According to a piece at CNN, an animated musical inspired by William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," with a story penned by none other than George Lucas, is coming to big screens this January.
Touchstone Pictures will release Lucasfilm's "Strange Magic" on Jan. 23, 2015. The film's musical qualities are "Moulin Rouge"-esque, as it features a bevy of pop songs, and features the voices of some musical theater heavyweights like Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth. Evan Rachel Wood, Maya Rudolph, and Alfred Molina are among the others in the cast.
From the Disney (who now owns Lucasfilm) statement (via CNN):
"'Strange Magic' is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies, and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion."
Although Lucas formulated the basic plot, the movie is directed by Gary Rydstrom, who wrote the screenplay with David Berenbaum of "Elf" and Irene Mecchi, who co-wrote "The Lion King" and "Brave." Lucas serves as executive producer on this picture.
When Disney registered domain names that referred to "Strange Magic," the internet (and little girls everywhere) went berserk over the possibility that this may be a "Frozen" sequel of some sort. Sorry to disappoint you little girls, but you get a George Lucas musical version of Shakespeare peppered with pop hits I'm quite sure you've never heard of. Ain't life grand?
