It’s generally the case that a popular Broadway or Tony Award-winning production will be adapted and sometimes diluted by Hollywood to become movies. This might well be a sign of intellectual bankruptcy in the film industry. But it can also be hugely successful as we have seen with Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men and Jessica Tandy’s Academy Award-winning role in Driving Miss Daisy. Often these are musicals, and the end product could result in box-office gold and critical success as seen with Chicago or in the financial ruin and infamy we recently saw with Cats.
Stealing from the stage and adapting to the big screen is risky, but can also be triumphant. Conversely, can acclimating movies to fit the stage be a golden ticket to a sensational production? Among a few others, we have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail adapted to become the hit musical comedy Spamalot and Sister Act became a globally successful theatre production. So, the question is, what other movies would we like to see transformed into stage productions?
The Matrix
This sci-fi/action movie was huge and spawned video games, its own slot game at Paddy Power’s online casino website, comic books, animated adventures, and 2 mediocre sequels. Now The Matrix is back with The Matrix Resurrections, it seems a perfect time to create a stage production. Performers on wires, flying around the stage to recreate the pioneering bullet-time visual effects from the movie. Who doesn’t want to see that?
The Hateful 8
Quentin Tarantino’s western nail-biter was, for better or for worse as we can see at the Guardian review here, almost entirety shot in a cabin inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters – perfect for a staged murder mystery! The movie is divided into six narrative sequences, which makes it feel like it was taken from the stage to begin with, and the final twist/showdown would make for an extremely satisfying display.
In Bruges
This black comedy is about two Irish hitmen forced to hide away in the beautiful city of Bruges after a particular assignment goes badly wrong. The movie is funny, it presents a complicated relationship between the two protagonists, and it has a dynamite ending. Yet, the main reason this makes our list is that it was directed and based on the screenplay by Martin McDonagh. McDonagh is perhaps best known for the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which has rave reviews here, but his stage productions have also garnered acclaim. If anyone is capable of turning a movie into a successful play, it is McDonagh.
Regardless of what you thought of the movies, these entries seem to make perfect sense as stage performances and I wouldn’t be too surprised if they hit Broadway in the not-too-distant future.
