Twenty years ago, evil The movie could have looked very different.
with vanity fair, Marc Platt, producer of the 2024 film evil Author Gregory Maguire and composer Stephen Schwartz recall the first efforts to bring the Broadway musical to the big screen in the late 1990s.
He details the world in which stars like Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, and others were interested in playing beloved characters like Elphaba and Glinda, and ultimately, Cynthia Erivo and Ellie in this year’s musical adaptation Anna Grande landed the role.
“If I remember, I’ll try to get the timeline right, but I believe this project was already here when I became president of production at Universal,” Platt said. “It was originally optioned by Demi Moore’s company.”
Platt knew about Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West It would be a great film adaptation, and it became the focus of a bidding war between different actors who wanted to make the feature.
“People who expressed interest in the first six months included Whoopi Goldberg and Claire Danes,” Maguire said. “There’s been some interest from Salma Hayek and Laurie Metcalf,” though Maguire isn’t sure if either is planning to play Elphaba’s role.
Moore’s production company Moving Pictures specifically pursued the adaptation rights, as well as her popularity at the time – thanks to films such as A few good people, indecent proposal and striptease — making her a strong candidate for the green-skinned witch.
“I once said that I could imagine Demi Moore naked and green in ” vanity fair,” said the author.
Although I haven’t chosen Glinda yet, Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson and Nicole Kidman are all top choices.
Suzanne Todd, then an assistant to action film producer Joel Silver, revealed that Goldberg was interested in buying the rights to the book. “Whoopi Goldberg’s manager wanted to buy it for her,” she said, but Maguire chose Moore.
Moore voices Disney animated musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, It includes the song Schwartz co-wrote, “Epiphany Now” evil Needs to be a musical.
“So before I even read the book, I tried to get the rights immediately,” the composer said. “When I was trying to find them, I found out about Demi’s production company and tried to set up a meeting to convince them no Make the movie and then the musical.
He noted that if the movie was attached, Moore wouldn’t be able to sing. “Oddly enough, Demi voiced Esmeralda in the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She said, “I don’t want to sing myself,” and we found someone with a similar voice to sing the character’s song. The point is – I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, let me do a musical for Demi. I just wanted to see if I could focus on this project.
Although the screenplay never took off, Schwartz convinced the rights holders to let him try his hand at writing evil As a stage musical, he did. It premiered in 2003 and is still running on Broadway.
Part 1 evilReleased on November 22, it is the highest-grossing Broadway play adaptation of all time. evil: doing good Released on November 21, 2025.
