CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

20th Century Fox Commits to Turning Its Films into Musicals

Stage Directions: 20th Century Fox is planning a major musical move. The film studio has partnered with Broadway producer Kevin McCollum (Motown, Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights), film producer John Davis (Predator, The Firm, Grumpy Old Men, I Robot, Chronicle) and industry executive Tom McGrath to turn movies from the 20th Century Fox library into musicals for Broadway and touring—and then back into films in their new form. They aim to produce nine musicals based on films in the next “several” years, with McCollumn overseeing day to day operations. Fox has also brought on Isaac Robert Hurwitz, executive director and producer of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, as a consultant to help guide their theatre activities.

3 comments:

Paulina Rugart said...

It is odd to think of movies that you know well possibly being turned into musicals. I am a musical lover, but I think that planning to make 9 movies into musicals and back into movie musicals is a bit much. I think that if they decided to begin this initiative and work to find the right movies that it may go well, but if they just pick up the reins and jump right in, they will most likely make musicals that are not up to par. The creative team they've chosen is a good one though, so who knows what the end result could be, Alien the Musical?

Carmen Alfaro said...

Sometimes stories can only be told well in one form. I think its strange that Fox wants to convert its films into Broadway musicals. Movies, and musicals for the stage are very different ways of telling a story and they don't necessarily mesh. I'm very skeptical about the move. Fox has chosen qualified people to work on this project, but I still feel like this could go really wrong. Fox produces some very well known movies, and its going to be hard for an audience to get the movie image out of their head when viewing its Broadway production. That said, with the creative team Fox has chosen, these musicals might end well.

Will Parsons said...

Hrm, this is certainly a rather interesting situation on the horizon here, like Paulina said. The fact that some well known movies may become musicals is a rather perplexing idea, and I am not sure how they will turn out. The people that Fox has partnered with are all very qualified and certainly know what they are doing, however it is Fox I am more worried about as I am not sure they truly know what they are doing in this situation. Hopefully this process will not ruin movies that many of us have come to love and maybe even some great new musicals will appear as a result of this.