Into the Woods (film)

Into the Woods is a 2014 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, and adapted to the screen by James Lapine from his and Stephen Sondheim's 1986 Broadway musical of the same name. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, it features an ensemble cast that includes Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, Lilla Crawford, Daniel Huttlestone, MacKenzie Mauzy, Billy Magnussen, and Johnny Depp. Inspired by the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales of "Little Red Riding Hood", "Cinderella", "Jack and the Beanstalk", and "Rapunzel", the film is centered on a childless couple who set out to end a curse placed on them by a vengeful witch. Ultimately, the characters are forced to experience the unintended consequences of their actions.
After several unsuccessful attempts by other studios and producers to adapt the musical to film, Disney announced in 2012 that it was producing an adaptation, with Marshall directing and John DeLuca serving as producer. Principal photography commenced in September 2013, and took place entirely in the United Kingdom, including at Shepperton Studios in London.
"Into the Woods" held its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 8, 2014, and was released theatrically in the United States on December 25, 2014. The film was commercially successful and received generally positive reviews, receiving praise for its acting performances (particularly Streep), visual style, production merits, and musical numbers, but received criticism for its lighter tone compared to the source material and the changes made for the film translation. It grossed $213 million worldwide. "Into the Woods" was named one of the top 11 best films of 2014 by the American Film Institute; the film received three Academy Award nominations, including a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Streep, and three Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Plot.
A Baker and his wife wish for a child but suffer under a curse laid upon the Baker's family by a Witch. The witch had previously found the baker's father robbing her garden when the baker's mother was pregnant, demanding their daughter in return. Because the Baker's father also stole some magic beans, the Witch's own mother also punished her with the curse of ugliness. The Witch is able to lift the curse and allow them to have a child, but only if the Baker and his wife obtain four critical items for her to make a potion: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, a hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold, none of which she is allowed to touch.
The Witch's demands eventually bring the Baker and his wife into contact with Jack, who is selling his beloved house cow, Milky-White, and to whom the Baker offers magic beans left to him by his father (which were stolen from the Witch) which Jack accidentally grows into a large beanstalk; with Red Riding Hood, whose red cape the couple noticed when she stopped by the bakery earlier to buy bread and sweets on her way to her grandmother's house; with blonde-haired Rapunzel (the Witch's adopted daughter/the Baker's biological sister), whose tower the Baker's wife passes in the woods; and with Cinderella, who also runs into the Baker's wife while fleeing from the pursuing Prince and whose ball outfit includes gold slippers.
After a series of failed attempts and misadventures, the Baker and his wife are finally able to gather the items necessary to break the spell. After the potion is completed, each of the characters receives a "happy ending": Cinderella marries the Prince; Rapunzel is freed from the Witch by Cinderella's Prince's brother, whom she marries; Jack provides for his mother by stealing riches from the Giant in the sky, courtesy of the beanstalk, and kills the pursuing Giant by cutting down the beanstalk; Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are saved from the Big Bad Wolf; and the Witch regains her youth and beauty after drinking the potion.
However, each of the characters learn that their endings don't remain happy: the Baker is worried that he is a poor father to his newborn baby; the Baker's wife is temporarily seduced by the Prince; Cinderella is disenchanted by her cheating Prince; and the witch learns that she has lost her magic powers in exchange for her youth and beauty, after being rejected by Rapunzel, who then runs off with her Prince. The growth of a second beanstalk from the last remaining magic bean allows the Giant's widow to climb down and threaten the kingdom and its inhabitants if they do not deliver Jack in retribution for killing her husband. The characters attempt to find Jack, but debate the morality of handing Jack over. In the process, Red Riding Hood's mother and grandmother, Jack's mother and the Baker's wife are killed. The Baker, Cinderella, Jack and Little Red Riding Hood all blame each other for their individual actions that led to the tragedy, ultimately blaming the Witch for growing the beans in the first place. She curses them for their inability to accept responsibility for their individual actions, as well as their refusal to do the "right thing" (handing Jack over). Casting all the remaining beans away, the Witch begs her mother to punish her again, and she melts into a large pit of boiling tar.
