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‘Wicked’ Director Wants Fans to See Characters Soar

“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)
“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)
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‘Wicked’ Director Wants Fans to See Characters Soar

“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)
“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)

Jon M. Chu, the director behind the musical film "Wicked", felt pressure from both himself and the rest of the team at Universal Pictures to make a masterpiece.

"For ourselves to fulfill the promise that we had to these characters when we first walked into this, I'm really excited," he told Reuters. "We love the show. We love these characters."

"Wicked", based on the Broadway musical hit that tells the story of a green-skinned student of magic who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, pulled in $114 million at US and Canadian theaters, and $50.2 million in international markets during the Nov. 22 opening weekend.

Starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the movie is the first installment of a two-part film adaptation of the multi-Tony award-winning Broadway musical of the same name based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, which is based on the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."

The first installment of "Wicked: Part 1" was written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, with songs from renowned composer Stephen Schwartz.

The fantasy-musical movie also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage and Michelle Yeoh.

The story follows Elphaba played by Erivo, an outcast young woman because of her green skin, and Galinda played by Grande, a popular young woman, who become friends at Shiz University in the mystical land of Oz. After meeting the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship is met with unforeseen challenges.

Chu views the film as an opportunity to normalize Hollywood's diverse talent, as the film includes actors of color, actors with disabilities, and other historically underrepresented groups.

Making the movie with "real" and "authentic people" in the lead roles was never a question for him.

"To me, it was normalizing this stuff. We don't even have to make it a huge conversation. It just is," he added.

Following the success of "Wicked," Chu teases that the second installment of the film will not disappoint.

"If you think you saw everything of Cynthia and you think you saw everything of Ariana, just wait, because the best is yet to come with them. It is juicy and yummy and all the things. I think people will be satisfied with where we end up."

"Wicked," distributed by Universal Pictures, will be available for at-home streaming that can be purchased digitally on December 31.

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Entertainment

France's Ozon Under the Gun with Big Screen Take on Camus Classic

Director Francois Ozon and cast members Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder pose on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "The Stranger" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2025. (Reuters)
Director Francois Ozon and cast members Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder pose on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "The Stranger" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2025. (Reuters)
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France's Ozon Under the Gun with Big Screen Take on Camus Classic

Director Francois Ozon and cast members Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder pose on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "The Stranger" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2025. (Reuters)
Director Francois Ozon and cast members Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder pose on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "The Stranger" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2025. (Reuters)

French director Francois Ozon has dared to do what so many other filmmakers have shied away from -- adapting one of French literature's most-read classics, Albert Camus's "The Stranger", for the big screen.

The "8 Women" director said this week he had rediscovered Camus's 1942 novel after first reading it in school like so many other French teenagers -- but not really understanding its deeper absurdist meaning.

"I was shocked reading it because the book was still so strong, so powerful, so mysterious and so I was excited," Ozon told journalists at the Venice Film Festival where "The Stranger" premiered on Tuesday.

"It was a big challenge because when I decided to make it, so many French people told me, 'It's my favorite book, I'm curious to see what you will do', so it was a big pressure."

Ozon said it was crucial to bring a more contemporary view to the novel, which takes place in 1930s Algeria under French colonialism, where Meursault, the Algerian-born French protagonist, kills an Arab man, who is never named in the book.

It was "impossible" for the Arab victim to remain nameless, said Ozon, who gives him a name in the film while fleshing out the character of his sister, whose honor the murdered man tried to defend.

"It was important to give a name to this man who is dead because during the trial (of Mersault), we never speak about him," he said.

He said that choice was "political, especially today where there is a real invisibility of the victims in Gaza, for example."

The only other well-known film version of "L'Etranger", whose stage adaptation is a fixture in French theaters, is a 1967 film by Italian maestro Luchino Visconti starring Marcello Mastroianni.

Ozon said he told Camus's daughter Catherine that a too-faithful rendering of the book -- as he believes Visconti did -- would not work.

"I said to her, 'We have to look at the story with the eyes of today.' It's impossible to follow the book like someone in 1942," he told AFP.

Filmed in Morocco and starring Benjamin Voisin as the detached Meursault -- who is sentenced to be beheaded for his crime -- Ozon's "The Stranger" is set under a blinding sun and shot in black and white.

"For me it was quite obvious to shoot in black and white, to show the sun... to have something very abstract, very pure and not to be disturbed by colors," Ozon said.

The film begins with archival footage of Algiers -- images of the wealthy white French elite in Algeria contrasted with those of Algerians -- that hint at the tensions simmering just under the surface of colonial rule.

"I wanted to be realistic about the situation in Algeria. I wanted to show both communities. I wanted to show that these two communities live side by side," he said.

The Hollywood Reporter said Camus's classic "works splendidly on the page but does not necessarily translate well to the screen."

Yet it said Ozon's new adaptation "gets many, many things right".

Variety called it "a superb portrait of disaffection".

