Director Rob Marshall ventures 'Into the Woods'

By Sarah Sluis

The familiar musical line "I wish.." will now be heard in movie theatres as well as Broadway theatres. Director Rob Marshall plans to adapt a film version of the 1980s musical Into the Woods. The movie would be his third film musical after Chicago and Nine. Like many musicals, it will have a built-in audience. With its popular junior version, Into the Woods is now a pretty standard piece for middle and high schools to adapt, especially with its friendly, fairy tale-influenced storyline. With its inclusion of Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, princes, and witches, Into the Woods actually is something of a predecessor to Shrek.

Lately, it seems as if a lot of Broadway musicals are getting the film treatment. Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, Dreamgirls, Rent, Hairspray, and Sweeney Todd have all been made into films with mixed success. GK Films just hired John Logan (Hugo) to write the script for the 2006 musical Jersey Boys, which I actually think could do quite well in a film version.

Marshall hopes to start Into the Woods sooner rather than later, but he's also committed to directing Johnny Depp in The Thin Man, a redo of a set of 1940s films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. He hasn't decided which film he will direct first. What's interesting about this production is that the play's creators, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, will retool the musical for the film version. Sondheim actually plans to write new songs for the film, which is pretty rare as far as I can tell. The production will move forward under Disney, with whom Marshall just signed a two-year first-look contract. With Marshall developing two different projects, the only question is when.