New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Ryan Murphy, director of Netflix's adaptation of "The Prom," spoke today about the upcoming movie musical, starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Ariana DeBose, Andrew Rannells, James Corden, Keegan-Michael Key, Kerry Washington, and more.
The film will be released December 4th on Netflix.
Murphy said that he sought out to make an "old fashioned movie musical," and "a love letter to the Hollywood musicals we all grew up on."
"I've never done something so old-fashioned. My work tends to be a little bit edgier. I really set out to make something that was for everyone, something that parents can watch with their kids," he said.
He also talked a little bit about "Wear Your Crown," the original song written exclusively for the film's end credits.
"We wrote a song that was a sad song, but it didn't fit with the tone of the movie. And then we got to the end of the movie, with the end-credit design sequence," he said. " When I saw that, I think we needed an end-credit song that's about the women. It's about the female power in the film. I told the songwriting team and the composer, 'Let's do something upbeat, that we can send people out in a celebratory fashion, and let's have all the women do the vocal tracks. Furthermore, let's have Meryl Streep rap.'"
The Academy Award-winning actress will indeed rap in the final cut of the song.
"I think Meryl fans are going to go crazy for it. I have a video of Meryl rapping. She was so good that we used her first take, which just goes to show you there's nothing that Meryl Streep cannot do," Murphy said.
Murphy also discussed his relationship to Broadway. "Broadway is very important to me. One of the things that we're doing is holding a benefit in late November/early December. We're going to show the movie to the Broadway community and raise funds. We're going to give money to the Actors Fund because there are so many actors, some of which were in our movie, that aren't working. Meryl and I are going to be co-chairs of that screening and that event," he said. "I also love the timing of this movie because people who love Broadway and musicals can't get them right now. This will hopefully remind people of that joy they get at a Broadway show."