The remaining characters resolve to kill the threatening Giant's widow, though they discuss the complicated morality of retribution and revenge in the process. They lure the Giant's widow into stepping in the tar pit where she ultimately trips and falls to her death. With the Giant's widow dead, the characters move forward with their lives as they are. The Baker, thinking of his wife, is determined to be a good father. Cinderella decides to leave the Prince and help the Baker with Jack and Red Riding Hood, as they are now orphans, and will be moving into the bakery. The Baker comforts his son after he begins to cry by telling the story of the film as the movie ends with the Witch's moral, which means children can change due to the parent's actions and behaviors.
Stage-to-screen changes.
While it was initially reported that Disney had decided to make some major plot changes for the film version, Stephen Sondheim revealed that this was not the case and that any changes in the film version had been approved by him and James Lapine.
Thus, the film does slightly differ from the stage production. The songs "I Guess This Is Goodbye", "Maybe They're Magic", "First Midnight" and "Second Midnight" interludes, "Ever After" (Act I finale of the original play), "So Happy", "Into the Woods" Reprise, "Agony" Reprise and "No More" (performed by the Baker) were cut from the film, although both "Ever After" and "No More" are used as instrumentals in the film. Meanwhile, many of the songs in the film have slightly different lyrics than their stage counterparts due to the slight tweaking of story lines.
Other changes include a major reduction of the significant role of the "mysterious man", who manipulates much of the action in the first act and is eventually revealed to be the Baker's father. Additionally, the character of the narrator was cut, and the film is instead narrated by the Baker. The minor role of Cinderella's father was cut, and he is instead mentioned as deceased. Due to the film's compressed story line, Rapunzel's pregnancy is eliminated, as is the subplot where the two princes have affairs with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. In the film, the Giant's wife first attacks during the marriages of Cinderella and Rapunzel to their respective princes; in the stage show, the Giant's wife first attacks the Witch's garden. Rapunzel's ultimate fate is also changed: rather than being killed by the Giant, she refuses to cooperate with the Witch and flees with her prince.
Production.
Early development.
Early attempts of adapting "Into the Woods" to film occurred in the early 1990s, with a script written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. A reading was held with a cast that included Robin Williams as the Baker, Goldie Hawn as the Baker's Wife, Cher as the Witch, Danny DeVito as the Giant, Steve Martin as the Wolf, and Roseanne as Jack's Mother. By 1991, Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson Productions were also developing a film adaptation with Craig Zadan as producer and Rob Minkoff as director. In 1997, Columbia put the film into turnaround, with Minkoff still attached as director, and Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, and Susan Sarandon reportedly in talks to star. After the report by "Variety", a film adaptation of "Into the Woods" remained inactive for 15 years.
Development at Disney.
After the critical and commercial success of "Chicago" in 2002, director Rob Marshall approached Stephen Sondheim with a proposal to adapt one of his musicals. Although Marshall was initially interested in adapting "Follies" and ', Sondheim suggested "Into the Woods" instead. Marshall concurred, but development of the project was then postponed while he focused on directing "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Nine". In 2011, Marshall's interest in the project was rekindled when he heard a speech by President Barack Obama on the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks to the families of the 9/11 victims, which seemed to evoke the same message as the musical's most important song, "No One Is Alone". Marshall firmly believed that "Into the Woods" was “a fairy tale for the post-9/11 generation". In January 2012, Marshall approached Walt Disney Pictures—for whom he had just directed '—and pitched the idea to the studio, with Lapine writing the script and Sondheim "expected" to write new songs. Academy Award-winner Dion Beebe, who previously collaborated with Marshall on "Chicago", "Memoirs of a Geisha", and "Nine", served as cinematographer. Sondheim confirmed that a new song had been written for the film in an April 2013 interview with "The Independent".
