MovieChat Forums > Smash (2012) Discussion > What was JULIA doing with...

What was JULIA doing with...

posted 10 years ago by IMDB_Vits
3 replies | jump to latest

... THE GREAT GATSBY? She said something like "I started writing it, and as time went by, I realized that it was a play rather than a musical". It didn't sound like she was just copying and pasting the novel into a script. So was she trying to re-write it? I mean, I've heard of (and even seen) plays like that, where the basic plot is the same but the dialogue is completely different and there are some new plot points. The thing is that GATSBY is one of those classics that I don't think people would like seeing it changed like that. Even the 2013 movie used the same dialogue. Same with ROMEO & JULIET 1996, while the 2013 one changed the dialogue and people hated it. Besides, after all the trouble of getting the rights and it won't be a musical? Well, if she had decided to make it and the show had been renewed for a 3rd season, it would've been overshadowed by the movie (it wasn't a musical but it was a bombastic spectacle that emphasized on music and dancing a lot).

By the way, would you like to see a GATSBY musical being made in real life?

[–] writegirl1-2 10 years ago

It's funny because there was a (IIRC) fairly reviled Gatsby movie with Robert Redford also, so it sounds a little bit like they would've had the same problem with this project that they did with their being a failed RL musical with Marilyn Monroe.

As for the question of rewriting it, I am going off of poor high school recall but IIRC, a lot of the story is Nick Carraway's internal thoughts instead of dialogue, which they could approach either clunkily as breaking the fourth wall while he narrates, or try to smoothly integrate it. It's an interesting writing puzzle but I don't think there would have been nearly as much story once you concentrate only on dialogue.

Also, there's no rule whatsoever, in fact I would be surprised if this wasn't some of the show's "subtler" leading, which says that Gatsby wouldn't have been one and the same with the "movie musical". In fact, I'd have been shocked if, having had Karen show up to the Bombshell premiere in an elaborate flapper dress as they did, they weren't eventually going to try to sell us on her being a purrrrrfect Daisy Buchanan.

[–] locusnola 10 years ago

In fact, I'd have been shocked if, having had Karen show up to the Bombshell premiere in an elaborate flapper dress as they did, they weren't eventually going to try to sell us on her being a purrrrrfect Daisy Buchanan.

I am quite sure you're right, and it's another reason to be thankful for the cancellation. Still, it's worth noting Fitgerald's final judgement on the Buchanans:

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

Given the McCormack-Morris-McPhee debacle, it doesn't actually sound a bad fit, if she could only act . . .

Oh, right. So, she secretly trained a flock of sandflies.

[–] IMDB_Vits 10 years ago

there was a (IIRC) fairly reviled Gatsby movie with Robert Redford

I saw it. It was horrendous.