Brett Ratner Wants to Direct WICKED Flick

A new feature on Brett Ratner out in the New York Times today reveals the music video/Hollywood director and producer's surprising dream job: helming the movie adaptation of the Stephen Schwartz blockbuster, WICKED. 

Ratner revealed the news at a recent Friar's Club roast in his honor. Of the idea of tackling the project, one that he admits would be a seemingly unusual choice, he said: "People who played it safe, they weren't really going anywhere...They did the same thing over and over again. I've always challenged myself, and whether I failed or not, I didn't fail in my mind. I went through the experience, and it prepared me for the next time I'm going to do it." 

Up next for Ratner - who is celebrating his latest undertaking, Tower Heist now - is producing the Oscars.

To read the full report on the Firars Club roast of Ratner and his future plans in the New York Times, click here.

Ratner is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.

Produced by Universal Pictures in coalition with Marc Platt and David Stone, the Joe Mantello-directed and Wayne Cilento-choreographed original production of Wicked premiered on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway SHN tryouts at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May 2003. The success of the Broadway production has provoked the opening of five other North American productions, including two national tours, as well as a five-year strong West End production and several international productions in the likes of Japan, Germany and Australia.

While the original production won three out of its ten Tony Award nominations, garnered six Drama Desk Awards and received one Grammy Award, Wicked has since accrued one Laurence Olivier Award and six Helpmann Awards internationally. Since its 2003 debut, Wicked has broken box office records around the world, holding weekly-gross-takings records in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London. Both the West End production and the North American tour have been seen by over two million patrons each while the original production, having played 3,307 performances, celebrates its eighth anniversary on October 30, 2011, making Wicked the 14th longest-running Broadway show in history.