With Disney's backing, a three-day reading of the entire updated screenplay took place in New York in October 2012 under Marshall's direction, with Nina Arianda as the Baker's Wife, Victoria Clark as Cinderella's Mother/Granny/Giant, James Corden as the Baker, Donna Murphy as the Witch, Christine Baranski as Cinderella's Stepmother, Tammy Blanchard as Florinda, Ivan Hernandez as the Wolf, Megan Hilty as Lucinda, Cheyenne Jackson as Rapunzel's Prince, Allison Janney as Jack's Mother, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Michael McGrath as Steward/Mysterious Man, Laura Osnes as Rapunzel, Taylor Trensch as Jack, Casey Whyland as Little Red Riding Hood, and Patrick Wilson as Cinderella's Prince. It was this reading which ultimately convinced Walt Disney Studios president Sean Bailey to green-light the film despite ongoing concerns about the dark nature of the original musical (which Disney executives had begun to understand since Marshall's original pitch). However, Disney (which self-finances all its films) provided only a relatively small production budget of $50 million (relative to other feature-length fantasy films on its development slate), in turn forcing both cast and crew to accept pay cuts to work on the film.
Reports subsequently surfaced in January 2013 that Meryl Streep had been cast to play the Witch. Streep had instituted a personal "no witch" rule after she turned 40 and was offered three witch roles, but ultimately broke her own rule to do a Sondheim role again. She was already familiar with his work, having participated in the original production of Sondheim's "The Frogs" as a student at Yale University. During the same month, it was reported that Janney had been confirmed to join the film as well. Five months later, however, Tracey Ullman was cast as Jack's Mother instead.
In April 2013, Johnny Depp was in final negotiations, along with Streep, to join the film. "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that to help make the film on such a tight budget, Depp agreed as a favor to Disney and to Marshall to a "boarding" arrangement, in which he would appear in a minor role for a fee of $1 million, instead of his typical fee of $20 million for a starring role. In May, James Corden, who took part in the reading of the screenplay, was in talks to play the role of the Baker. On May 10, 2013, Disney confirmed the casting of Streep, Depp, and Corden as the Witch, the Big Bad Wolf, and the Baker, respectively. That same month, Emily Blunt and Christine Baranski were cast, respectively, as the Baker's Wife and Cinderella's Stepmother. Marshall later confirmed that Blunt was selected for her "warm[th]" and likeability to ensure the emotional impact of the sudden death of the Baker's Wife: "[T]hat's very important for that character because it's the heart of the piece and you really have to love her so when she's gone it should feel like a kick in the gut." After she was cast, Blunt discovered she was pregnant and her costume and choreography had to be adjusted accordingly. However, her "overweight" appearance during production actually fit in with the role of the Baker's Wife; as she explained, "I feel like she would have eaten a lot of carbs working in the bakery."
Also in May, Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine entered negotiations to play the Princes. However, Gyllenhaal dropped out of the film due to scheduling conflicts with another film, "Nightcrawler", and was subsequently replaced by Billy Magnussen. One month later, Anna Kendrick began talks to play Cinderella in the film. In June 2013, Walt Disney Studios publicly announced that the film had been greenlighted, and scheduled a release date for Christmas Day 2014. In July, MacKenzie Mauzy, Tammy Blanchard, Lucy Punch and Daniel Huttlestone joined the cast. Mauzy later revealed that she first auditioned for Cinderella but did not get the part. However, director Marshall saw her audition tape and brought her back in for Rapunzel, after recognizing "the 'vulnerability' and 'emotion' Mauzy could bring to Rapunzel after she read just one line", as he recalled. In early August, Sophia Grace Brownlee's representatives announced that she had been cast as Little Red Riding Hood. The announcement of Brownlee's casting, which was widely reported but never confirmed by Disney, was criticized as "a stunt" and was met with concern due to her age and the sexual undertones present between Little Red and the Wolf. The film's plot synopsis and the official casting of lead actors Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, and Emily Blunt were revealed at the D23 Expo on August 10, 2013. On September 16, 2013, Lilla Crawford was confirmed as playing the character of Little Red Riding Hood, despite previous reports suggesting Brownlee. Crawford auditioned for Marshall via Skype, who offered her the role within two hours. Crawford was on a flight to London the next day as a result. Later on, Dominic Brownlee spoke about the withdrawal of his daughter Sophia Grace from the movie: "After careful consideration, we the parents of Sophia Grace, felt that as rehearsals progressed that she was too young for this part. It was a joint decision between us and the director and producer of "Into the Woods" to withdraw Sophia Grace from the film." Apart from Crawford, the casting of Richard Glover, Frances de la Tour, Simon Russell Beale, Joanna Riding, and Annette Crosbie in other roles was also separately announced later on September 16.
