"The Producers" To Return To The Screen

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1/6/04 at 10:45pm

Peter Kline
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"Producers" Blooming on Screen Again

by Josh Grossberg
Jan 6, 2004, 2:20 PM PT

It'll be movie time for Hitler if Universal Pictures has its way.

The studio has sealed a deal with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, the original stars of Broadway's The Producers, to headline a big-screen version of the Mel Brook megahit musical, Daily Variety reports.

Full article here.

#2

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1/7/04 at 5:49am

Edwin Pereyra
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Having seen the show on Broadway with its original cast, I will be looking forward to this one. The show is making box office records again now that Lane and Broderick are back for a return engagement limited run. Susan Stoman directing should be interesting.

Hopefully, they can get the rest of the original cast, as well.

~Edwin

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#3

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1/7/04 at 1:05pm

MatthewLouwrens
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Cool.

I really really want to see this show live - the idea of watching a live performance of Springtime For Hitler is exciting. But the movie should be fun also.

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#4

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1/7/04 at 1:17pm

DeeF
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Actually, could there be a worse idea?

The show is a show. The original movie was a movie (a great one).

Susan Stroman is a second-string Broadway choreographer (I mean, second-string to Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, etc.)

It's a bad, bad idea making this into a movie. They should tape the play with the stars and release it on DVD.

#5

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1/7/04 at 2:50pm

Carlo Medina
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So is this a remake of the original movie?

Or is this a movie of the stage play which was an adaptation of the original movie?

Or is this a remake of the movie of the...ah forget it. I'll always have the original (Zero Mostel is incomparable!) on DVD. Hollywood can do whatever it wants...

#6

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1/7/04 at 2:54pm

Lew Crippen
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Perhaps they will cast Larry David in movie …

¡Time is not my master!

#7

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1/22/04 at 8:31am

PatrickL
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Quote:

Susan Stroman is a second-string Broadway choreographer (I mean, second-string to Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, etc.)

Who isn't second string then, put up against dead legends?
I'm thrilled that they're going with Stroman to direct it. In the recent past, stage directors like Sam Mendes, Julie Taymor and Rob Marshall have all done quite alright directing films.

But I dug up this thread to add some casting news: Nicole Kidman is going to play Ulla.

Kidman cast in The Producers film

#8

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1/22/04 at 11:20pm

MatthewLouwrens
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Nicole as Ulla? OK, going off the film now.

Sure, Nicole is nice to look at, which is the main criteria for Ulla (and indeed, is her only function in the film). But everytime she speaks, I'll just be aware that its Nicole putting on an accent, and I can see that being a distraction. Either have someone with a natural accent, or someone we don't really know who can do a good accent.

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#9

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1/23/04 at 7:05am

Brian Kidd
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Nicole puts on an accent in almost every film she does. How many films can you remember her in where she kept her Aussie accent? Not many, I'd bet.

As for making the musical into a film...eh. I loved the show when I saw it, but I'm also in the camp that believes it would be better to videotape the stage production than to make a film. The humor is so broad in the show that I can't see it transferring to film very easily. I'm not saying that the original PRODUCERS isn't great. It is! However it's still very different from the musical in terms of jokes and delivery. It's actually one of Brooks' more sedate films, outside of the "Springtime for Hitler" segments.

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#10

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1/23/04 at 7:16am

Michael Reuben
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I seem to remember similar skepticism when it was announced that Mel Brooks was turning The Producers into a Broadway musical. The threads have scrolled off, but people were lining up to denounce the desecration of a beloved film. We all know what happened. From that I've learned never to bet against Mel Brooks. (He's writing the screenplay and will no doubt have a hand in everything.)

M.

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#11

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1/23/04 at 8:11am

Jason Seaver
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Quote:

(He's writing the screenplay and will no doubt have a hand in everything.)

