RETURN TO OZ

THANK GOODNESS, AND REJOICIFY FOR WE TRULY HAVE RETUNED TO OZ. AFTER THE PHENOMENON THAT WAS WICKED, JON M CHU LEADS US BACK ALONG THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD FOR THE FINAL TIME, COMPLETING HIS DUOLOGY THAT HAS TRULY CHANGED THE WORLD OF MOVIE MUSICALS FOR GOOD

- WORDS: HENRY CALVERT

LAST YEAR WICKED proved not only to be popular but utterly defied gravity.

With the highly anticipated followup Wicked: For Good out this month, Jon M Chu is still riding high on his commercial and critical success.

“It was honestly such a relief that it was received so well – that’s the dream. That the movie that you make, that you care so much about, that every frame, every colour, every shade of lighting you put so much love and effort into, that an audience has resonated with that.

“A big thing for me was all of a sudden all the calls that I got from people around the industry that I’d never gotten calls from. I’ve done a decent amount of movies, and I’d like to think I’ve made a name for myself, but when your heroes reach out, it’s pretty cool. Like last week I met Dennis Muren and Andrew Stanton, and being able to talk to these people not just as idols but as industry peers and discuss storytelling and craft felt so surreal.”

THERE AND BACK

Before Wicked even hit screens it embarked on one of the most memorable press tours of recent memory, bringing with it a plethora of memes, Ozmopolitan red carpet looks, and for Chu a time he still holds plenty of space for.

“What was interesting is when we first started promoting the movie last year, we had already lived everything. We had gone through and filmed all of movie two. We had witnessed these characters’ birth, their childhood. We’d seen them when they first met and we’d witnessed their separation.

“So before anyone had even seen a frame, we’d already lived the whole thing, and I think that was why it was so emotional last time. It felt like we were mourning the passing of our work, and yet we had to celebrate the beginnings of it, which I think was also very healing. But now it feels like everyone is there with us, we are all now on the same emotional wavelength and that’s a wonderful feeling.”