Todd Graff, the writer and director of Bandslam, says his remake of the musical Damn Yankees won’t feature the Yankees but will feature steroids. Graff points out that the original 1955 story featured the now non-existent Washington Senators so he’s replacing them with the Chicago Cubs who haven’t won a pennant in 102 years. And we all know there’s only two ways people could see the Cubs winning the World Series: making a deal with Satan or steroids. Speaking to MTV, Graff says:
“If a character like Joe Hardy – who’s the character in ‘Damn Yankees’ – sprung out of nowhere and was hitting 70 home runs in a season, who would not think immediately ‘steroids’?” said writer/director Todd Graff, who has cast Jake Gyllenhaal in the Tab Hunter role of a baseball fan who sells his soul to become the greatest player. “So [steroids] is not even a side character for us; it’s our main character. No one is going to think, ‘Oh, it’s because he made a deal with the devil (played by Jim Carrey)!’ They’d think, ‘He’s juicing!’”
Graff is planning to keep only a few of the original songs and pen about five or six new ones, including one about steroids. Hit the jump for details on how Graff is also removing the choreography.
In the interview, Graff said his take on the musical is “Jerry Maguire with songs.” He’s also throwing out Bob Fosse’s choreography:
“I think it’d be a mistake [to keep that],” Graff said. “They did that in ‘Chicago,’ so it’s been done. His stuff was brilliant, his sensibility was very hard-edged and cynical, and I think what we’re going for is more of a muscular, athletic, youthful, sexy movie. We’re going to be less brittle, less razzle-dazzly and aim to knock your socks off with the athleticism.”
Graff claims that “there is no writer/director out there that knows more about musicals and more about baseball and hates the Yankees as much as I do,” but he seems more interested in highlighting the baseball than the musical. Also, if he really hated the Yankees, why wouldn’t he make a movie that said their championships were because of the devil and steroids?
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in the national league, there is no team as villainous as the yankees. include steroids if you want, but keep the action in the american league so the film can still be called “damn yankees”
this is going to be horrible.. seriously..? Jim Carrey..? Jake Gyllenhaal as Young Joe..?
I think everything original is great and way better then anything new they will com eup with.. like Chicago Cubs..?
this is going to be horrible.. seriously..? Jim Carrey..? Jake Gyllenhaal as Young Joe..?
I think everything original is great and way better then anything new they will com eup with.. like Chicago Cubs..?
I can't wait to go out and see this movie, it's definitely one of the best movie these last few decades. I read in my local newspaper plenty of stories about sportsmen that choose to buy steroids or some other drugs to improve their performance. Another one of Jim Carrey 's wonderful comedies.
Nice
Was excited for this….loved Jim Carrey for forever, and played Applegate in our summer production of the musical last year so I was excited when I heard about this….but change the senators? Scrap almost all of the music? Steroids? That might have just ruined it for me….
it already sounds crappy
Keep the Yankees, take out the steroids (baseball already has enough bad publicity), make it the Nationals and Carey as Boyde playing there. Keep the songs because they are good songs(and once again hollywood is going to screw up a good idea).
Graff claims that “there is no writer/director out there that knows more about musicals and more about baseball and hates the Yankees as much as I do,” but he seems more interested in highlighting the baseball than the musical. Also, if he really hated the Yankees, why wouldn’t he make a movie that said their championships were because of the devil and steroids? jump higher
personaly there are only 2 movies that where originaly musicals that i love close to are as much as the original broadway show CHICAGO and SWENEEY TODD!!! why you ask hmmm maybe because they kept the choreyography and the amazing musical numbers and well BOB FOSSE IS AMAZING!!!!!!! so this movie will be crap!!!!
oh and one more thing the name dosnt even make sense any more god get so pisst of when stupid directors try to make broadway into a movie and the change it to make it better oh and also referring to my other cooment CABARET is also amazing but this is pissing me off if only directors would understand that theater is soooo much harder then to make a movie !!!!!!!
I can’t help but shake my head in disgust. Keep it Yankees. KEEP the music. Ditch the steroids. Hope someone intervenes before this gets made. Foul!
Not sure how good the remake of “Damn Yankees” will be. Jim Carrey is funny and Jake Gyllenhaal is a good actor, but can they sing?
isabel de los rios
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