Because finding a home should be something to sing about.
By DAVID ROONEY , JONATHAN BING
After the success of "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago," Hollywood has expressed excitement that the long-dormant musical is ready for a comeback. But don't dust off your tap shoes just yet.
Ten years ago, everyone predicted a revival of the Western after "Dances With Wolves" and "Unforgiven," and the film biz is still waiting for that one to happen.
While some hope that the two tuners will open the floodgates, so far it's a trickle. In fact, with rare exceptions, studio toppers don't even want to talk about musicals, as though not to tempt fate.
Director Joel Schumacher is circling "The Phantom of the Opera" and Miramax is negotiating for a remake of "Guys & Dolls" with Craig Zadan & Neil Meron (exec producers on "Chicago").
Miramax and Tribeca Prods. are reviving their plans to bring Jonathan Larson's "Rent" to the screen. " 'Chicago' certainly has put wind in our sails on 'Rent,' " Tribeca partner Jane Rosenthal tells Variety.
And Christine Vachon and Killer Films last week announced plans to bring the legit "Urinetown" to the bigscreen. Otherwise, there's not a lot of musical action.
Asked if Fox, which led the charge with "Moulin Rouge," is planning another tuner, co-chairman Tom Rothman responds, "Sure, if its really good, but we're not going to do one just for the sake of it." As for trends in films, Rothman adds, "The key is to lead, not follow."
Most other studios' musicals are in the development stage, and that's hardly a guarantee of a greenlight. In theory, the time would be right for a musical revival because:
The prime moviegoing generation was raised on MTV. "Young people have been exposed to musicvideos. This fact gives you an audience that's accustomed to seeing music and dance as part of a storytelling fashion," offers Miramax co-president of production Meryl Poster.
The international success of "Rouge" points up the fact that the genre is embraced by international audiences. (So far, "Chicago" has had similar success in its limited overseas dates.)
Inexpensive production technologies, like digital cameras and editing, allowed helmer Rob Marshall to hold down costs on "Chicago." Machine-gun editing on both that film and "Rouge" lent a cutting-edge, MTV-style aesthetic to the form, departing radically from the cardinal rule of Fred Astaire, who refused to let his directors cut away during a dance number.
Fans of musicals tend to be repeat viewers, and the booming DVD business has created a robust after-market for the genre.
Tuners are a perfect fit for soundtrack albums, radio play and musicvids, which have long ago proven a key promo tool for Hollywood pics. So what's the holdup?
First off, the audience for musicals was deemed negligible in an era dominated by flashy tentpoles aimed at teenage boys. As Miramax co-chair Harvey Weinstein put it, it's been the conventional wisdom that "guys would watch volleyball on TV before they'd see musicals for free."
Second, it's not clear that studios or audiences need tuners. Studios have long created hybrid musicals that fill the soundtrack void -- and that seem to satisfy audiences cravings.
These hybrids include everything from "What's Love Got to Do With It" to "8 Mile," in which the characters are singers and they don't substitute spontaneous song and dance for dialogue.
Upcoming are such hybrids as "From Justin to Kelly," Fox's bigscreen spinoff of the "American Idol" TV series. In addition, there are films in which music is crucial -- everything from "Flashdance" and "Top Gun" to "Coyote Ugly," "Magnolia," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "About a Boy" -- but few people would define them as musicals.
There are other deterrents. The era has long since passed when "South Pacific" or "My Fair Lady" dominated pop culture. Few Top Ten singers do cover versions of Broadway songs, which helped build the must-see factor for the Broadway show and then a movie version.
Another factor is reluctance: Producers of long-running legit mega-hits such as "Les Miserables" don't want to risk killing the golden goose with a film version. And, perhaps most crucially, Hollywood is painfully aware that few people have the knack for making musical films.
After the film success of "The Sound of Music" and "Grease," the studios greenlit a flurry of disastrous tuners ranging from "Song of Norway" to "Xanadu" (Daily Variety, Feb. 27).
Even A-list filmmakers fell on their faces, such as Robert Altman ("Popeye"), Richard Attenborough ("A Chorus Line"), Milos Forman ("Hair"), Sidney Lumet ("The Wiz") and Martin Scorsese ("New York, New York").
After the artistic and commercial success of Fox's "Rouge" and Miramax's "Chicago," it's doubtful Hollywood will see a flurry of jump-on-the-bandwagon clunkers like "Lost Horizon" or "At Long Last Love." But it seems likely the hybrids will continue to flourish.
Irwin Winkler's Cole Porter biopic "De-Lovely," starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, will start shooting in London in May. Pic was greenlit at United Artists but has been bumped upstairs to MGM.