Filming.
In July 2013, before filming began, Marshall put the cast through six weeks of rehearsals on a soundstage and blocked their scenes. In August, the cast members visited Angel Recording Studios to separately record their respective parts in the presence of Sondheim himself. Over 90% of the vocal tracks in the final version of the film are from the recording studio sessions, while the rest were recorded on location or on the set. The advantage of blocking and rehearsing all scenes first was that the cast members could then precisely calibrate their voices in the recording studio to the planned appearance of each scene when later filmed, thereby minimizing the slightly disconcerting disconnection between vocals and choreography typical of music videos.
Principal photography took place at London's Shepperton Studios in September 2013, with additional filming taking place at Dover Castle, Hambleden, Waverley Abbey, and Richmond Park. A forest of ancient pine trees in Windsor Great Park was used for many of the scenes in the woods. Marshall struggled with how to stage the melodramatic duet "Agony" in the forest until discovering online that Windsor had an artificial waterfall at Virginia Water Lake, which turned out to be the perfect location for the song. The production was shot digitally, using Arri Alexa cameras configured in a two-camera setup, and footage was edited together in Avid Media Composer. The exterior of Byfleet Manor in Surrey served as Cinderella's home.
The filmmakers spent a whole day shooting scenes which involved Rapunzel's hair being climbed upon. Mauzy claimed that the filmmakers wanted to take advantage of her blonde hair, and that the top of Rapunzel's hair appeared in the film was her own real hair; make-up artists only braided it into the extension. This hair extension was engineered by hair designer Peter King. After testing loose, flowing hair which King found "uncontrollable", he decided to have twenty-seven wefts of real hair woven together into a 30-foot braid, a design which took inspiration from an Arthur Rackham illustration of Rapunzel. In order to bring in enough real Russian hair strands needed for the extension, King and his team had to work with several distributors from Germany and England. The hair-braiding process required three people, each holding a separate strand and weaving in and out. King also dyed the wefts for them to match Mauzy's champagne blonde hair color, and blended together six different shades from ash and strawberry
to create realistic gradations and highlights. Between scenes, Mauzy had to "wrap [the hair] around her arm like huge rolls of wool", as recalled by King. A stuntman was used to shoot the hair-climbing scenes, with thin rope and metal rings the only additional tools concealed within the braid to hold the weight of a person climbing up.
The film's final shot, which essentially merges into and links back to its first shot, actually transitions digitally between three shots: a Technocrane on location lifting as high as possible into the sky, an aerial drone flying down a valley in Wales, and a shot of an overcast sky in Manhattan, New York City. Filming concluded on November 27, 2013.
On July 14, 2014, Steve Baldwin posted on a social networking site that reshoots were made during the whole month of July. The following month, however, Rob Marshall denied the film went through re-shoots. Instead, they spent three days shooting new material that had been cut and re-added to the script after Disney screened the movie. For his role as the Wolf, Depp worked closely with the film's costume designer Colleen Atwood to create a Tex Avery-inspired costume, complete with zoot suit and fedora.
Music.
As noted above, the majority of the songs were pre-recorded by the cast. Music producer Mike Higham, who had previously worked with Sondheim on "Sweeney Todd": "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", recorded the film's score with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic. Music supervisor and conductor Paul Gemignani instructed the actors on how to sing, including singing live to a camera on set, to prerecorded music in studio, and with a live studio orchestra. Jonathan Tunick orchestrated Sondheim's original music. The key to the song, "Hello, Little Girl," was altered to better suit Johnny Depp's lower vocal range. In regards to the song's musical arrangement, Higham explained, "we emphasized the woodwinds to make it feel a little lighter, especially the flutes. And we just made it a little jazzier — played more on the walking bass line. Inherently, when it has a jazz feel, it just feels lighter." The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on December 15, 2014.
It was initially reported that the film version would feature two new songs: a duet for the Baker and his Wife, titled "Rainbows"—originally written for a 1992 film adaptation that was never made—and a new song for the Witch, eventually titled "She'll Be Back". In the end, neither song appears in the finished film: "Rainbows" was cut before shooting began and "She'll Be Back", though filmed, was cut from the film on the grounds that it slowed the story down. "She'll Be Back" was included as a bonus feature on the film's home media release.
