11 Movies That Should Be Musicals
Films that need to shift from screen to stage...
BY May 19th 2009 12:12PMFILED UNDER: Features
User Comments (10)
Up in Smoke (1978)
The film: Two stoners unwittingly smuggle a van made entirely of marijuana from Mexico to LA.
Why It ought to be a musical: The greatest stoner comedy of all time could be the best stoner musical since 'Reefer Madness: The Musical'.
The road trip scenario provides a challenge for staging, but there's plenty to mine here, including ready-made songs.
Of all the films on this list, this was the most popular choice in the totalfilm.com office, which perhaps says a bit too much about our writers...
Music & lyrics by... Flying way before The Conchords ever did – Cheech and Chong, man.
Hit songs: 'Earache In My Eye', 'Mostly Maui Wowie', 'Does Howdy Doody Got Wooden Balls, Man', 'We Can Be Punks, Man', 'Mellow Out, Man', 'Some Asshole Pissed On My Leg' and 'I Think He's The Antichrist'.
Producer’s notes: Pipe marijuana smoke into the auditorium - synchronised with the appearance of chocolate/crisp-selling usherettes. Ker-ching!
Next: Predator
Print Comments (10)
1: jollieoldtime says
They totally made Evil Dead a musical off-Broadway.
They basically spent the entire time throwing blood on the audience. It was awesome.
Posted: May 20th 2009 // 8:30PMAlert a moderator
2: mic2803 says
definately 300 the musical starring john barrowman as Leonidas. giant elephants with the same technique as the west-end lion king. music and lyrics by muse perhaps?
Posted: May 20th 2009 // 10:49PMAlert a moderator
3: ebrown2112 says
Kevin Smith's ok, but New Jersey's finest? You're forgetting John Sayles.
Posted: May 22nd 2009 // 9:35AMAlert a moderator
4: Kelisha888 says
Well, at least you mentioned Sondheim - who at least knows how to write a musical. I can't help but thinking Andrew Lloyd Weber should write the music to Blade Runner.
Posted: May 22nd 2009 // 12:11PMAlert a moderator
5: jws1272 says
There's a production of Evil Dead:The Musical playing here in Cleveland, Ohio, USA right now. I've got tix for May 29! Not in the Splatter Zone (yes, they do spray blood at the audience), but tix nonetheless. Can't wait to see it. I've seen some footage from the Toronto production, & they DO reference the Boomstick speech from AOD.
Posted: May 22nd 2009 // 8:01PMAlert a moderator
6: Phoenixtorn says
I saw the Evil Dead musical twice when it was here in Toronto (and saw the cast perform some of the songs at a convention). It was great and so much fun! An army of Darkness Sequel would be pretty spectacular. lol
Posted: May 22nd 2009 // 10:28PMAlert a moderator
7: dgoodswen says
It has become an unrelenting priority to get tix to the Evil Dead musical... in the splatter zone!
Posted: May 23rd 2009 // 1:40AMAlert a moderator
8: MovieDearest says
I'm pretty sure I just read recently that "Heathers" is being turned into a musical ... so one down, 10 more to go!
And don't forget the odd rumor that "Fight Club" may be turned into a musical, as well as "Wet Hot American Summer".
Posted: May 23rd 2009 // 7:07AMAlert a moderator
9: shovel says
Heathers! the Musical. awesome. but it can't happen without "cornnuts," either a rock ballad or dancy number for heather's last words. ooh. perhaps the old jingle "bust a nut" can be used.
Posted: May 23rd 2009 // 11:12PMAlert a moderator
10: magic8387 says
"The Jerk". It's already got a couple of musical pieces in it, and room for so many more. Open with his black family singing on the porch, the big dance number where he finds his rythym, along with "I'm somebody now!", "He hates these cans", "I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit", A musical pitch of the Opti-grab, "I AM A n****r!" and of course "All I need is..."
It'd be perfect.
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