WICKED (2019): Musical Adaptation Gets Official Release Date

The film will actually be the second time the story has been adapted for another medium. Before it became known to theater audiences around the world, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was a novel by Gregory Maguire that presented a unique spin on L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. Ironically, the book was eyed for a cinematic adaptation before it was for Broadway, with it taking until now for Warner Bros. to bring the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West’s original name, to the big screen:

The Wicked movie will be brought to the screen by director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) and producer Marc Platt (Into the Woods, Bridge of Spies). The three time Tony Award winning stage musical was adapted from Gregory Maguire’s bestselling novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by book writer Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life) and three-time Oscar winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin), who are also collaborating on the screenplay adaptation.

The Wicked movie will face off against a still unrevealed live-action fairy tale film from Walt Disney Pictures. Quite a few live-action takes on Disney animated classics are in the works at the studio, but the December 20, 2019 date is, for the time being, just a placeholder set by the studio earlier this year.