While musicals tend to be a bit hit and miss at the cinema, there’s little doubt that there’s been enough successful ones recently that Hollywood is always on the look out for all-singing, all-dancing shows to take to the big screen. However it’s rare for Hollywood to look to ones that have already had at least one major big-screen outing, but that appears to be what Universal is doing with Jesus Christ Superstar.
The studio already brought the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to the screen in 1973, with Ted Neeley in the lead, and they’re now looking to do it again. The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog is saying that Universal is currently wooing (500) Days Of Summer director Marc Webb to head up the remake,
It’ll be interesting to know how they plan to do this new take on the musical, as Jesus Christ Superstar is very much a product of the 70s, with a very hippie vibe. However, music video director Marc Webb may be a good choice for the update, as he’s shown great talent for creating a cool hipster vibe that seems both modern and nostalgic at the same time.
Let’s just hope they don’t mess with the musical too much, as you can imagine in this day and age studio executives being nervous about Jesus Christ Superstar’s sympathy with Judas, and the fact that it doesn’t show Jesus to be anything more than a man.
At the moment Universal hasn’t even officially announced they’re planning to remake Jesus Christ Superstar, but after their success last year with Mamma Mia!, it’s not surprising they’re looking for other shows to put on the big screen.