Variety: "More and more often, indie pics are going legit.
A recent announcement by the Sundance Institute Theater Lab noted that two musicals being developed there -- 'Little Miss Sunshine' and 'Like Water for Chocolate' -- are based on alums of Sundance’s film fest."
4 comments:
I find it funny that the article refers to films like Young Frankenstein, Little Mermaid and (now) Little Miss Sunshine as "small-scale pics" with the ability for lots of creative license because "there’s inherently more freedom in not feeling the weight of the famousness of better-known property". Anyone arguing that Little Miss Sunshine is still a small-scale indie film must be absolutely crazy, the franchise has grown enormously, even to the point of winning two Academy Awards and AFI's Best Movie of the Year among many other plaudits. The one encouraging thing in this article is the producer's insistence that they will not simply be transferring the film material to the stage and that it will have its "own independent ethos". The team lined up to work on it (William Finn and James Lapine) are brilliant as well, so I have less worries about the artistic integrity of the final product.
The effectiveness of the transfer of films to stage is heavily influenced by the motivations of the producers. Shows such as Mermaid had the mass Disney draw, but in my opinion lost the appeal of the film in its adaptation. Mermaid was a clear commercial venture by Disney. Conversely, it seems the producers of Sunshine have interest in expanding the storyline and seeing how it adapts itself for live performance (and with singing!). The producers also indicated in the interview that they had early intentions of staging the story and held those rights. Unlike Mermaid's attempt, adding new material to Sunshine seems likely to pay off in the end and should become an exciting new play.
I am incredibly excited about the prospect of "Like Water for Chocolate" being developed for the stage, originally in Spanish, is rich with theatrical imagery and will transfer to the stage well. Why is that box office hits turned musicals gloss over storyline and pull out the bells and whistles while low budget indie films concentrate on storyline? Should we just ban all the bells and whistles in theatre and see if the content becomes better when we concentrate on storyline? Perhaps this current economy will help churn out higher quality material. Unexpected plus?
Again, I am not a fan of taking a piece of art that already exists and just retelling it using a different medium. It brings to mind the conversations we have in Salt Peanuts about how to tell a story in a different way. I feel that if directors and producers took this approach towards a film they like, perhaps we would have more exciting and unique musicals being produced.
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