Skip to footer

Movie of 'Wicked,' early adopter of 'origin story' trend, gets release date

A film version of the hit musical will be released by Universal and the studio has announced the date on which it will hit theaters. The Broadway version of 'Wicked' starred Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.

|
Joan Marcus/File
'Wicked' starred Idina Menzel (l.) and Kristin Chenoweth (r.) when it first debuted in 2003.

A release date has been set for a film version of the hit musical “Wicked,” which is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire and was an early example of the recent trend of adapting a well-known story with an angle audiences haven’t heard before. 

A movie version of “Wicked,” which purports to tell the real story of the life of the Wicked Witch of the West from “The Wizard of Oz,” will be released by Universal in December 2019.

The original Broadway version starred Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. The stage show is still on the Great White Way after debuting in 2003. 

December has become a common time to find the newest movie musical at the multiplex, with recent films such as “Into the Woods” (2014), “Les Miserables” (2012), and “Nine” (2009) all having been released at year's end. 

Meanwhile, “Wicked” was an early example of a new take on a classic story, one that attempts to bring in movie- or theatergoers by claiming to be a take on the tale of which viewers are unaware. Debuting in 2003, the Broadway version of “Wicked” was just a couple of years before the 2005 film “Batman Begins” (and the book of "Wicked" was two decades before it), which became one of the most popular origin stories of a superhero, with the movie filling in the blanks about how Bruce Wayne became Batman.

There has even been another attempt to try this strategy with “Wizard of Oz” with the movie “Oz the Great and Powerful,” which came out in 2013 and stars James Franco as the Wizard, depicting his adventures before Dorothy arrives in Oz. 

Disney has been one of the most popular purveyors of this strategy in recent years with their live-action versions of their animated movies. Some of their earliest successes in this arena such as 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland” and the 2014 film “Maleficent” told “new” versions of these stories. “Maleficent” in particular did this in a “Wicked” fashion, taking the person who is seen as the villain of the piece and giving them a sympathetic backstory.

Another film that somewhat recasts a villain and his or her motivations will reportedly come from Disney in the future – the studio has announced it will release a movie that tells the story of “101 Dalmations” villain Cruella de Vil.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Movie of 'Wicked,' early adopter of 'origin story' trend, gets release date
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0617/Movie-of-Wicked-early-adopter-of-origin-story-trend-gets-release-date
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe