It's one of the most popular musicals on Broadway, and though we've heard rumblings of a big-screen adaptation for a couple of years now, it looks like Wicked will be heading to the small screen, at least for the time being. TVLine reports that ABC is teaming up with Salma Hayek to bring Wicked to TV as an eight-hour miniseries. It will not, however, be based on the musical. Instead, it will be more of a straight adaptation of Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which originally inspired the musical.
This won't be in place of the movie, mind you, since Universal is still developing its own movie-musical based on the Broadway show. With that in mind, it should be interesting to see how they react to this news. Will they back away and put their adaptation on the back-burner, or will they plow full steam ahead and try to get theirs into theaters either before or right after the TV miniseries in order to capitalize on all the hype?
Personally, I've always thought the most interesting thing about Wicked was its story, which begins prior to the events of The Wizard of Oz, and eventually catches up and runs parallel to that story. According to TVLine, the miniseries will be "less of a prequel and more of a parallel story to The Wizard of Oz," which could work even though there's some really fun stuff included in the musical that happens before The Wizard of Oz as the witches are growing up.
Now it's your turn to sound off. Would you rather Wicked become a TV miniseries, a movie or both?
