Jon M. Chu Set to Direct the Musical WICKED for Universal
Jon M. Chu, the director behind Crazy Rich Asians and the upcoming musical In The Heights, is set to helm Universal’s adaptation of the Oz-set musical Wicked. Stephen Daldry was previously hired to direct the film, but he ended up dropping out of the project.
Jon M. Chu had an opening in his schedule to take on a project after he stepped away from Lucasfilm’s Willow. Wicked should be a fun project for him to take on. Universal has been trying to get this movie made for a decade, maybe Chu will actually be able to push it through.
Wicked is a Wizard of Oz prequel based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the story focuses on the early relationship between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who ends up becoming the Wicked Witch of the West.
Wicked views “the land of Oz, its inhabitants, its Wizard, and the Emerald City, through a darker and greener (not rosier) lens and offers us a radical new evaluation of one of the most feared and hated characters in all of literature: the much maligned Wicked Witch of the West who, as Maguire tells us, wasn’t nearly as Wicked as we imagined.”
Songwriter Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman teamed up on the script for the film, and Marc Platt, who produces the stage musical with David Stone, is producing the film.
Source: Variety