Release.
The first official company presentation took place at the 2013 Disney D23 expo. The official teaser trailer debuted on July 31, 2014. A featurette was released showing behind-the-scenes clips and the vocals of Streep, Kendrick, Blunt and others. A second trailer was released on November 6, 2014.
The film held its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 8, 2014. It was released theatrically in the United States on December 25, 2014.
Home media.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download in North America on March 24, 2015. The film debuted in second place on the home media charts behind ". The home media version includes Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's original song "She'll Be Back"".
Reception.
Box office.
"Into the Woods" grossed $128 million in North America, and $85.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $213.1 million, against a budget of $50 million.
"Into the Woods" began playing across North American theaters on December 24, 2014, and earned $1.1 million from late-night Christmas Eve showings and $15.08 million on its opening day (including previews) from 2,440 theaters. Its opening day gross was the fourth-biggest Christmas Day debut and the sixth-biggest Christmas Day gross ever. The film was among one of four films put into wide release on December 25, 2014, the other three being Universal Pictures' "Unbroken" (3,131 theaters), Paramount Pictures' "The Gambler" (2,478 theaters), and TWC's "Big Eyes" (1,307 theaters). It earned $31.1 million in its traditional three-day opening ($46.1 million including its Christmas Day gross) debuting at #2 at the box office behind "", achieving the highest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway musical (previously held by "Mamma Mia!"). The film's $3.5 million debut in Japan marked the largest opening for a 21st-century live-action musical film.
Critical response.
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 71% based on 221 reviews, with an average rating of 6.55/10. The site's consensus reads: "On the whole, this Disney adaptation of the Sondheim classic sits comfortably at the corner of Hollywood and Broadway—even if it darkens to its detriment in the final act." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, calculate a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Streep was immensely applauded for her performance as the Witch, with many critics and audiences believing she was the film's heart. Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" called her and Blunt's portrayals as "two of the greatest female performances of the year". Susan Wloszczyna for RogerEbert.com praised Streep's performances of the songs "Stay with Me" and "Last Midnight", and summed her performance up as leaving "practically everyone else in the dust and by design."
"The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that the film "benefits from respect for the source material, enticing production values and a populous gallery of sharp character portraits from a delightful cast". Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" lauded the film, writing; ""Into the Woods", the splendid Disney screen adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical, infuses new vitality into the tired marketing concept of entertainment for 'children of all ages'". Leonard Maltin called the movie as "one of the year's best films". Similarly, Pete Hammond of Deadline praised the film as "the most dazzling movie musical since Marshall's own Chicago." and praised the performance of the cast, particularly Streep. Lou Lumerick of the New York Post called the film "this century's best musical" and lauded the performances of Streep and Blunt as the best female performances of the year. Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" gave a positive review declaring the film "Rob Marshall's best movie ever" and praised it for its genuine entertainment and strong cast performances. Richard Corliss of "Time" gave a positive review, stating that the film was a "smart, appealing, upside-down children's story for adults of all ages". Gregory Ellwood of HitFix tapped Streep as an Academy Award contender in the Best Supporting Actress category, and also praised the performance of Chris Pine.
Richard Lawson of "Vanity Fair", Karen D'Souza of the "San Jose Mercury News", and Dana Stevens of "Slate" all published critical reviews of the film. All three found much to like in the acting (especially Blunt and Pine's performances), but all three also concluded that after the various cuts and changes, the final version of the film had failed to adequately preserve the power of the dark existentialist message at the heart of the original musical's second act. Stevens characterized the result as a "generic dystopian bummer," while Lawson criticized the film as a "dutiful but perfunctory adaptation" which lacked "genuine heart". Paul Katz of "The Huffington Post" felt the change in tone between the last two acts was too abrupt, and also criticized the film's faithfulness to the stage musical. Conversely, Alyssa Rosenberg of "The Washington Post" disliked the performances by Streep and Depp, while simultaneously calling the film's first two acts a "surprising delight".
External links.
 