Back to Broadway?

Okay, yes, I know this is a movie blog, not a theater blog, but this teeters on the line between both. And since it deals with such a beloved movie, I thought I’d bring it up.

The movie in question is “Back to the Future,” with Deadline reporting that director Robert Zemeckis is in very early talks with his co-writer Bob Gale and composer Alan Silvestri to turn the movie into a musical.

This brings up some interesting questions. For example:

• I know we’ve had helicopters on stage (Miss Saigon), a crashing chandelier (Phantom of the opera) and actors falling out of the ceiling (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), but a Delorean racing at high speed to catch some lightning and travel through time? In theater, there’s a way around everything, but it’s not like people are going to pay Broadway prices to have people onstage point out into the distance and say, “Look! There he goes!” while you’re supposed to imagine the car speeding by.
• Would they use any songs from the original? Would it be too expensive to license “Johnny B. Good?” Will Huey Lewis give out “The Power of Love?”
• What about all that stuff in the mall parking lot? Will they just have a gang of terrorists running in as opposed to driving around in a VW van?

Well, anyway, hits have come from more improbable sources. It will be interesting to see if this happens, and even more interesting to see who would write the score (which I’m guessing would be heavily ’50s influenced).

Russell Crowe may be picking pairs of animals.

Casting rumors! And today those rumors are from the Biblical side of Hollywood.

Deadline reports that Darren Aronofsky is hoping to put Russell Crowe at the helm of the ark in “Noah,” Aronofsky’s epic version of the Old Testament story. Early on in the development of the project there were stories that said Aronofsky wanted Christian Bale for the role, but either that was completely false or there was something that couldn’t be worked out between them. But if you can’t get Bale, it would be hard to argue with the choice of Crowe as a presence with, shall we say, Biblical heft. And I bet he can grow a bangin’ beard.

Aronofsky is also supposed to be looking at Liam Neeson for a role in the film, but it’s unclear what that would be. Let’s see, we can assume that Neeson could take Crowe in any fight because Neeson can take anyone in any fight. Therefore, Neeson must be playing someone more powerful than Crowe’s Noah. That would leave God. I guess that makes sense.

John Logan did a rewrite of Aronofsky and Ari Handel’s original script. Logan wrote “Gladiator.” Could he have made Noah more Crowe-ish?

The biggest barrier for Aronofsky may be Crowe’s schedule. Busy Crowe has “The Man with the Iron Fists” coming out this year, and also played Jor-El in “Man of Steel,” out later this year. He’s filming “Broken City” with Mark Wahlberg, then will play Javert in “Les Miserables.” He’s also rumored to be doing a cameo as Richard Burton in Ron Howard’s race car drama “Rush.” So get ready for lots of Crowe this year and next year.

John Hawkes joins the Elmore Leonard universe.

The prolific Elmore Leonard has had many of his novels and stories make it to the big screen. Some were good (“Out of Sight,” “Get Shorty,” “3:10 to Yuma”–both versions, the TV series “Justified”), some bad (“52 Pick-Up,” “The Big Bounce”). Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” was a well-liked Leonard adaptation that featured two characters, Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, played respectively by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert DeNiro. Now ComingSoon (via paywalled Variety) reports that an adaptation of Leonard’s 1978 novel “The Switch” is finally making it to the big screen, this time with Yasiin Bey and John Hawkes starring as Robbie and Gara. Dan Schechter is writing and directing. They’ve eliminated the “the” from the title, leaving it as just “Switch,” presumably to avoid confusion with the dreadful Jennifer Aniston movie “The Switch.”

Here’s the synopsis of the book:

Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara have lots in common—time in the same slammer, convictions for grand theft auto, and a plan for a big score. They’re going to snatch the wife of a Detroit developer and collect some easy ransom money. They don’t figure on a bum of a husband who has a secret mistress and no desire to get his wife back. Or on his crazy, beautiful broad of a housewife who’s going to join Ordell and Louis in the slickest, saviest crime of all.

No word on when this will start up, but it looks like the kidnapped wife is a great role for the right actress.

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