by Daniel Crooke
Judging by Hollywood’s gluttony with the bottomless box office buffet of remakes, sequels, and reboots, it’s a fair assumption that the average development slate subsists on a diet built purely on previously existing properties. Spider-Mans make for a great snack, Mummys are the perfect midnight meal, and Beauty and the Beast is the latest on Disney’s plate of microwaved leftovers. This week, as Frank Oz’s classic 1986 horror-comedy musical Little Shop of Horrors hits Warner Bros’ menu, the budding beast bellows once more: feed me!
You can’t blame protectionist fans for beginning to quiver at the teeth-pulling thought of another beloved story sliced, diced, or photocopied for contemporary audiences. But for those immediately suspicious of the recycled content mill that seems to fuel the modern studio system – at the detriment of green-lighting original material in the mid-budget range – it would be wise to keep the following in mind. For nearly as long as Little Shop has been in our pop cultural consciousness, it has itself been a heavily recycled property.
Initially conceived by Roger Corman as a 1960 B-picture starring a carnivorous flytrap with an exponential appetite and conniving cult of personality, The Little Shop of Horrors served as the source material for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s hit 1982 Off-Broadway musical that dropped the the – it’s cleaner – which was then transformed into Oz’s Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene-starring cult film four years later. And at various points in between, it boasted a children’s animated series and Broadway revival without losing an inch of its inky sensitivity. Phew. Talk about 'growing for me'.
With DC Comics superhero producer Greg Berlanti set to direct its latest iteration, the first question on any fan’s mind is whom he should cast in the musical’s iconic roles. I’m crossing my fingers that Janelle Monáe as Audrey and James Marsden as Seymour belt the lead notes in the latest incarnation of the bittersweet Motown musical. Who makes your cast list for Warner Bros’ remake of Little Shop of Horrors?