ABC Gets Wicked

ABC has decided to return to the miniseries market and has picked a hell of an adaption.  ABC, with the help of Salma Hayek, is turning Gregory Maguire's best selling book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West into an 8 hour epic miniseries.

For those of you who are thinking that they mean the musical that is now a Broadway hit, you are wrong.  The musical is only loosely based on the book while the miniseries will be a more representation of Maguire's novel.  It will center around Elphaba Thropp, a.k.a The Wicked Witch of the West, and the journey that led her to the witch that Dorothy murdered.

Salma Hayek's production studio Ventanarosa will help ABC develop the miniseries with Emmy Awarding winning Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) penning the script.  With Jendresen developing the script, I can expect that the miniseries will stay true to the darker side of the novel.

This novel is one of my favorites of all time.  It deals with issues such as segregation, religion, political corruption, and racism.  By the end of this novel, you are almost in tears when Dorothy commits the act that ends Elphaba's life.  As you watch OZ, you see Dorothy's side and you hate the witch.  After Wicked you will never watch that movie the same way again.

This is sure to be a hit for the alphabet network, and may even revive the miniseries for other networks.  Information has yet to be released, as the ink is still wet.  But expect Wicked in the fall of 2011/Spring2012

Spiderman Musical A Cash Cow

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has surpassed Wicked as the highest-grossing show on Broadway and it has left a couple of people shocked and scratching their heads.

Spiderman managed to beat out the ever-so-popular Wicked last week, which is a major feat considering that 100% of Wicked's audience were paying patrons while Spiderman had many discounted/complimentary tickets during it's preview week.

Perhaps it is all of the backstage drama that has plagued the Spiderman musical that has people anxious to see it before it is yanked out of the theaters.

Either way, Spiderman is off to a great start and Wicked, among others, had better be prepared for when Spiderman opens on Feb. 7.