Even if we weren’t big Sondheim fans, we’re starting to suspect that we’d be getting excited about “Into The Woods” regardless. “Chicago” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” director Rob Marshall‘s been prepping his film version of Stephen Sondheim‘s fairy tale deconstruction for over a year now, but has started lining up a cast in recent weeks, and it’s looking fairly spectacular.
Meryl Streep was the first on board as the Witch, joined by Johnny Depp as The Wolf, Tony-winning “One Man Two Guvnors” star James Corden in the lead role as The Baker, and most recently, Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine as the two Princes. And now they’ve got even more company, as Variety reports that Emily Blunt is in talks to stay the female lead in the project, as the Baker’s Wife (there’s more complexity in the characters than in the name, it should be said). Amy Adams took the part in a recent Public Theater stage production, but it’s Blunt that’s won it here.
As with many of the actors involved, Blunt hasn’t yet sung on screen in a major way, but as you can tell from her karaoke rendition of “Total Eclipse fo the Heart” with Alison Brie below, she’s got some pipes on her. Sort of… She’s not the only new addition, as The Wrap report that Broadway vet Christine Baranski (“The Good Wife“) is also on board, as Cinderella’s wicked stepmother. Baranski took part alongside Corden and some others in a reading last summer, so Marshall’s clearly had her in mind for a while.
The big question here — other than Marshall, who’s gotten progressively worse with each film — is how they’ll deal with the piece’s unique structure, which is essentially two stories in one. Either way, with filming likely to get underway soon, so we’ll likely find out sometime around the 2014 awards season.