The Producers: The Movie Musical

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I know it's pretty much a full year before this remake will come out, but it still merits discussion. How do people feel about this? it seems the play has done justice to the movie, but will the movie version of the play do justice to either?

i think that if anyone was going to do this well, it would be who they have: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, but i'm more excited about Will Ferrell playing Franz Liebkind and Uma Thurman playing Ulla. Ferrell especially.

― lemin (lemin), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

referenced here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395251/

― lemin (lemin), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

This is like those old SNL skits with Dana Carvey and Jan Hooks (or was it Nora Dunn?) where they sang pop standards that had been translated from English into French into English.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

At least Mel isn't directing it, but Susan Stroman is an unknown film quantity.

Haven't seen the play, but I heard they're devising numbers that will parody set pieces of classic movie musicals (just as they did Broadway pastiches on Broadway). Which *could* work, and will be appreciated mostly by gays and the 65+ crowd.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i hope larry david gets a role in there somewhere

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven months pass...

Anyone seen this? I expected Uma Thurman to be crap, but she was actually rather good.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Monday, 2 January 2006 00:21 (twenty years ago)

"Intermission!"

― Hal! Jordan! HAL! JORDAN! (Barima), Monday, 2 January 2006 02:36 (twenty years ago)

Uma was pretty good but the film was no great shakes. Is the original better? None of the songs seemed up to much.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 14 January 2006 10:59 (twenty years ago)

Also, the film's central joke, that the guaranteed flop becomes a hit, was never really made! The show was already so bad it's good - why did the appearance of Hitler make people start returning to their seats? And then it just skipped to Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick being worried about the police. There was no "Oh my God, it's actually becoming a hit!" moment. Weird.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 14 January 2006 11:02 (twenty years ago)

Word seems to have got out that this is a bit of a damp squib. No-one I know is going to see it.

It's a shame for Uma - most people will be unaware that that she has wider talents.

The whole film feels a bit flat as if it was done on the cheap, including even the use of colour - traditionally one of the strengths of musicals.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Saturday, 14 January 2006 11:12 (twenty years ago)

I saw it over Christmas break, and thought it was pretty funny and entertaining. A few of the jokes are almost painfully bad, but that's Mel Brooks for you. Overall, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours if you have nothing better to do.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 20 January 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Endings have never been Brooks' strong suit.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 20 January 2006 19:54 (twenty years ago)

The clowning (esp Lane) looks painfully 'theatrical' in the trailer. Broadway shows should be seen onstage, and ir sounds like turning it into a Movie Musical didn't work.

I actually find Bloom's courtroom speech in the '68 film to be touching and one of Mel's better windups, along with the "Prisoners of Love" finale. It's the blowing-up-the-theatre sequence that stops that movie dead.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 January 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

The clowning (esp Lane) looks painfully 'theatrical' in the trailer. Broadway shows should be seen onstage, and it sounds like turning it into a Movie Musical didn't work.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 January 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Endings have never been Brooks' strong suit

Well, I liked the part where they are trying to run a repeat of the scam in prision. Sure, it was cheesy, but it was good for a few laughs. The courtroom scene was good too. The part near the end where Nathan Lane recapitulates the entire story via song and dance from his jail cell might have worked on stage, but on screen it kind of falls flat.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 20 January 2006 20:14 (twenty years ago)

I saw this over Christmas break with family and thought it was really bland and boring. Maybe that's because I had recently seen the original, and I thought Nathan Lane was pretty unconvincing as a bloated womanizer. Easily forgettable.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 20 January 2006 20:19 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

This was terrible. Uma Thurman is especially awful but pretty much everyone is (as well as all being miscast), apart from the guy who played Roger DeBris, he was OK.

― Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 September 2008 13:06 (seventeen years ago)

I didn't know John Barrowman was in it!

― Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 September 2008 13:19 (seventeen years ago)

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