terrible though I have no personal experience with this to vouch for
- they're adding a new song and we all know how well that went in Les Mis
- there is no Narrator casting listed
- WHY IS THERE NOT A NARRATOR
- WHY IS THE CAST SO WHITE
- WHY DID THEY NOT CAST BRANDY AS CINDERELLA, I'm forever going to be bitter about this, the director actually directed the Brandy Cinderella. No excuse!
- speaking of the director: Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. I'm just saying. I'M JUST SAYING.
- I mean, that was a hilarious movie
- BUT NONETHELESS

Reasons it is possible that Into the Woods may NOT be a disaster:
- the cast has a fair number of people I like
- for example Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Christine Baranski
- (I'm pretty neutral on the casting of Meryl Streep, like, I think she will be good and all, I just think they could have done something WAY more interesting and different with the casting of the Witch)
- the Brandy Cinderella was the opposite of a disaster
- Sondheim is heavily involved? They say? I mean WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT GOES, but
- okay yes the costumes look pretty fantastic

So, I mean, we'll see. There's a chance it might be good! . . . but still I'm trying to vigilantly trample all my hopes that it will be good. The less hope I have, the less full of rage I will be when they get it wrong! (That is a lie, but I tell myself that anyway.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

also James Corden as the Baker which innerbrat assures me is terrible though I have no personal experience with this to vouch for

What is

innerbrat's argument against James Corden? I saw him twice in One Man, Two Guvnors (original London cast, Broadway transfer) and he was brilliant.

I do not disagree regarding Johnny Depp. Everybody in Burton's Sweeney Todd was excellent except for the central couple. That didn't work out so well.

(I'm pretty neutral on the casting of Meryl Streep, like, I think she will be good and all, I just think they could have done something WAY more interesting and different with the casting of the Witch)

. . . Does Meryl Streep have the range? You can talk your way through a lot of characters, but that part was written for Bernadette Peters.

(Survivor of high school production, hello. I was Cinderella's Mother, my junior year of high school. It was a great experience. I haven't been able to listen to a recording since.)

Edited 2013-12-14 08:20 (UTC)

Becca sent up the Bratsignal so here I am.

My argument against James Corden is thin and personal and probably only works if you are the kind of person to also think Ricky Gervais and Johnny Vegas are awful. If you don't think he is awful, that is okay!

But 1. He was in a movie (I actually thought he was involved in creation, but IMDB tells me he just acted, which - I try not to begrudge actors the roles they happen to take, but I fail in this situation) which objectifies and celebrates the killing of lesbians.

2. He takes the kind of cocky white laddish lad roles, both as an actor and in his persona (from what I've seen) that makes me really truly want to punch him in his face.

You will notice how intensely subjective, and actually very unfair to the man, these things are! Also they are founded on me not seeing much James Corden because of the very subjective and personal face-punching problem! So he might be great!

But I think he is terrible.

But I think he is terrible.

Understood. I have no experience of Corden as a person or really outside the one show he blew me away in, which sounds now like something of an outlier in his style. I may have been lucky. But you are allowed to think people are terrible whether or not I agree!

(I don't know who Johnny Vegas is.)

When I saw the title "Lesbian Vampire Killers", I initially thought it was a film about lesbians who kill vampires. A real pity that wasn't the case, as I think that premise is not only not intrinsically offensive, but also has great cult movie potential.

I'm not a great fan of Corden and I'm not defending him, but apparently he has said since that he's embarrassed to have been involved with it. Which is something, though it's a shame he didn't think of that sooner.

Many people have said, in the most diplomatic way possible, that James Corden is a much better bloke than I give him credit for, and he's probably not a complete tosspot and also he made a perfectly fine Thenardier. So basically my only dislike of him is completely unfounded and he might be a great Baker!

We shall see.

Oh, and this might be relevant to your interests.

That is amazing, I would watch the hell out of that.

For me, this movie hinges on the Witch. I am side eyeing Meryl Streep hard.

