Director Jon M. Chu saw Wicked before almost everyone else in the world. Chu was one of the audience members lucky enough to see the show in its initial pre-Broadway San Francisco run way back in 2003. And, as the story goes, he sat there watching the show and began to imagine what it would be as a movie.
In the decades that followed, Chu found himself directing multiple musical films, including Step Up 3D, Jem and the Holograms, and In the Heights. But he continued hoping and dreaming about making Wicked. That dream becomes a reality this week when the film hits theaters.
io9 spoke to Chu in Los Angeles earlier this month and he told us about the journey he went on to make the film—a journey that included watching bootleg recordings of the show on YouTube because the producers had never officially filmed the stage show. Read about that and more below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Read the first part of our interview here and come back later this week for more.
Germain Lussier, io9: Wicked is a story fans like yourself have been waiting to see for a long time and, with that anticipation, comes pressure and expectations. How did those factor in your decision to make this movie?
Jon M. Chu: I’ve been waiting for this for years. I chased it. I called [producer] Mark Platt. He never called me back. I called Universal. They never called me back. So to get the call during the pandemic, to say, “Hey, you want to get in?” I knew exactly how to make this movie. I will never forget watching this in San Francisco and feeling what it felt like. It felt like I was watching a movie for the first time. I filled in all the gaps. I literally thought she was flying around the room. She wasn’t, apparently. And so I knew with the power of the tools we had on the movie side [what] we could really bring to this story and yet also protect it. This had never become an animated movie. It never became live-action. They never even shot the stage show. So that responsibility laid heavy on me. But I also know movies are from a perspective. So I had to commit to what I knew and loved about this. And the girls [Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo] helped protect some of those moments as well. And then we would do the best we can.
io9: Since you’re making Wicked into two movies, you have the ability to add to this story. What was the process like to make sure any additions or changes were approved by the likes of [musical writers] Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, or [original book author] Gregory Maguire?
Chu: So we started with, “Hey, I am walking into this and I have ideas but I’m not going to say anything because I want to learn.” So we spent—and this was all on Zoom because it was during the covid lockdown times—every day I lived the theater kid’s dream sitting down on Zoom with Winnie and Steven and Mark [Platt] and [producer] Dana Fox, who I brought in to help. And we would sit there and we went through every line of every script in existence of Wicked. “Why did that scene get put in there?” “What was a scene that was an alternative scene?” “Why did this line get written?” “How did you come up with that lyric?” And I didn’t give any input at that time. I just wanted to soak it in.
So for months and months and months, I’d soak it in. Sometimes I’d ask a question. “But why would you do that?” “Oh, is that what you think?” “Okay, I didn’t get that I’m going to put a little pin in there.” I’ll put a pin in there. So eventually we had all these pins in things and I could draw from the show, I could draw from the whole script. I could draw from a moment that we talked about. I could draw from their personal experience and why this came in. And then it started to tie together in that way.
There was a certain point where I had to say to them, “Okay, I’ve learned all that I can. Now you need to turn over the keys. Can you trust me? And if you can’t. I understand that. We didn’t waste time. I learned a lot. But if you can, this is the moment that if I’m going to have the responsibility. I have to have the authority to be able to make these hard choices that you may or may not agree with. But I know your heart and I know I’m going to deliver this for you.” So that’s what we’ve got too.
io9: What other things did you do to prepare to make the movie?
Chu: I mean I knew the soundtrack in and out. And I definitely was like, “Do you guys have a recording?” And they were like, “We don’t have a recording.” I’m like, ” You have one in the back closet.” They’re like, “We do not.” I’m like, “That’s crazy, guys.” So I went on YouTube and found pirated versions and would just watch sections and be like, “Oh, yeah, that’s what happened.” I mean, I’d seen the show many times before that. So that was part of the thing. And then after the show started to open up [again post-covid], I watched it a bunch of times too. But then at a certain point, I had to let it go and not think about it anymore it became different with the girls. They were doing different things. And I always say at a certain point, the movie starts talking back and I need to be there to listen to it. So that’s what sort of happened.
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What happens next is Wicked opens in theaters Friday followed by Part Two in 2025. Also, we’ll have one more post from our interview with the director discussing his interpretation of “Defying Gravity.”
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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