Stephen Schwartz, who will receive the founders award at Tuesday night’s ASCAP Screen Music Awards in Los Angeles, says the forthcoming movie of his Broadway mega-hit Wicked will feature “at least two” new songs.
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“Director Stephen Daldry is waiting on us for a draft of the screenplay,” Schwartz tells Variety, referring to himself and original book writer Winnie Holzman. “We’re just having so much fun, revisiting that material we love so much, and thinking about everything you can do on screen to retell the story.”
Schwartz says he hasn’t written any new music yet, “but there are new songs planned.” And, he says, fans expecting a carbon copy of the Broadway show should steel themselves for a new experience. “There are things that work on stage but won’t work on film,” the songwriter notes. “In order to do something that will work on its own merits, you have to do something different. The only concern is people who would be coming expecting to see a filmed version of the play. They’re not going to see that.”
Click here for the full article published on Variety.com by Jon Burlingame on May 15, 2017.