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Stephen Schwartz reveals more about planned ‘Wicked’ movie

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‘Wicked’ in 3-D? Lea Michele as Elphaba, the bad witch?

In a recent interview with Broadway.com, composer Stephen Schwartz revealed details about the planned film version of ‘Wicked,’ adapted from the hit musical that has been running for close to seven years on Broadway.

The composer told the website that the movie will ‘probably be in 3-D, because that’s where all [movies] are going.’ He said a decision about a director will be coming soon, with ‘Glee’ creator Ryan Murphy among the possible contenders. ‘We like Ryan and had a great meeting with him,’ Schwartz said of the director. ‘I’ve always been a big fan of his.’

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Other directors whose names have been mentioned as contenders include J.J. Abrams, Rob Marshall and James Mangold.

As for casting, Schwartz said that Michele, who stars in ‘Glee,’ is ‘fantastic,’ and that ‘and it’d be silly to say she wouldn’t be under consideration [for the role of Elphaba].’

‘Wicked’ is still in the planning phases, and there is no start date or release date set for the movie. The film is being made by Universal, which also had a hand in producing the Broadway version of the musical.

Based on the book by Gregory Maguire, ‘Wicked’ is a prequel to ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that follows the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba, who grow up to be witches with starkly different temperaments.

The Broadway production was nominated for multiple Tony Awards -- it lost the best-musical award to ‘Avenue Q’ -- and has toured the country with different casts. Times theater critic Charles McNulty noted in 2007 that the musical ‘hasn’t exactly been a critics’ darling. Complaints about its bloated book and overwrought score stuffed with fulsome anthems are hard to refute.’

-- David Ng

[Updated: a previous version of this post incorrectly referred to the protagonists of ‘Wicked’ as sisters.]

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