Is The NEXT TO NORMAL Movie Still Happening?

[dreaming]

I could get on board with Amy Adams. She'd be fine, I think.

I also wonder what Idina Menzel could do with the role. (I know, she's more of a stage actress for the role. I doubt her "Glee" appearances will make any impact.)

[Jordan Catalano]

That's fine but she looks like she's 25.

[dreaming]

Never fear, Jordan-by the time the film gets made, she'll look old enough.

[kieranbec]

What's Alice Ripley up to these days?

[Bettyboy72]

Im sorry I dont want a lovely voice who can LEARN how to belt. Not exciting. This is a rock score and it needs an actress who can wail. Pink excites me-just thinking about her singing that score is exciting, because the score is thrilling.If I have to hear that score limp along by some A list actress I will die.

Also, many singers are very good in a musical medium. They are convincing in music videos. Part of the reason I liked Madonna in EVITA is because she wasnt really talking at all. It was music videos pieced together.

If there is a god, Pink would be considered for the role. So long as they cast a true teen, Pink would look age appropriate.

I dont want to hear Kate or Naomi's voice "sweetened" during the tough parts of the score.

[ChanceEncounter]

I LOVE Pink. But having seen her act (she was in some horror movie about people in catacombs under Paris a number of years ago) she is a no.

[little_sally]

I'd imagine that some songs would be cut so it wouldn't be as much singing as the musical. I'd rather have someone act the role well instead of belting it to the high heavens. Naomi, Jennifer Connelly, and Kate Winslet are all great picks.

[ChanceEncounter]

I'd rather have someone act the role well instead of belting it to the high heavens.

Or, you could get Toni Collette (like I suggested) and have both.

[Jordan Catalano]

No, better to have a popular bankable actress who can only "kind of" sing, like Nicole Kidman or Meryl Streep.

[little_sally]

Toni Collette is the only actress I can think of who can sing and act the hell out of this role. The only way they'd use her is if they cast bigger names in the rest of the roles.

[qolbinau]

Can they "take a chance" on Collette? She has a TV show and has done many movies, nominated for an Oscar and Tony (ok that means nothing). BUT STILL, keep the budget low and it can't be THAT risky?

How about this 'name' Natalie?



I think she'd be great.

[ChanceEncounter]

If they're going to do it they should do it right. I would much prefer a premium cable channel do it so they could actually cast decent people instead of a theatrical version that has less than serviceable stars. The Showtime Reefer Madness worked wondefully without a single major star. It was full of broadway people that have only (especially back then) minnimal mainstream recognition. Alan Cumming, Amy Spanger, Ana Gasteyer, Steven Weber. Of that lot, Spanger has never been a mainstream name. At the time Cumming wasn't as well known as he is know. Gasteyer had recently left SNL and Weber was still mostly known for Wings which hadn't been on the air in 8 years. And the two young leads were Christian Campbell (who I'm sure still wouldn't be picked out of a crowd by 99.9% of people) and Kristen Bell who's greatest success to date is being the uncredited voice of Gossip Girl for 9 seasons. The biggest "movie star" in the whole thing was Neve Campbell who no one would know a thing about if it wasn't for Scream.

[Jordan Catalano]

That's not true. PARTY OF FIVE had a very large following.

[mormonophobic]

^ I was just about to say the same thing. Plus Neve Campbell was also known for The Craft and Wild Things, though neither had the success that the Scream films had.

And though it was never really a gigantic hit, isn't Kristen Bell more known for Veronica Mars than a voiceover on Gossip Girl?

[ChanceEncounter]

More known for Veronica Mars but you can hardly point to that as something that shows she's a viable star.


ETA

Also, how many people in the target audience of N2N are old enough to remember Party of Five?

[BroomstickBoy]

Why is Toni Collette always thrown into the mix of playing mentally unhinged characters?

I find her to be a fantastic actress, but enough already with playing mental screw-ups.

