TWO dope sheets this week? Well, this should tide you over until the next podcast comes out

Also I was very remiss in not mentioning the Annies with all these Golden Globes and Oscars posts. D’oh! My only real objection is the lack of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in the television categories – I don’t think the Canadian production of the show precludes it …  Zooey Deschanel is up for her collaborative work in Winnie the Pooh for Music in a Feature Production!

Disney has just announced thru official PR lines that they’re working with LUCAMAR Productions to produce a film version of “Into the Woods.” Rob Marshall, fresh from Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides will direct and James Lapine will adapt for the screen. (LUCAMAR belongs to Marshall and John DeLuca.) Marhsalls got a pretty good – and diverse – resume that includes musical experience. Sounds exciting!

If you’re not familiar with the Sondheim musical, it’s a reworking of a minor fairytale about a couple who want to reverse a curse that has left them childless, that incorporates better known fairytale stars such as Cinderella and Red Riding Hood. It seems likely that the movie will be live action (if not a mix, a la Enchanted).

So why am I talking about it if it’s live action? Well, because it’s freaking relevant, that’s why. If you’re into comic books at all, you might have heard of a little thing called Fables. It’s a phenomenal, long story about what would happen if the land of fairytales was invaded by a foreign enemy, and fairytales characters were forced to escape into the real world that we all live in and hide. That’s a really short sentance that truly does not do justice to the phenomenal storytelling of the series.

The popularity of the series isn’t an inspiration for the current TV shows Grimm and Once Upon a Time according to series creator Bill Willingham. Fables can’t really be called the pioneer in it’s field, as for better or for worse, Twilight forced open the door for the stuff of folklore to be seen as viable entertainment material, and before that Shrek was turning a white knight into a farting couch potato and Wicked was showing us a relatable side to the wicked witch. However, Fables is most likely what has held that door open since the shine wore off the controlling vampire boyfriend. Fairytales and realistic takes on them (the first issue opens with a scene of Beauty and the Beast pleading to Snow White that they need either a spell to disguise Beast’s monstrous appearance or, as he only turns into a monster when his wife is upset with him, marriage counselling) are very hot right now, because they are being told as fantastic stories in at least one forum.

Back to Disney and “Into the Woods.”

How hard would it be for Disney to do an animated take on that sort of ironic attitude to fairytales? They’ve put all of their stars together before (remember House of Mouse?) I’d love to see a movie of the Disney princesses in a realistic or ironic setting. It’s probably not going to happen with “Into the Woods”, but it seems like the natural next step!

Hey, ATC is on iTunes! Maybe you drop by and review us sometime, huh?

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