‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ Heading For The Stage

[finebydesign]

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ Heading For The Stage

By MIKE FLEMING JR. | Thursday December 6, 2012 @ 12:16pm PST
Tags: Guillermo Del Toro, Gustavo Santaoalla, Pan's Labyrinth, Paul Williams, Stage Musical

EXCLUSIVE: Pan’s Labyrinth is taking shape as a stage musical. The 2006 Guillermo del Toro-directed film is about a young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer who finds refuge and terror in a fantasy world in 1944 Fascist Spain. The stage version already has a book that has been written by del Toro and Jeremy Ungar. Paul Williams has just been signed to write the lyrics. Gustavo Santaolalla, who twice won Oscars for composing the scores for Brokeback Mountain and Babel, is writing the music. Robert Fox is producing with del Toro and Gary Ungar.

Del Toro has been working quietly on this for four years, interviewing directors, librettists and composers. Del Toro, Williams and Santaolalla are also working on songs for the animated Reel FX film Day Of The Dead, which is in advanced stages of production.

“I admire and love Gustavo and Paul wrote the perfect album in Phantom of the Paradise, which I have loved for decades,” said del Toro, who just wrapped Pacific Rim for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros and who’ll next direct the haunted house tale Crimson Peak for Legendary.

Said Santaolalla: “I’m so excited about translating Guillermo’s magical vision into music and songs. I’m such a longtime fan of both Guillermo and Paul that to work on this with them is truly a dream come true.”

Fox, the London-based producer whose credits include everything from The Boy From Oz, The Pillowman, Frost/Nixon to Burn This and Gypsy, has set as general managers Bespoke Theatrical’s Nina Lannan and Maggie Brohn.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Guillermo and the terrific creative team that we have put together to bring the wonderful film of Pan’s Labyrinth to the stage as a musical,” Fox said.


Deadline

[FindingNamo]

So, huh, Paul Williams, hmmmm.

[givesmevoice]

Well I'm intrigued. This is one of my all-time favorite movies.

[JoeKv99]

"Paul wrote the perfect album in Phantom of the Paradise, which I have loved for decades" to which I can only echo Namo's near-perfect reaction: "So, huh, Paul Williams, hmmmm."

[ABB2357]

It's one of my favorites too, but I can't see how they could improve on the film. I think the story might potentially work as a sung-through opera but doesn't lend itself at all to a conventional book musical.

[Jane2]

I didn't care for Pan's Labyrinth but I do like Paul Williams' work. He's been doing a few of the tv talk shows lately.

[Idiot]

"but I can't see how they could improve on the film."

I don't know that it's the duty of a musical to 'improve' upon pre-existing source material. I don't expect it, at least.

[Kad]

They need a visionary, inventive director for this, that's for sure. I just don't think this is a story that cries out for the stage in a traditional sense.

[ABB2357]

Perhaps "improvement" is too strong a word, but any stage version is going to have to hold water alongside its source material at the very least, especially a modern classic such as this. GREY GARDENS may have come closest in recent memory, but the musical adaptation was a very different animal.

[henrikegerman]

Great movie. I can see it possibly working as an opera.

[michellek45]

I'm certainly intrigued- the movie was great. I agree with henrik that it would work as an opera. I can't really imagine how it would work as a book musical, unless they did all of the musical numbers in the labyrinth fantasy world.

[darquegk]

If Paul Williams is doing a surreal, magic-realist horror-tinged musical for the stage, why isn't it PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE?

Please, Paul!

[eatlasagna]

i am looking forward to how they design the sets and costume.....

this is one of those rare movies that just deeply affected me... i sat there in the theater when it was over not wanting to leave... i was just in amazement at what I had just seen!

[FindingNamo]

I vote for Julie Taymor with a tight budget and strict deadlines and no "collaborators" working against her behind her back.

[Iheartchipotle]

Agreed about Taymor. It could be stunning, and would be right up her alley. Imagine TITUS and Lion King in one show...

[vf]

I wish I could un-see that bleak, depressing movie. Agree that it's a TERRIBLE idea for a musical.

[best12bars]

I was turned off completely by the movie. It had such promise but became repulsive and actually left me feeling angry at the filmmakers for having "gone there" with the excessive torture and violence. I can only imagine the movie gore will be toned down or "implied" for the stage. That might actually help it succeed.

[South Fl Marc]

Not every movie needs to or should become a musical.

I actually loved the movie, but it was depressing and disturbing. The images were so powerful. It is one of those movies that having seen once, I really don't want to see again. Neither would I see a musical adaptation.

[Kad]

Tony Vincent can play the Pale Man.

[henrikegerman]

I'll keep an open mind. Just as not every movie doesn't have to be a musical, not every musical needs to be a movie. One musical I thought would never needed to be filmed was Chicago, which was surprisingly a great movie.

But I still think Pan's Labyrinth's brutality, grimness and primal childhood trauma make an opera - a real opera - a far better choice for musicalization than a musical.

[Younger Brother]

I was just watching this last night and was thinking just how much potential this has to be a fantastic musical. Maybe Elena Roger as Mercedes?

[DEClarke]

I'm intrigued by this! I love the film and think it could make a beautiful, albeit very depressing, musical. I can this being very captivating and very powerful on stage.