20 years in the past, the Depraved film may’ve regarded very completely different.
In a joint dialog with Vainness Honest, Marc Platt, who produced the 2024 movie, Depraved writer Gregory Maguire and composer Stephen Schwartz recalled the primary efforts within the late Nineteen Nineties to convey the Broadway musical to the massive display.
He detailed a world by which stars like Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman and extra have been curious about enjoying the beloved roles of Elphaba and Glinda, which finally went to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on this 12 months’s adaptation of the musical.
“I’m going to attempt to get the timeline proper if I can keep in mind, however I imagine after I turned the president of manufacturing at Common, the challenge was already right here,” Platt stated. “It had been optioned initially by Demi Moore’s firm.”
Platt knew that Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Depraved: The Life and Occasions of the Depraved Witch of the West could be an excellent movie adaptation, and it turned the main target of a bidding warfare amongst completely different actors who had a want to supply the characteristic.
“Individuals who had expressed an curiosity within the first six months included Whoopi Goldberg and Claire Danes,” Maguire stated. “Salma Hayek had had some curiosity, and Laurie Metcalf.” Though Maguire wasn’t certain if all of them supposed to play the a part of Elphaba.
Moore’s manufacturing firm, Shifting Footage, particularly pursued the rights to adapt it, and her recognition on the time — due to motion pictures like A Few Good Males, Indecent Proposal and Striptease — made her a robust candidate for the green-skinned witch.
“I used to say, I can think about Demi Moore bare and inexperienced on the quilt of Vainness Honest,” the writer stated.
Whereas it by no means received to the purpose of casting Glinda, Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson and Nicole Kidman have been all prime of thoughts.
Suzanne Todd, an assistant to action-movie producer Joel Silver on the time, revealed that Goldberg was curious about shopping for the rights to the ebook. “Whoopi Goldberg’s supervisor needed to purchase it for her,” she stated, however Maguire went with Moore.
Moore lent her voice to Disney’s animated musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which included songs co-written by Schwartz and he, “instantly had this epiphany” that Depraved wanted to be a musical.
“So earlier than I had even learn the ebook, I used to be making an attempt to get the rights — kind of, instantly,” the composer stated. “Whereas I used to be making an attempt to trace them down, I realized about Demi’s manufacturing firm and tried to get a gathering to speak them into not doing this film and doing a musical as a substitute.”
He famous that if Shifting Footage was connected, Moore wouldn’t be singing. “Oddly sufficient, Demi had been the talking voice of Esmeralda within the Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame. She stated, ‘I don’t need to do my very own singing,’ and we discovered a soundalike who sang the character’s songs. The purpose being — I wasn’t getting into saying, ‘Oh, let me do a musical for Demi.’ I simply needed to see if I may dwelling in on the challenge.”
Though a script by no means labored out, Schwartz satisfied the rights holders to let him attempt writing Depraved as a stage musical, which he did. It debuted in 2003 and stays on Broadway at present.
Half considered one of Depraved, which was launched on Nov. 22, is the highest-grossing film ever tailored from a Broadway present. Depraved: For Good hits theaters Nov. 21, 2025.