THEY spent two years shooting the blockbuster Wicked movies, but director Jon M. Chu has finally revealed why Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were called back to London for reshoots earlier this year.
I told in May how they had secretly returned to film extra shots and now Jon has explained that the original ending of the upcoming second movie Wicked: For Good, which is out next month, “didn’t click”.
The film studio wanted sweeping shots of Oz as Glinda and Elphaba belted out the title track For Good, but he has opted for a more intimate ending.
Speaking at the BFI in London, Jon said: “It’s the end of the whole saga, you’ve got to go big.
“We’ve got the cranes out there.
“They wanted all these big sweeping shots across the whole set and then to move into them singing it but it never felt right.
“We had a cut where we have all the big shots…
“We had that cut for seven months but it never sat right.”
He added: “Ari and Cynthia, the way they sang it to each other almost wasn’t singing, it was almost just communicating.
“It became, ‘Film makers get out of the way let them drive’.
“And they are so quiet. It is the most truthful, emotional version of it ever, but we had to take the burden off of doing a show for people.
“We bet they are going to love the girls, we love the girls.”
