John Shearer/Getty Images for People Magazine(LOS ANGELES) — Jon M. Chu will direct Universal Pictures’ film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Wicked.
After Deadline shared the announcement on Tuesday, Chu, who also directed 2018 smash-hit Crazy Rich Asians, as well as the upcoming adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, took to Twitter to confirm the news and share how meaningful the project is to him.
“Most of my life I have felt out of place, weird and different,” he wrote. “I hid behind my camera because people liked to be filmed and I could disappear. I used my short films to wow people so I could feel valued. I felt GREEN in all the ways.”
“But when I saw Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman‘s WICKED over 15 years ago as it was being workshopped in San Francisco I couldn’t unsee it,” Chu said.
“So to think that I have been invited to bring this timeless story to the biggest screens all around the world for people to experience with their family, best friends and total strangers…of all walks of life, ages, shapes and colors is like I’ve been invited to Oz by the Wizard himself.”
Book writer Winnie Holzman and composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who adapted Gregory Maguire‘s bestselling novel into the three-time, Tony Award-winning musical, will also work on the screenplay for Universal’s film adaptation.
Oscar-nominated producer Marc Platt will produce the film adaptation, Universal Pictures confirmed.
“Children alone knew about the magic of Oz through the original novels published from 1900 on,” Maguire told Good Morning America in 2019. “When the famous MGM film, The Wizard of Oz, was made in 1939, the grownup world got in on the love affair. In 2021, Wicked’s story and its message will belong to the world in a new way.”
By Hayley FitzPatrick
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