THE KING & I Film Reboot

[Jeffrey Kare Joined: Jan 23rd, 2013 Topics: 293 Posts: 5473 View Predictions]

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Just as West Side Story is getting rebooted for the big screen, a new film adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic 1951 musical, The King & I, is in the works. Paramount Pictures is set to produce the third big screen outing following the 1956 Academy Award-winning film and infamous 1999 cartoon adaptation.
https://deadline.com/2021/02/the-king-and-i-remake-rodgers-and-hammerstein-paramount-temple-hill-1234693074/

Thoughts?

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[Naiad Lyne Joined: Jun 22nd, 2020 Topics: 0 Posts: 77 View Predictions]

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Oh for the love of God stop rebooting films that don’t need rebooting. Reboot 2004 The Phantom of the Opera film. It was a travesty to original stage musical.

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[SDoesNotKnow504 Joined: Feb 16th, 2015 Topics: 1 Posts: 292 View Predictions]

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I wouldn’t mind a reboot with more actual Asians cast and more songs that were cut from the original show put back in. The last Broadway revival with Ken Watanabe and Kelli O’Hara was absolutely gorgeous.

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[RIDLEY SCOTT Joined: Feb 4th, 2017 Topics: 0 Posts: 147 View Predictions]

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Henry Golding

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[ENGLAND Joined: Oct 5th, 2011 Topics: 126 Posts: 4097 View Predictions]

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*Naomi Scott as Anna Leonowens
– Half Caucasian Half Indian just like the real-life Anna. Nice voice too.
*Tony Jaa as King Mongkut of Siam
– My personal favorite actor from Thailand. This would be completely different for him but I think he’d pull it off.

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[Jeffrey Kare Joined: Jan 23rd, 2013 Topics: 293 Posts: 5473 View Predictions]

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I can see Ken Watanabe reprising his role from the most recent Broadway revival. After all, he is well established on the big screen (especially from having earned an Oscar nomination for The Last Samurai back in 2003). For Anna Leonowens, I was thinking Anne Hathaway or Emily Blunt.

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[Monsoon 🌊 Joined: Aug 11th, 2020 Topics: 30 Posts: 2737 View Predictions]

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Paolo Montalbán as The King

👑Cicely Tyson (1924-2021)
👑Mary Wilson (1944-2021)

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[DaKardii Joined: Jan 12th, 2018 Topics: 111 Posts: 1410 View Predictions]

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As I previously stated in the Wizard of Oz remake thread, successfully remaking a classic will be an uphill battle, but not impossible.

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[Juanald02 Joined: Mar 3rd, 2018 Topics: 2 Posts: 207 View Predictions]

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I think Carey Mulligan would be an interesting choice for anna, she has sung before on film; and at one point she was supposed to play eliza dolittle in the My Fair Lady remake that never got made.

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[vinny Joined: May 20th, 2011 Topics: 23 Posts: 75936 View Predictions]

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Ken Watanabe should be first in their mind

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[SDoesNotKnow504 Joined: Feb 16th, 2015 Topics: 1 Posts: 292 View Predictions]

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I would love it if they hired a legit soprano. Despite the lack of high notes to fit Gertrude Lawrence’s voice, Anna’s songs really soar with a real clean-sounding singer.

Also, I bet you the remake will film “Something Wonderful” much better than the original film did. It was kind of a throwaway song in the original film, but in the Broadway revival, it stopped the show completely and became a highlight. A lot of it was how they staged it. There’s a reason why Ruthie Ann Miles won a Tony for the often ignored role of Lady Thiang.

I also want them to put back “Western People Funny” and “Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?” among others that were cut. I also think the pacing could be improved from the original film which was kind of plodding and then woke up with the “Small House of Uncle Thomas” ballet.

Cutting “Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?” in the original was a huge mistake. That could have been a show-stopper for Deborah Kerr and it was one of the best dubbing jobs Hollywood ever did. Kerr mixed her voice with Marni Nixon perfectly and both worked to make sure their voices sounded as similarly and naturally as possible.

https://youtu.be/xAElF3cMZVk

The above makes me mad that they didn’t just tell Audrey Hepburn from the beginning she was going to be dubbed for My Fair Lady. Then they could have worked together like Kerr and Nixon did in the same way. Instead, they chose to trick her and make her find out later on while filming they were going to dub her AFTER they had her record all of her songs and then SHOOT her scenes to her own recordings having her think they were going to be used in the film.

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