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the Oscar winning movie of the year, BIRDMAN, takes place on Broadway, and the theater/poster/marquee for MOTOWN THE MUSICAL appears several times[[it's across the street from the play in Birdman) during the movie [[which,by the way, is fantastic).now where is MOTOWN: THE MOVIE?
Jimi, it's cool that the marquee for "Motown - The Musical" has been captured on film -- in a hit movie, no less -- for all posterity. But "Motown - The Movie"? THAT's the one we're all waiting for! - Gary
I don't think there is a way to do Motown: The Movie truthfully and in a two and a half hour frame. It would certainly work better in a miniseries format. I remember about 10-12 years ago NBC was planning a lengthy miniseries on Motown. Don't know what caused it to fall through...my guess is probably legal issues.
I enjoyed Motown: The Musical and it certainly was an exciting show, but there were too many factual errors that stuck out to me. I do hope they fix and retool parts of the show before it comes back to Broadway in the summer of 2016.
I think Berry already spoke once about the Movie coming in due course.
He'd be better off releasing never-before-seen rehearsal and concert footage from the Motown tape vaults instead. I want to see that! Frankly I don't think a film version of the musical could ever work. The show doesn't have much of a book to begin with so there really is no depth, plot or character development. There is too much going on and too many stories to tell to make it work effectively for the big screen. For a film version to work successfully, it would have to be written and developed from scratch. The stage book has little to offer.Quote:
Originally Posted by jobeterob
I was in Ft. Lauderdale for three weeks and by very happy coincidence, the travelling version of Motown The Musical was opening at the Broward Center. What a fantastic birthday present to myself - orchestra seats. The musical performances were every bit as good as I had hoped it would be, though great liberties were taken with actual events.
March 4th, the evening I attended, the 2,600 capacity theatre, was almost a complete sell out. A runaway wheelchair speeding down a steep ground floor aisle caused quite a bit of commotion. The incident happened right by my aisle seat a few minutes before the curtain rose. With the help of another fellow across the aisle from me, we helped the woman who was pushing the wheelchair who was somehow dragged under it, up from under it. No injuries, except to herAttachment 9273Attachment 9272 pride.
The only obvious mistake to me was the scene when the Marvin Gaye character is performing with Martha & The Vandellas with a huge poster naming them in the background. After the brief musical number, a "DJ" announcer jumps on stage and announces "and that was Marvin Gaye and the Supremes!" Nobody seem to notice, but I sure did. LOL!
By the way, got a HUGE laugh when I read the Playbill and saw that the actress who played the Mary Wilson character also portrayed "Mother Gordy!"
Oh, absolutely, Brad. When I said that we’re all waiting for the movie version of "The Motown Story", it would have to be born from an entirely new script. That goes without saying. [["Motown - The Musical" is too cutesy to be taken seriously in a movie version.) And, like you said, it would cover too much territory [[figuratively) to try to cover within a 1 ½ to 2-hour time frame. A mini-series sounds good to me, too. Shall we start preparing the script now? HeHe!!!
the movie will be the musical,the broadway show..
and I think the general public will love it..I recall that many here thought that the musical itself would fold after three months of it's opening..we'll see
[QUOTE=bradsupremes;277540]I don't think there is a way to do Motown: The Movie truthfully and in a two and a half hour frame. It would certainly work better in a miniseries format. I remember about 10-12 years ago NBC was planning a lengthy miniseries on Motown. Don't know what caused it to fall through...my guess is probably legal issues.......... [QUOTE]
If I remember correctly, the issue had to do with the rights to use Motown songs/music; NBC figured how successful could a Motown mini-series be without Motown music. So, in the end it never happened.