Little Shop of Horrors musical movie remake

[Brian07663NJ]

No rumors out there about Julie Taymor doing this? Wouldn't we all like to see what $75 million dollars can do to this?

[CarlosAlberto]

I worked at the Beekman Theater on 65th and 2nd Ave when this film came out. It did extremely well. It ran for a couple of months.

[JP2]

Add me to the list of people who find the Frank Oz film to be such a gem. It's actually my favorite movie.

[Mister Matt]

I was in high school when the film came out and the local theatre even decorated the entrance to the seating to appear as if you were walking into the mouth of the plant. I saw it six times. I could not get enough of it. I bought the soundtrack on cassette and memorized every song. I later got the original cast recording and learned of the change in the ending and the additional music, but I still love the film for what it is. The cast was perfect and it's such a joy that Ellen Greene was kept so they could capture her iconic take on the role.

[ChildrenwillListen]

I've never actually seen Little Shop, neither the movie nor the live show but I know the whole storyline and it scares me, so much that I actually have a chronic fear of venus fly traps (Insult me all you want, I don't give a crap)

[Kad]

The movie is actually what really got me into musical theatre.

It's actually impressive that the film managed to both preserve the breakout stage performance and adapt the material very well- few musical movies do both.

[Brian07663NJ]

I was a Freshman in High School and loved this movie! Was one of the first DVDs I had to own when I got a DVD player...along with My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies and Showgirls.

[SueleenGay]

This review of the Chicago production seems to think the original Corman film was a musical with a happy ending! Thank GOD this production went re-wrote the ending to make it scary!
LSoH Chicago

[Mister Matt]

I just thought the imagery and tone of the film was spot on. And I still love the opening with the urchins singing and dancing around a gloomy downtown neighborhood in the rain, yet not getting wet no matter where they go. Very clever and fun. Yes, I would have loved they preserve more of the original book and score, but I simply can't complain about anything that actually ended up on the screen. And I love Mean Green Mother From Outer Space.

[henrikegerman]

Wow, I had forgotten that Little Shop should have been listed - maybe someone else did, I didn't - as one of the few successful adaptations of a stage musical based on a classic film.

Phyllis, love the idea of Christina Hendricks as Audrey. And I think John C. Reilly would be great as the dentist.

[Mister Matt]

And I think John C. Reilly would be great as the dentist.

NO! YOU TAKE THAT BACK! DON'T EVEN PUT IT OUT THERE! NO!

[JP2]

John C. Reilly would make a much better Mushnik...

[Kad]

Someone like Jon Hamm would be good as Orin.

[nasty_khakis]

Not for the movie, but would anyone else LOVE to see Cyndi Lauper play Audry on stage now?!

[Mister Matt]

Only if the rest of the cast was amped up to her age. She's almost 60.

[best12bars]

I remember at the time, after a string of colossal flops of hit stage musicals, when LIttle Shop was first released in 1986, there was hope it might spark a resurgence in movie musicals (the way "Chicago" eventually did in 2002).

Alas, Little Shop was an isolated incident, largely because the creative forces behind it (Menken and Ashman) were immediately zapped up by Disney.

So the movie musical indeed entered a new renaissance ... but as animated films instead.

[Mister Matt]

And I believe the transfer of the Disney animated films to the stage strengthened the movie musical renaissance as well. It was a reverse crossover that helped fuel the idea that audiences may still have an interest in musicals both on stage and in film if success could be proven with both based on the same material. Granted, Disney was testing this theory based on animated films and family audiences, but the response was so huge, it was impossible to ignore. Thus, the overwhelming success of the Chicago revival was less of a risk on the screen, especially after the surprise hit that came from the Baz Luhrman jukebox spectacular, Moulin Rouge. I'd credit the newly found popularity of movie musicals to Moulin Rouge more than I would Chicago, though it obviously wasn't a stage-to-film adaptation. Luhrmann really went out on a limb with Moulin Rouge and it paid off in spades.

[TheatreDiva90016]

The original is still so much fun to watch, I don't see how anyone couldn't like it.

Yes, the happy ending sucks, and I have always said, 'Its a Greek tragedy, it's not supposed to have a happy ending!'