Yep. I'm expecting it to be as much fun to count Mel Brookses in the credits as it generally is to count Robert Rodriguezes:

Universal Pictures Presents

A Brooksfilm Production

Nathan Lane...Matthew Broderick...Nicole Kidman...(rest of cast)... AND Mel Brooks

Music by Mel Brooks

Songs by Mel Brooks

Executive Producer: Mel Brooks

Screenplay by Mel Brooks

Based Upon The Stage Play by Mel Brooks

Which, Itself, Was Based Upon A Screenplay By Mel Brooks...

As to Nicole Kidman... Hell, I'll see her in most anything. She fits the criteria for Ulla well - tall, beautiful, and funny, though she doesn't get to use the latter attribute nearly often enough. Her doing an outrageous accent should be fairly entertaining, and this is a Mel Brooks musical - I'd be disappointed by anything even resembling naturalistic acting. Bring on the goofy deliveries.

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#12

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1/23/04 at 8:17am

Rich Malloy
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Pointless.

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Two together are always going somewhere.\"

#13

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1/23/04 at 9:34am

BrianShort
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I'm looking forward to this. Hopefully I get the chance someday to see this show live, but it won't be with the original cast, so I think this is the next best thing.

Brian

#14

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1/23/04 at 12:43pm

Angelo.M
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Quote:

Pointless.

Totally agree, Rich.

#15

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1/23/04 at 1:01pm

PatrickL
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What's pointless about this?

#16

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1/23/04 at 3:25pm

MatthewLouwrens
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Quote:

Nicole puts on an accent in almost every film she does. How many films can you remember her in where she kept her Aussie accent? Not many, I'd bet.

True - but there's a difference between the American accent we usually see her do, and a fairly thick Swedish accent for Ulla.

Quote:

I'm looking forward to this. Hopefully I get the chance someday to see this show live, but it won't be with the original cast, so I think this is the next best thing.

This is true. One of these days the show should hopefully make its way to Australia, and I'll see it then. But Nathan Lane and Mwatthew Broderick will not be in the cast, and since everyone is raving about this combination it will be good to see them.

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#17

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1/23/04 at 3:44pm

Michael Reuben
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Quote:

One of these days the show should hopefully make its way to Australia, and I'll see it then. But Nathan Lane and Mwatthew Broderick will not be in the cast, and since everyone is raving about this combination it will be good to see them.

I'm willing to bet that more people will see Lane and Broderick in the movie's first week (maybe even first weekend) than have seen them in all of their Broadway performances.

M.

Zoloft and Paxil and Buspar and Xanax, Depakote, Klonopin, Ambien, Prozac,
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#18

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1/23/04 at 10:22pm

Scott Weinberg
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I love, love, love the movie.

Have never seen the stage play. (Would like to before the movie is released.)

I have no problem whatsoever with this concept. The Producers pretty much started Mel Brooks' career and if the upcoming movie is as solid as the stage play evidently is...then it will be very sweet to have Brooks' career "end" with this 'dovetail effect'. (And I say "end" only because, hey, the guy's almost 80, he doesn't make movies anymore, and this project should take a good amount of his time. Please don't think I'm 'wishing the guy dead' or anything stupid like that, but who thinks an 82-year-old guy is gonna go direct a Spaceballs 2?)

I wonder if we'll ever see a theatrical adaptation of Young Frankenstein? (My #1 favorite comedy of ALL TIME!)

#19

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1/23/04 at 10:22pm

Seth--L
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What's pointless about this?

The play follows the film line for line. All the jokes are exactly the same, right down to how the punch lines are delivered. The only new jokes were taken from Brooks' other films.

The film will probably end up being a shot for shot remake of the film, with the obvious addition of more music, and some slight alterations to the plot.

Well - There it is.
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#20

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1/23/04 at 10:26pm

Scott Weinberg
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The play follows the film line for line. All the jokes are exactly the same, right down to how the punch lines are delivered.

OK, fair enough, but how does this make the remake "pointless"? Pretend for a sec that there never was a stage play...and someone wanted to remake The Producers. (Hell, much better (and MUCH worse) films are remade every year!) And what if that someone who wanted to remake The Producers was Mel Brooks himself?

