“I like this. I like the music and singing.” That’s the official trailer review for the 2014 reimagining of ANNIE, as viewed at Rock Father HQ by four year-old Addie this morning. Maybe it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination, but I’m a musical fan. THE MUSIC MAN, GUYS AND DOLLS, WHITE CHRISTMAS (I’d actually be up for appearing in remakes of any of those), and with films like FROZEN being so hot right now, maybe a new generation is catching the bug. This Christmas, a new version of ANNIE arrives on the big screen from Columbia Pictures, and I’ve got the trailer below…
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I have to admit, when the email with the ANNIE materials popped up in my inbox, I was sorta scoffish. I have the DVD of the 1982 film (which I purchased before we even had kids), a movie that I grew up on, and saw in the theatre when it was new. My sister and I even had the awesome Daddy Warbucks car and figures, and in my mind, the dynamic has been locked with an image of Albert Finney and Aileen Quinn. The Broadway musical was remade as a television film in 1999 (I didn’t care, and didn’t watch), but this…
After watching the trailer, I’m interested. It looks like the filmmakers have done a decent job of reinventing the tale for a modern audience.
Interest piqued.
What say you?
ANNIE (2014)
A Broadway classic that has delighted audiences for generations comes to the big screen with a new, contemporary vision in Columbia Pictures’ comedy, Annie. Director/Producer/Screenwriter Will Gluck teams with producers James Lassiter, Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, and Shawn “JAY Z” Carter, Laurence “Jay” Brown, and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith with a modern telling that captures the magic of the classic characters and original show that won seven Tony Awards. Celia Costas serves as Executive Producer. The screenplay is by Will Gluck and Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the musical stage play “Annie,” book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and on “Little Orphan Annie,” © and ® Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Academy Award® nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who’s also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they’d be back for her someday, it’s been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything’s about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) – advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale) – makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he’s her guardian angel, but Annie’s self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it’s the other way around.
