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she had withdrawn from the role due to her age and it was an amicable decision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