[JoshuaEads]

I've always wanted them to re-release the Frank Oz movie in theaters with the original ending. Alas, that doesn't seem anywhere near the realm of possibilities right now. So, if they're going to remake the film, I'd much rather see someone like Patton Oswalt as Seymour. My first thought for Orin was Jon Hamm, as well. As with ANY production of "Little Shop", the most crucial (and difficult?) role to cast is Audrey. If this happens, I hope they get it right.

[AEA AGMA SM]

I have a hunch that should this progress we will see Amanda Seyfried's and Julianna Hough's names tossed around.

ETA - I am, at this time, offering no opinion on either of them one way or the other, just the names that I see as potential front runners for the part should the project progress beyond being talked about/considered.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I love the 1986 movie, ending and all, but I would like to see a restoration of the original. I have the dvd with the work print ending (left unrecalled at a Saturday Matinee dvd store in St Louis, which I was able to buy for about ten dollars) but would still like to see it the way it was supposed to be seen.

That said, I don't hate hate the movie's ending, although it does sort of leave you with the movie having a squicky mixed message, since up until the movie diverges from the stage play, what you're clearly watching is a cautionary tale. To have Seymour get away with everything does muddy the waters, but again, I still love the original with all my heart. I'm surprised to hear that there's quite a bit of antipathy on here toward it.

[SueleenGay]

Toni Collette would be my choice. Audrey needs to look as if she has been around the block a few times. Not some young little Hough/Seyfried twit.

[Kad]

Me too, Phyllis. And I just don't get it.

The thing about Audrey is that Ellen Greene put such a stamp on the character that no one has really ever broken. Has anyone ever really come close, without imitating her?

[EricMontreal22]

I dunno, again only in the movie's context, I think showing that Seymour's future may not turn out all that bright (the smiling baby Audrey III in their garden is the last shot I believe) works enough for me. Maybe instead of a remake they can do a sequel where Seymour develops DID/split personalities from living a double life of having to secretly appease these little Audreys in some secret area of his basement while pretending to live the happy Better Homes and Gardens life with Audrey (I), Or not :P

I still think the reason Little Shop didn't lead to a movie musical renaissance was not that Disney snapped them up, it was more that it was seen as an abnormaly. It was a a film with a tongue in cheek and camp sensibility that brought attention tot he fact people were singing. The common wisdom in Hollywood was people couldn't handle a movie where people break into song (and to be fair it's always been harder to pull off than on stage where more disbelief is suspended) and that they WOULD buy it in animation, and to some extent when it was played for laughs (not that it's purely played for laughs in Little Shop by any means, but). That's one reason Shop got made relatively easy when bigger hits like Chicago and Dreamgirls were constantly in turnaround Hell throughout the 80s.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Kad, I would say that any successful Audrey I have seen onstage has owed at least a portion of her performance to Ellen Greene, but that's just my experience. Of the terrible ones I've seen it was either a case of trying too hard to imitate her and failing, or trying to avoid her performance all together, and also failing.

[best12bars]

I'd credit the newly found popularity of movie musicals to Moulin Rouge more than I would Chicago, though it obviously wasn't a stage-to-film adaptation. Luhrmann really went out on a limb with Moulin Rouge and it paid off in spades.

Moulin Rouge did something else, which rarely happens. It was a "reinvention" of the movie musical. It wasn't a stage to screen adaptation, but it showed us that stories could be told musically and cinematically in new and fresh ways.

Something like that happens so rarely in the history of any medium. And, so far, it hasn't been repeated or imitated. I thought we might see a string of stylized, pastiche films with fast editing in both song snippets and visuals ... but no. It really was a "one off" as well, perhaps rightfully so.

I suppose, in a way, it paved the way for Chicago (just one year later, which was already in production) ... and while Moulin Rouge was a hit and artistically successful ... Chicago was a blockbuster, and it was hugely successful. I don't think Moulin Rouge got filmmakers or studios to do more than scratch their heads and wonder how he did it. With Chicago, they saw dollar signs and Oscars, and they immediately chased after it with more adaptations, digging through the "Broadway musical archives" for potential film projects.