Schumacher, the director of such thrillers as “Falling Down” and “Flatliners” as well as the campy last two “Batman” films, seemed an unlikely choice for “Phantom” - even to himself - when Lloyd Webber first approached him in 1987. Warner Brothers paid for the distribution rights.
“And (I would) say, ‘It’s a musical, you see.’ I remember in one instance saying, ‘What you’re saying is you understand why nuns would sing in a convent but you don’t understand why Julie Andrews sings ‘The hills are alive!’ in ‘The Sound of Music.”’Įventually, Lloyd Webber used $85 million of his considerable fortune to finance the entire film himself, which allowed him to control changes to the story and hire his own director without studio interference. “People would say things to me like, ‘We understand why people would sing in an opera house, but we don’t understand why they sing on the opera house roof,”’ Lloyd Webber recalled. Otherwise the millions who traveled to see the thousands of performances might have saved money by going to the multiplex or video store instead. He said his actors, directors and other colleagues also urged him to keep “Phantom” in the realm of live theater. “It would have been a tremendous disincentive for them.
“So many of the producers said they wouldn’t do it if there was a movie,” he said.
Sarah brightman phantom of the opera movie movie#
In the early years, Lloyd Webber said, one of the main reasons he wanted to do the movie (to put the show in front of people who couldn’t afford Broadway) became one of the main reasons he COULDN’T do the movie.
But a number of obstacles - including his 1990 divorce from muse and “Phantom” stage star Sarah Brightman, Hollywood’s disinterest in musicals and a worldwide collective of aggressive stage producers - kept the musical off the screen before now. Tough road to the big screenLloyd Webber, the iconic composer behind “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita,” says he has wanted to make a film of the gothic romance since his show debuted in London in 1986.