Big Screen “Miss Saigon”–With Daniels Directing?

Some people would love to see a film version of “Miss Saigon.” Some people. 

Are we in the middle of another mini-golden age of the movie musical? Perhaps yes, but maybe for worse, not better. I say worse not because I think the upcoming “Nine” is going to be a bust or because I’m worried about the planned transfer of “Rock of Ages” from stage to screen. No, I’m thinking about the news today from Variety that “Miss Saigon,” the long-running Broadway musical, may finally be made into a movie. Lee Daniels, indie critical darling this year for his “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire,” is rumored to be the directing choice. Paula Wagner is producing and supposedly anxious to get the project going.

“Miss Saigon” is a Vietnam War era take on “Madama Butterfly” (white soldier falls for Vietnamese prostitute, has a child with her, then dumps her for white girl back in the States). It ran on Broadway for almost ten years, and in numerous other locations around the world. With music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil (the guys who brought you “Les Miserables”) and lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr., it was one of the last gasps of the big, bombastic musicals of the 1980s, the end of the Andrew Lloyd Weber wave, you might say. It was better known for having a helicopter land onstage than for great music or lyrics; rather, the whole show is often painfully overwrought, imho. I’m not a fan.

Of course Daniels has proven himself to be a more than solid director, and one could argue that there are good reasons why the show might improve onscreen–you could open it up onto the streets of Vietnam and just go for it with crowds, outdoor scenes, a dramatic fall of Saigon. Just go for the melodrama and spectacle. And this could be a second chance for it. Maybe it could have some editing, some songs trimmed. Or maybe with enough set pieces no one would notice the mediocrity of the music. Eh, who am I kidding. It still would be pretty painful.

Wagner is said to be aiming for a 2011 release.