Is it her pretty but unconventionally attractive features that allow her to play ugly?

Is it the lack of Americanized sanitation in her performances?

What?

[darquegk]

The cast of Reefer Madness is much less a "Broadway cast" and more a TV star and film character actor cast. Granted, many of them had done Broadway or later did, but for the most part everyone was a recognizable B-lister. Cumming in the arguable real lead as the Lecturer had a Bond film, Spy Kids and X-Men among other things by that point. Kristin Bell had Veronica Mars, Ana Gasteyer was a major SNL player. It was a B-list cast to be sure, but Broadway doesn't even rank B-list.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

omg.

Pink.

Would be.

AMAZING.

BettyBoy, that's seriously the best idea I've ever heard. And i mean, the best idea out of every single idea I've ever heard. Not ideas about casting NEXT TO NORMAL. All ideas.

[fingerlakessinger]

Pink would be fantastic IMO.
Hell, I think Idina could do it very well. I know I will be in the minority but I think her voice and acting have great depths that could do the part justice. Please, no one kill me.
Amy Adam's looks far too young. She might be the right age in real life but she looks too young.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Broomstick, I don't know that Toni Collette is only thought of as playing mentally unhinged character. Her Oscar nomination is for playing the character who was the only sort of sane person in the film, in IN HER SHOES (where she's underrated but fantastic) she is the stable sister, and I doubt she was unhinged in her last two movies--FRIGHT NIGHT and HITCHCOCK. She was incredible in US OF TARA, and maybe because she's not afraid to "go there," people think of her as very capable for Diana. It's kind of like with Naomi Watts, probably the most intense Hollywood actress of her generation, she's just really great at playing ridiculously intense characters. I don't know that it's a bad thing.
I love hearing movie stars tackle the musical theatre cannon in the context of a movie musical, it's fun and different. I love hearing Streep's singing voice, she can act a song like few can and from what I've read from people who know about this stuff on the board, her singing is very technically proficient. However, Diana is a role that needs that great vocal performance to match the intensity of the material, it is true that Collette is probably the only movie star who has the vocal power to do justice to the role.

[strummergirl]

Toni Collette comes up all the time because she can sing and it would be great if she finally got to do it on the big screen. And the 'unhinged' darkness of Tara on the show did not really fully hit until its last season. The previous seasons had her as a chameleon playing different parts of that personality that did go there but not into where Diana went into until the last season. As ray points out, it speaks more to her wide range as an actress but again, she also has vocal chops. If anything despite her being Australian she consistently passes as American unlike her other, more famous counterparts who seem to think American South and stock gangster hitman are the go-to accents. Also while she does not play beauties I can really only think of In Her Shoes and Muriel's Wedding where she was noticeably made frumpy but I don't know, she looked pretty in The Sixth Sense to me.

[Owen22]

"Pink would be fantastic IMO.
Amy Adam's looks far too young. She might be the right age in real life but she looks too young."

You think Pink, who I believe is only 33, is completely right for the role and Amy Adams looks too young...?

[someone.else's.story2]

Not a huge name but what about Julia Murney?

[Bettyboy72]

"You think Pink, who I believe is only 33, is completely right for the role and Amy Adams looks too young...?"

Actually yes. No disrespect to Pink, but Amy still looks like a teen. Pink looks and reads older, especially when not glamourized. She could pass for 40, easy.

[Jordan Catalano]

I agree. I can't see Pink ever doing this movie but it's all about how old someone reads on film. And Diana has some miles on her, she can't look like she graduated high school a few years ago.

[darquegk]

If I remember, Natalie is seventeen, right? And Diana had her at age eighteen. so Diana is thirty-five at least in TEXT, but typically played a bit older.

I don't know what it is about the voice of J. Robert Spencer, but when I hear him on the record, I can't help but picture Robert Sean Leonard, Dr. James Wilson from "House" as Dan.