WICKED The Movie Is Now In Talks...

I’m amazed it’s taken this long, but it seems a movie based on top London show Wicked is on the cards. 

''Something Wicked This Way Comes''

 Universal are finally getting the wheels in motion and have spoken to the likes of JJ Abrams, Rob Marshall (Chicago), and Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy about the idea of directing the eventual film.

 Wicked, adapted from Gregory Maguire’s bestseller about the early days of Glinda and Elphaba (the two witches in The Wizard of Oz), was set to hit the big screen years ago, but producer Marc Platt and the folk at Universal chose to turn it into a stage musical instead, and we all know how that turned out.

Now, after raking in billions of dollars around the world, Platt, book writer Winnie Holzman, and songwriter Stephen Schwartz are talking to various directors about taking the reins of the movie adaptation.

As we know, Wicked has a particularly vocal fanbase, many of whom have already started lobbying for the show’s original stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth to play the leads.

Let’s be clear – that is NEVER going to happen. It might make the diehards happy, but Universal want to make money, and as unfair as this might be, most people have no idea who Menzel and Chenoweth are. 

In order to fully exploit the story’s cinematic potential, it’s far more likely that younger, better-known actresses will be given the top jobs

.

Just picturing it now, I can see someone like Lea Michele as Elphaba, and maybe an unknown for Glinda.

Whatever happens, I hope that this isn’t another false start, because a movie adaptation of Wicked is long overdue and will do great business. Plus, it will act as a brilliant advert for the real thing.

What do you guys think?

Feast Your Eyes On This, Nigella Lawson's New Cookbook KITCHEN...

RELEASED IN THE UK ON 6 SEPTEMBER 2010

“…this book is simply the story of my love affair with the kitchen.  Whatever the opposite of the currently still fashionable genre, the misery memoir, might be, this is it: a comfort chronicle.” (Nigella Lawson)

Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home is Nigella’s first book since seasonal bestseller, Nigella Christmas, was published in 2008.  In true Nigella style, Kitchen is about the food we eat now, the way we eat and live today; feel-good food from the most important room in the house.

Informative and engaging, Kitchen offers food for both cooks and eaters that is comforting but always seductive, nostalgic but with a modern twist, from “express” style recipes for the time-strapped, hectic week or leisurely slow-cook dishes for weekends and special occasions. It answers everyday cooking quandaries – from how to rustle up a meal for friends in moments to what to do about those black bananas – and since real cooking is so often about leftovers, 

Nigella makes “leftovers right”, by showing us how to morph one recipe into another, from ham hocks to peas soups and pastries, braised chicken to Chinatown salad.

As well as offering the reader an array of inspired new recipes – from clams with chorizo to Guinness gingerbread – Nigella rounds up her no-nonsense kitchen kit must-haves in the way of equipment and magical standby ingredients.  

Above all, she reminds the reader how much pleasure there is to be had in real food and in reclaiming the traditional rhythms of the kitchen and I love her...