For the record, I've never seen him in anything! But her arguments are as stated above, and Ricky Gervais annoys me intensely and I don't want to associate that with the Baker. :(

Hah, my memories of youthful Into the Woodsian hijinks are the year our (hot) camp counselor got cast as Rapunzel's Prince in the high school production, and was never allowed to live it down after. Never has "Agony!" been sung MORE OFTEN in SUCH A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME by twelve-year-old girls than it was that summer. I have very fond memories! Poor Alex the counselor, probably less so.

I am filled with such fear. ;_; I want the movie to be excellent, but...fear.

I WANT IT TO BE GOOD. I so desperately want it to be good! But I want this the way I want my first novel to make #1 on the bestseller lists and get rave reviews in the New York Times, like, you can't help fantasizing about it, but you know that the plausibility of your fantasies is pretty limited . . .

Brandy would've made a great Cinderella.

Don't films-from-musicals always add one song? Evita and Phantom show with sad clarity how ALW circa 1995/2004 isn't the same person(s) as circa 1977/1986. :P

It's called The Best Original Song Oscar.

Indeed.

It would be SO GREAT from a meta-standpoint!

adiva_calandia also suggested Beyonce as the witch, which would be so amazing I can't even fathom.

And yeah, as Debi said, that one song is obligatory even to get considered for Oscar music awards, so they always do it. It's SO STUPID. Although I do have more faith in Sondheim to write one that's musically consistent with the original show than I do ALW, or . . . whoever wrote that one for Les Mis.

Beyonce as the witch

... I literally stopped with delicious chocolate almost at my mouth to consider the wonder of this idea.

I don't really have any Strong Feelings on Into the Woods- seen the dvd a few times but it's not especially close to my heart- but I'm kind of disappointed they didn't cast Eddie Redmayne instead of Jake Gyllenhaal as one of the princes. Think how perfect he would be! He even looks a bit like Robert Westenburg!

HAHAHAHAHAHA OMG HE DOES *_____*

Jake Gyllenhaal isn't a prince anymore now though! He quit and they've replaced him with a person I don't know, so they even had a golden opportunity ;___;

which is a great topic for Friday the thirteenth because I am really terrified that this film is going to be a DISASTER.

LOL THANK GOD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE. I actually had someone on Facebook send me the link to an article about the movie saying, "So excited! We are so going to see this! This is the best casting ever!" and I am seriously reconsidering why he is my friend.

I think it will probably not be a disaster, though. Just to torment me further. I think there are enough good things about it that casual fans will be happy, and my fear is that only those of us who grew up obsessed with the Broadway PBS tape will feel that their childhoods are being ruined by this travesty and no one will understand our pain. You and I can weep together, I guess.

Basically YES to all of your good and bad points. (Although... I don't have anything against James Corden? I don't think he's quite right for the role, but they could've done a lot worse. I mean, Johnny Depp could've been the Baker OH GOD HOLD ME just the thought of that makes me cry.)

WHY IS THERE NOT A NARRATOR HOW CAN THEY DO THIS WITHOUT A NARRATOR ARE THEY COMPLETELY REWRITING THE SHOW WHAT ABOUT THE SECOND ACT THE NARRATOR GETTING FED TO THE GIANT IS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING IN THE WHOLE SHOW (I maybe have issues)

these are the things that keep me up at night.

No, the narrator getting fed to the giant is BRILLIANT. I had no idea it was going to happen the first time I saw the show, and was horrified/delighted when they actually did it. So sad that this is apparently not going to happen, and I'm hoping they come up with some other way of messing with the 4th wall since they're cutting the character. And I think as long as they're casting Johnny Depp (which I am not surprised at, because he's a big box office draw and Sweeny Todd did pretty well), yeah, the Wolf is probably the best role for him.

I'm trying to keep my expectations low for this, because that way I can be pleasantly surprised. But no Narrator? That's going to require some significant rewriting of the second act. And a preteen Little Red? Uh, casting directors, did you guys read the lyrics? Like really read the lyrics? Because unless there's going to be some changes, that's kind of squicky to have an actual little kid in that role.

Apparently the first casting was another, EVEN YOUNGER kid, who eventually got pulled out because her parents thought it was creepy! WHICH IT IS.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only