After a long gestation period, a "Dirty Dancing" sequel is ready: "Havana Nights," is ready to roll for Artisan and Miramax. And another form of hybrid, the toon tuner, continues to find success, led by Disney's one-two punch of "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty & the Beast."
In addition, the indies are redefining traditional musicals via such recent offerings as "Dancer in the Dark" and Icon and director Keith Gordon's redo of Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective," with Robert Downey Jr., which was recently acquired by Paramount Classics.
Having shepherded "Velvet Goldmine," "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and" and "Camp" through her Killer Films stable, Vachon recently sealed negotiations to translate Tony-winning Broadway cult tuner "Urinetown" to film. The company also is in post on Robert Altman's dance-heavy ensemble project about Chicago's Joffrey Ballet, "The Company."
"Camp," from actor-turned-director Todd Graff, is an exuberant update of "Fame" set in a summer retreat for aspiring adolescent performers.
Pic was a big crowd-pleaser at Sundance, fueling IFC Films' commercial hopes for the late-July release. Response from foreign buyers at the American Film Market also was strong.
"I think 'Chicago' and 'Moulin Rouge' definitely have opened things up for musicals, putting us in a really good position," said IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring. "I don't know if it's about a resurgence of the musical but everybody certainly feels that 'Camp' can cross over to teen audiences."
Other filmmakers are reminding that musicals do not have to be star-laden, glitzy extravaganzas.
Director Dan Mirvish, whose feature "Open House" is in post-production, says, "Our budget is probably less than the cost of Catherine Zeta-Jones' cell phone bill during 'Chicago.' " The film secured completion funds based on a three-minute trailer screened at this year's Slamdance fest, of which Mirvish is co-founder.
"It's a real-estate musical, like 'Rent' with a mortgage," he says of the ensemble piece about a diverse group of people looking to buy the same property one Sunday afternoon.
Vachon probably has more familiarity with the logistic challenges of bringing a tuner to the screen than any producer since the MGM musical heyday.
She says what she enjoys most is having the actors sing live on set, as Ewan McGregor did in his concert scenes in "Goldmine" and John Cameron Mitchell did for some tracks in "Hedwig."
"There's something so exhilarating about doing a song live," offers Vachon. "The energy that goes into lip-synching a knockout track can really galvanize people on a shoot, so the film crew in a sense becomes the audience."
Mirvish also aimed to harness that energy on "Open House," with stars Sally Kellerman, Ann Magnuson, Kelly Martin, Anthony Rapp and James Duvall all singing live on set rather than to playback.
The film initially was conceived not as a musical, but Mirvish was looking for a more original style and genre to tell the story, which was being developed around the time "Moulin Rouge" was peaking.
"After Sept. 11, we thought, 'Let's try it as a musical'," says Mirvish. "In times of crisis, America loves to sing."
It remains to be seen if studios will sing along.
"Chicago" has been waiting 25 years for a film version. Last month, Andrew Lloyd Webber began selling film rights at the American Film Market to his "The Phantom of the Opera" -- which has been in development at Warner Bros. for 15 years.
Lloyd Webber recently bought back rights to "Phantom" from WB, but the project is just one of scores of stage musicals whose film rights have been stockpiled by studios over the past two decades. Few have been produced.
"The major risk is that you're limited in your audience," says Miramax's Poster.
"There's a whole sector of people who say 'I don't like musicals, I don't want to go see a musical.' "
Once you get people into theaters they enjoy it -- even those people who thought they had an allergic reaction to musicals. But it's hard to get them in because the notion of musicals to some is a real turnoff."
Robert Newman, Baz Luhrmann's ICM agent, says "Moulin Rouge" was influenced equally by opera and animated movies. Pics like "The Little Mermaid," Newman said, "demonstrated that visuals and music could be combined in a format that had great worldwide appeal."
"Film musicals naturally mean more jobs for more people in the entertainment industry," says Miramax senior VP of corporate communications Matthew Hiltzik. "You're now seeing expanded opportunities for choreographers, dancers and musicians to participate in film, which may help fill the gap if there's a slow season on Broadway in which some of these people are out of work."
But it's ironic that at a time when Broadway seems to depend on movies for material ("Hairspray," "The Producers," "The Lion King," et al.), the love affair is largely unrequited.
(Timothy M. Gray contributed to this article)
Dan Mirvish
c/o Bugeater Films
4252 Mentone Ave.
Culver City, CA 90232
ph: 310-839-2569
email: bugeater@slamdance.com
