Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Shankman: No Ballet In His Version Of Nutcracker

Adam Shankman talked to EW about his new version of the classic holiday tale The Nutcracker.


Darren Lemke sold the pitch back in '09 which reimagines the story first penned by E. T. A. Hoffmann in 1816 and later made famous by composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his musical ballet interpretation in 1892.

Good news for me the new version will NOT involve any ballet.

"There are some celebrations in the story and there could be dancing at the celebrations, but other than that, no. It is absolutely not going to be a full-on ballet. No ballet.” The film instead is going back to  Hoffmann's book.

It hasn’t been told in the same vein as these new action-adventure fairy tale films, and yet it is definitely an action-adventure story. I didn’t want to do it if it wasn’t that concept….And we are going back to the original story too, because the ballet actually was a bit of a departure. So I am going back to the darker more action/adventure version. More Snow White and the Huntsman [or Tim Burton's] "Alice in Wonderland". It is in that vein.

He adds that he wouldn’t do it as a musical or as a dance piece because "it’s been done too much and too well.

Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will be producing the pic with Shankman's regular partner Jennifer Gibgot.

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