Wicked takes the story of The Wizard of Oz and turns it on its head. It tells the classic story from the perspective of the (not so) Wicked Witch of the west, Elphaba, and her her unlikely friendship with Glinda, the good witch of the north. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard’s corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba’s public fall from grace.

The plot is set mostly before Dorothy’s arrival from Kansas, and includes several references to well-known scenes and dialogue in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a backstory. You will finally understand why the Lion is so cowardly, how the tin man came to have no heart, where the ruby slippers came from and grow to love and understand the magical characters of Oz better than ever before!

elphabaIt is rumoured that the original Broadway leads Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda) and Idina Menzel (Elphaba) will reprise their roles for the big screen adaptation, with Joel Grey returning to the role of the Wizard.

Kristin Chenowweth was quizzed about the idea of Wicked: the Movie in Nov ‘08
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”Yes, I do think it will be made. I think – you know, there’s something going on right now where everyone’s hearing that there’s going to be a movie. You know, there will be a movie. But I believe – and I could be wrong, but I believe it will be years before we see it as a movie, because – you know, Universal will really want to make sure that they suck it dry, so to speak in all the theaters. And if you look at movies like Chicago and Phantom of the Opera those were 20, 25 years after the fact. And I could see, definitely, me playing Madame Morrible at that point. But I hope they really do it soon, so that I’m young enough to play Glinda.”
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Lucky for us fans, we may not have to wait 20 years at all, as it is apparently already in production now, set to be released in 2010!

Rumour has it, that Marc Platt (producer of Broadway show) and David Stone will produce the screen adaptation for Universal, with Winnie Holzman penning the script.

INEBRIATION (Inception Parody/Spoof)

Christopher Nolan’s 2010 summer blockbuster, Inception, is the latest to join sci-fi greats – Star Wars, Predator, Battlestar and Terminator in inspiring a league of young film makers to affectionately pay tribute by creating fan films of these great science fiction movies.

Atomic productions’ INEBRIATION may just be the best of the rest at the moment so I thought I’d share it with you. Shot in a week and on a shoestring budget, these Texan students show you how they can make anything, even getting wasted, seem epic.

The first thing that struck me was how high quality the production is. They recreate several shots from original trailer, changing minor details to match their alcohol theme, and when presented with a tight film grade and the excellent score from Inception you could be fooled into thinking it belonged in the official trailer.

They have bravely attempted some of the awe-inspiring anti-gravity set pieces from the film and not only have they managed to brilliant improvise them, its also very funny to see the young actors rolling and leaping in such a fashion.
While not all of the audio is that great and some of sequences sadly are more slap-stick silly then clever, there is enough great material to keep you amused. “I think I’ve found a way sober. This last shot is how I get there” being a personal favorite for me.

One of the project’s biggest successes for me is how they have cleverly taken some of cinema’s most powerful conventions and applied them to being sick, being drunk and staggering around to make for a series of cinematic sequences that feel part of something important. Making vomit feel epic is quite an achievement and proves they have a firm understanding of modern cinema.