Thursday, August 28, 2014

Into the Woods (2014)

Sorry for taking a little hiatus, but I was busy moving back into college! Anyways I’m back!
I would hope that most people are aware of a certain huge musical blockbuster coming out this Christmas. And no, it’s not Annie (blah).

The Pre-Production
Production for Into the Woods really began in the early 1990’s where there was a staged reading which included Robin Williams as the Baker, Cher as the Witch, Steve Martin as the Wolf, and Danny DeVito as the Giant. But after a negative report, the film stayed inactive. But in January of 2012, Rob Marshall was hired to direct the new adaptation for Disney, making this the first Broadway musical adaptation produced by Disney. A reading took place before casting that included Broadway favorites James Corden, Megan Hilty, Laura Osnes, Donna Murphy, Anna Kendrick and Cheyenne Jackson.

The Casting
The casting process for this movie has been a source of some debate and controversy. The first wave of casting was when Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, and James Corden were all confirmed to play the Wolf, the Witch, and the Baker in May of 2013.  Soon after, Christine Baranski and Emily Blunt were cast as Cinderella’s Step-Mother and the Baker’s Wife and Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal entered negotiations to be the Princes. Gyllenhaal dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and Broadway vet Billy Magnussen replaced him. Anna Kendrick began talks to be cast as Cinderella a month later. Mackenzie Mauzy, Tammy Blanchard, Lucy Punch, and Daniel Huttlestone joined the cast soon after to play the parts Rapunzel, Florinda, Lucinda, and Jack, respectively. Then Sophia Grace Brownlee was cast as Little Red and the theatre world exploded with outrage. Most of the critique to this particular news was due to the fact that Sophia was way too young and that the role came with a scene that had some sexual undertones that would not look very good on screen. Soon after, Sophia’s father issued a statement that she had withdrawn from the role due to her age and it was an amicable decision between the actors and the producers. Lilla Crawford was announced later to replace Brownlee and additional casting was announced as well.


The Filming
The filming for Into the Woods started in September 2013 and lasted for about 3 months. But in the summer of July 2014, Rob Marshall said that they were adding scenes to the script and went back for additional shooting. The film is now completely finished with filming and is now in post-production.

The Controversy
In June, Stephen Sondheim was quoted saying that Disney had made some adjustments to the book, stating that the sexual undertones of “Hello, Little Girl” had been erased, as well as moments such as the Baker’s wife’s affair with Cinderella’s Prince and Rapunzel’s death. When this happened, I know I lost some faith in the production. The whole point of Into the Woods is to bring these dark adult themes to the stories to really tell a story that has meaning. No one will take a movie seriously if it’s just watered down. But Sondheim recently said that although material has been made age-appropriate now, most of the content is still in the film, such as Any Moment and Hello, Little Girl. So far, the only changes that we know of are the cutting of the Narrator, Rapunzel’s death (but her end is still pretty dark), and a couple of new songs that were written for the movie but were instead left out of the final cut. This was a bummer for me, because this may mean Into the Woods may not get any Original Song Oscar nominations.

Well, that’s all the information we have so far! Expect this movie to be a big hit like Les Miserables was a couple of years ago, but with hopefully more critical acclaim. Oh, and hopefully, you have seen the trailer. If not, here ya go.
After seeing that, I have absolute faith in Rob Marshall. I mean, he did such a fantastic job with Chicago! I still have chills.

As per usual, any questions or comments can be put in the comments below or be sent to me on the twitter! Contact @TheActorProblems or myself @theatreginger if you have any questions about auditions, productions, or if you just want to talk about theatre!

Have a great week y’all!

Andrew

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