Disney has finally offered up something to tease Rob Marshall's upcoming adaptation of “Into the Woods” beyond that ubiquitous Meryl Streep still, and that's definitely the word here: “tease.” By the time Johnny Depp's title card flashes on screen, all you get is the wolf's arm slithering past a tree. No music, no singing, just a handful of iconic reminders of what characters come together for this story.
It'll do the trick for now, and really, there might not be a whole lot in the way of finished material to show. The film is reportedly in the midst of an entire month of reshoots now and the music/mixing stage is certainly a ways off, too. And hey, there's time: it's only July.
Stephen Sondheim recently made waves when he commented, with apparent annoyance, on some changes that had been made in the story's translation from stage to screen. He soon after back-peddled on the tone of those statements and blamed it all on “misreporting.”
Will this be a big Oscar-gobbling feature akin to Marshall's 2002 debut “Chicago” (which had Harvey Weinstein boldly pushing)? Or will it just be a bit of holiday fluff and fun while the other prestige titles of the season make their awards cases? And what will the break down in casting assignments be, I wonder? Meryl for lead or shuffled to supporting with Blunt out front? Or does everyone just go supporting? We'll have to wait and see.
Check out the teaser embedded at the top of this post and tell us what you think.
“Into the Woods” opens Christmas Day.