‘Wicked’ producer reveals dream for singular cinema showing
Marc Platt, the producer of the Oscar-nominated Wizard of Oz prequel two-part movie Wicked, has revealed he initially wanted it to be a single movie with an intermission.
At the Producers Guild of America Nominees Breakfast — an exclusive event that celebrates the nominees for the annual Producers Guild Awards (PGA) with a networking breakfast and a panel discussion — Platt expressed nostalgia for the intermission-split film.
Platt described: “I remember going to the movies as a kid and watching musicals or Lawrence of Arabia that had intermissions in it, and that was actually my dream for Wicked, that we could do it with intermission.”
But ultimately, condensing the Broadway version of Wicked into a singular feature proved difficult for the project’s creative team, Platt explained, because they couldn’t find anything they wanted to omit. “That was one battle I lost,” Platt concluded.
As audiences grow more agitated at the apparent increasing lengths of movies, some argue intermissions should be a prerequisite for anything that reaches beyond the two-hour mark.
Wicked, which had the highest-grossing opening ever for a Broadway musical adaptation, received ten nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, including ‘Best Actress’ for Cynthia Erivo as Elpheba, ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Ariana Grande as Galinda and ‘Best Picture’.
Another ‘Best Picture’-nominated film from the upcoming March 2025 award ceremony, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, made use of an intermission to split its hefty runtime, which stands at a whopping three hours and 35 minutes.
Wicked’s second and final part, titled Wicked: For Good, is set for release in November 2025.
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