Heck, I'd line up for that movie.

#21

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1/23/04 at 11:04pm

PatrickL
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Quote:

The play follows the film line for line. All the jokes are exactly the same, right down to how the punch lines are delivered.

That's false, by the way. Additionally, the stage play is a book musical, with musical numbers for all the characters (not only for what is seen in "Springtime for Hitler"). Saying that a film version of the musical is superfluous is like saying that no one needed to make a film of "Cabaret," because there was already a film of "I Am A Camera."

And Scott, it could be!

#22

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1/23/04 at 11:31pm

BrianShort
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I was going to say... I've seen the movie, and I also saw the DVD about the making of the album, and just from that I got the impression that there were some rather major plot changes. For example, in the stage play,
Warning Spoiler! Click to show

do they blow up the theater? The album DVD seemed to indicate they didnt, and Matthew Broderick's character gets away to Brazil with the girl.

Brian

#23

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1/24/04 at 5:06am

Seth--L
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BrianShort,

That's about the only big change.

Well - There it is.
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#24

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1/24/04 at 6:32am

Larry Sutliff
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Seth,

Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Is the character of L.S.D in the play? A friend of mine saw the play last weekend, and gave me the program. I don't see a mention of this character anywhere, and he was very important to the film, since he played Hitler.

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#25

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1/24/04 at 7:02am

Seth--L
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Larry Sutliff,

Warning Spoiler! Click to show

No, but Roger De Bris plays the part - same idea.

Well - There it is.
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#26

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1/24/04 at 7:13am

Larry Sutliff
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Thanks for the info, Seth.

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#27

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1/24/04 at 7:19am

Michael Reuben
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Quote:

The play follows the film line for line. All the jokes are exactly the same, right down to how the punch lines are delivered.

This might arguably be true if you overlook all the new songs. And all the jokes in the new songs. And all the production numbers that accompany the new songs.

Did the original film ever visit Little Old Ladyland? Did we ever see Leo's office? Is there anything in the original movie even remotely equivalent to Max's great number "Betrayed"? (Oh wait, there couldn't be, because that song follows from what even you admit is a "big change" in the plot.)

And of course there's the minor point that the film and the musical have different endings.

M.

Zoloft and Paxil and Buspar and Xanax, Depakote, Klonopin, Ambien, Prozac,
Ativan calms me when I see the bills.
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#28

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1/24/04 at 7:47am

Jim Ogilvie
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Matthew...

You're in luck. Mel Brooks has come to Australia to set up The Producers here. Its running in Melbourne starting in April.

I saw it live in L.A. with Jason Alexander and Martin Short. It was absolutely terrific, and I will definitely be heading to Melbourne to see it.

#29

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1/24/04 at 6:17pm

Seth--L
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And all the jokes in the new songs. And all the production numbers that accompany the new songs.

When you compare overall new to old, most of it is old. If you are familiar with the film, then you can go to the play and almost always know what the next line of dialogue will be. The only thing really different is more music.

Did the original film ever visit Little Old Ladyland?

Yes. There's a long montage in the film of the different old ladies Max goes to for money. The play condenses this into one number.

And of course there's the minor point that the film and the musical have different endings.

Very minor differences.

Is there anything in the original movie even remotely equivalent to Max's great number "Betrayed"?

Like I said before, this is the only place in the play where there was a large deviation from the film. But after this number it goes back to how the film plays out.

Well - There it is.
My Music Collection

#30

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1/24/04 at 10:48pm

MatthewLouwrens
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Quote:

You're in luck. Mel Brooks has come to Australia to set up The Producers here. Its running in Melbourne starting in April.

Great news - Thanks for that. I know The Lion King has only just opened, so I assumed there would be a much longer delay for The Producers.

Must look into plane tickets.

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100 Passions - 39 to go / 100 Heroes & Villains - 10 to go / 100 Songs - 44 to go

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