Evil producer Marc Platt and author Gregory Maguire reveal several 1990s stars who wanted to play Glinda and Elphaba. Gregory Maguire Evil The book was published in 1995 and its success led to a bidding war for the rights between actors who wanted to see it turned into a feature film. This bidding war occurred before Evil became the beloved musical which premiered in 2003 and is still running on Broadway today.
As shared via Vanity Fairwhen Platt joined Universal Pictures, Evil was initially acquired by Demi Moore's production companyMoving Images. This would have included Moore in the role of Elphaba, with Maguire recalling that “I used to say I can imagine Demi Moore naked and green on the cover of Vanity Fair.” At the time, Moore was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood and had ample star power following her roles in Some good men, Indecent Proposaland Striptease.
Moore's competition included Whoopi Goldberg, whose manager tried to buy the rights. Claire Danes, Salma Hayek and Laurie Metcalf are among the other actors who have expressed interest in the projectalthough Maguire doesn't know if everyone planned to play Elphaba. Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson and Nicole Kidman were considered for the role of Glinda. Moore's company ended up winning the bidding war, although this version of Evil the film was never greenlit and instead became a musical. Check out Maguire's comments below:
My agents in New York and Hollywood recommended Demi Moore's proposal because her company had a pre-existing relationship with Universal, and they said it would make it difficult to produce a potential project. It doesn't promise, but it means you've already overcome the problem of how to get someone to answer the phone in the studio. Demi Moore could make that happen. She had Universal on speed dial.
I saw some scripts and I confess, with all due respect to people who write scripts – and it's not me – that I didn't care much about them.
What does this mean for the wicked
A Wicked '90s Movie Wouldn't Have Been Anything Like the Musical
If the Evil If the film had been a direct adaptation of Maguire's novel, it would have been completely different from the musical version. Maguire's book is much darker and more disturbing than the family-friendly musical. To faithfully adapt the book, the film would require an R rating and would not have included “Defying Gravity”, “Popular”, “Dancing Through Life” or any of the Evil songs from the 2024 Broadway musical and film adaptation.
Moore, Goldberg, Kidman and the other aforementioned stars playing Elphaba and Glinda would have given fundamentally different performances compared to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera. EvilThe box office success stems from several factors, including the musical's run for over two decades and the all-ages family appeal, with a PG rating. The familiarity and appeal to all ages would not have been possible if Evil was made as a non-musical film at the end of the 1990s.
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As someone who likes Evil novel, Broadway musical and 2024 film, it's fascinating to imagine how different the trajectory of history could have been. Moore, Goldberg, Kidman and every other interested star could have done an excellent job playing Elphaba or Glinda. However, it was for the best that this version of the project never came to fruition. Better have the Broadway musical, the 2024 movie and the 2025 movie Evil: foreverwhich are capable of reaching a wider audience than a direct adaptation of Maguire's book Evil would have done.
Source: Vanity Fair