Entertainment

NFL Commissioner Opens Door for Swift Super Bowl Performance

FILED - 13 November 2022, North Rhine-Westphalia, Duesseldorf: American singer Taylor Swift walks the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards in front of the PSD Bank Dome. Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
FILED - 13 November 2022, North Rhine-Westphalia, Duesseldorf: American singer Taylor Swift walks the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards in front of the PSD Bank Dome. Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
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NFL Commissioner Opens Door for Swift Super Bowl Performance

FILED - 13 November 2022, North Rhine-Westphalia, Duesseldorf: American singer Taylor Swift walks the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards in front of the PSD Bank Dome. Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
FILED - 13 November 2022, North Rhine-Westphalia, Duesseldorf: American singer Taylor Swift walks the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards in front of the PSD Bank Dome. Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

Pop icon Taylor Swift, recently engaged to Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, is a definite "maybe" to perform at the Super Bowl, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told NBC's Today show on Wednesday.

"We would always love to have Taylor play," Goodell said. "She is a special, special talent and obviously she would be welcome any time."

Asked if that meant an appearance by Swift at the NFL's championship showpiece was in the works, Goodell hedged.

"I can't tell you anything about it," he said. "It's a maybe."

Goodell said he was "waiting on my friend Jay-Z" for word on the Super Bowl halftime show lineup. Jay-Z's Roc Nation company has produced the show in a partnership with the NFL since 2019.

Goodell's appearance on the Today show came on the eve of the NFL's season-opener between the Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.

The buildup to the season has been enlivened by the engagement announcement of Swift and Kelce -- whose romance has been a cultural crossover phenomenon thanks to the huge popularity of the NFL and Swift's legion of fans, AFP reported.

This season the Chiefs will be vying for a return to the Super Bowl after the Eagles denied them a third straight crown in February.

The Super Bowl will be held on February 8 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Entertainment

Daniel Craig Leads Hollywood Stars to Toronto for 50th Film Fest

Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File
Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File
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Daniel Craig Leads Hollywood Stars to Toronto for 50th Film Fest

Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File
Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File

Hollywood stars arrived in Toronto Thursday for a celebratory 50th edition of North America's biggest film festival, with new movies from Daniel Craig, Sydney Sweeney and Matthew McConaughey among a packed lineup.

The Toronto International Film Festival dwarfs more famous rivals like Venice and Cannes for sheer scale, if not glitz and glamour, drawing an estimated 400,000 annual visitors to the Canadian metropolis.

Over 11 days of red-carpet galas, the "audience-first" fest showcases splashy crowd-pleasers in front of giant public audiences, while also serving as a key launchpad for Oscars campaigns.

This year, Netflix's popular "Knives Out" whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Craig back investigating the latest murder in "Wake Up Dead Man" in a Saturday night world premiere, alongside Glenn Close, Mila Kunis and Josh O'Connor, AFP reported.

Josh Brolin plays an unnerving demagogue with a cult following in a film that "tackles current issues in a fun, locked-room, classical-plot way," said TIFF director of programming Robyn Citizen.

Sweeney aims to pivot from her recent jeans ad controversy to Academy Award contender with Friday's premiere of "Christy," a gritty, raw biopic of US female boxing pioneer Christy Martin.

In another harrowing true-life tale, launching Friday, McConaughey rescues schoolchildren from California wildfires in the emotionally searing action-thriller "The Lost Bus."

For the festival's 50th anniversary celebrations, stars Russell Crowe, Paul Mescal, Angelina Jolie and Anya Taylor-Joy will all hit the screenings and soirees.

TIFF "started out as festival of festivals, choosing the best work from around the world to show to Toronto audiences," Citizen said.

While it has increasingly prioritized discovering new filmmakers, "certainly our public audience is what distinguishes us as a big festival," she said.

French invasion

French directors are sure to bring a European flair.

Matt Dillon appears in Claire Denis' drama "The Fence," about a mysterious death on an African construction site, while Arnaud Desplechin launches love story "Two Pianos" starring Charlotte Rampling.

Alice Winocour directs Jolie for Paris fashion drama "Couture."

Romain Gavras's celebrity climate-change satire "Sacrifice" stars Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans as an eco-terrorist and a waning movie star, respectively.

Elsewhere, Crowe gives what organizers describe as a nuanced and eerily charismatic performance as Nazi Hermann Goering on trial in historical drama "Nuremberg," opposite fellow Oscar-winner Rami Malek.

"You don't expect to be disarmed by this person, who you know has done horrible things," said Citizen. "And then, through the course of the movie, you are."

Keanu Reeves plays an incompetent angel in Aziz Ansari's body-swapping farce "Good Fortune," while Channing Tatum portrays a real-life fugitive who lives clandestinely inside a toy store in "Roofman."

Brendan Fraser plays a lonely actor for hire at funerals and weddings in Tokyo-set "Rental Family."

The Bard and the King

Toronto follows hot on the heels of the small but influential US-based Telluride festival, and invites a selection of movies to make a bigger, second splash.

Among them, Mescal plays a young William Shakespeare in literary adaptation "Hamnet" from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao -- though the focus is squarely on the Bard's long-suffering wife Agnes, played by a "transcendent" Jessie Buckley, says Citizen.

The film earned rave reviews and plenty of Oscar buzz in Telluride.

Director Edward Berger, on a hot run after "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," will present Colin Farrell as a down-on-his-luck gambler in "Ballad of a Small Player."

And fresh from Venice, director Guillermo del Toro brings his reimagining of "Frankenstein," while Dwayne Johnson will promote "The Smashing Machine," which has already drawn gushing predictions of a first Oscar nomination for the former pro wrestler known as "The Rock."

TIFF runs until September 14.