THIS SOUNDS ... INTERESTING

The Hollywood Reporter has a story today about a new musical to be directed by John Turturro and starring Christopher Walken, Mary-Louise Parker, James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Mandy Moore and Kate Winslet.

Yes ... I said a new musical.

I first just saw a headline, and then after coming-to, I went on to read a little more of the story. I mean, that's a great cast, but I don't know that I really want to listen to them all sing. Apparently, however, it's not that kind of musical. Instead, it sounds more like Moulin Rouge minus the actual actors singing voices (and no offense to John Turturro, but also minus the brilliance of Baz Luhrmann).

The Coen Brothers are exec producing the film which is called Romance & Cigarettes, not to be confused with Jim Jarmuch's upcoming Coffee and Cigarettes . Turturro also wrote the script which "follows a cheating blue-collar husband who is forced to choose between his sexy mistress and his put-upon wife. According to the film's producers, Romance is 'punctuated by lip-synched performances of popular songs" by artists including Irving Berlin, Nick Cave, Connie Francis, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield and Bruce Springsteen.'"

That's a fantastic group of talent to put together, but can it work without being really corny? Current audiences are obviously becoming more tolerant, once again, of characters breaking into song, as evidenced by Moulin Rouge and Chicago. But simple gimmickry is not necessarily enough to make a modern-day musical interesting, and there have been failures over the past decade, such as James L. Brooks's I'll Do Anything (which was made as a musical and then had all the numbers cut before release due to poor focus testing) and Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, which featured the likes of Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts getting the music in them.

I think Turturro's previous directing efforts have been somewhat uneven. Mac was interesting at times, but certainly not earth-shattering, and it was often a bit dull. Illuminata was similarly a pleasant little film that alternated between holding my interest and giving me instant narcolepsy. It lacked cohesiveness, but at the same time, it was a step forward for Turturro as far as style. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that with what sounds like a very complex concept, he can use his quirky sensibility to bring it all together.