During his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, Jurassic Park actor, Jeff Goldblum, confirmed his role as the wizard in Universal Pictures’ film adaption of the Broadway hit musical, Wicked. The musical and film are based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.
“I was just on this set of Wicked. I’m not supposed to talk about that, but it’s been out and about,” he said, telling how he brought his sons, River and Charlie, to set. While there, they showed his children one of Goldblum’s “favorite movies”: the 1939 The Wizard of Oz. “It was too scary for them,” Goldblum said. “That witch is terrifying. Margaret Hamilton, terrifying,” and they didn’t make it through the whole movie.
While on the topic, Goldblum mentioned his co-stars for the musical movie: “You should see our witches, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, very good.” Erivo is cast to play Elphaba, Grande will take on the role of Glinda, and Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has been revealed to be playing Elphaba’s love interest, Fiyero. Michelle Yeoh will also be in attendance, taking on the role of Madame Morrible. The film will be directed by Jon M. Chu.
While speaking with Kimmel, Goldblum described an emotional reaction he had while on set, recalling, “I shouldn’t talk about it, but I was shooting one day, and I found myself tearing up in fear, a childhood fear came back to me.” He described telling his co-star Erivo about a childhood nightmare that involved a “very scary queen/witch,” who tied him to a tree stump and was “going to chop off my head.”
The film adaption of Wicked will be divided into two movies, with the first film set to be released November 27, 2024 and the second during the following year.
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