"Lidsville", the Kroffts’ 1971 series about a magical realm populated by living hats, will become a film for DreamWorks Animation, to be directed by Conrad Vernon, the studio is to announce on Monday. Mr. Vernon, who worked as a director on the DreamWorks films “Monsters vs. Aliens” and “Shrek 2,” said in a telephone interview that of all the mildly psychedelic Krofft television shows he grew up on, “Lidsville” was the one that just seemed to stick in his head. “When I talk to a lot of adults about this,” Mr. Vernon said, “they look back and go, ‘Oh, that show was great but it was so weird.’ And that’s what made me want to watch every single day.”
Mr. Vernon said that his film will preserve and build upon the pop-absurdist style of its predecessor. “We’re going to try and keep a lot of characters from the original show,” he said, “even though we might play with the designs and with their backstories, so they fit into a full-length feature.”
The HooDoo character in particular – and his flying top hat, called a Hatamaran – are staying, Mr. Conrad said, though no casting decisions have been made. In adapting the work of the Kroffts for contemporary viewers, Mr. Vernon said, “You really have to look at the source material and be true to it.” He added, “There is something at the heart of every show they did that captured the audience back then, and that’s something you can’t lose.”
Marty Krofft said in a telephone interview that the creative team behind “Lidsville,” as well as its association with DreamWorks, would clearly identify it as a family-oriented film. With “Lidsville,” Mr. Krofft said, there would be “no messing around, going after that audience. We can’t have any confusion, and we won’t have here.”
A release date for “Lidsville” has not been announced, and Mr. Vernon said the visual style of the film was still being worked out. “That’s the fun of development,” he said, “We haven’t made our rules yet. I can see the mixture of live action and animation possibly happening. I can also see fully animated. You could start the movie in one animated style, and once our main character falls into Lidsville, you can completely redesign the movie to something else.”
Needless to say, “Lidsville” is being planned as a 3-D feature (“All our movies are in 3-D now,” Mr. Vernon said), and the director, who played the Gingerbread Man in the “Shrek” movies, said he’d probably find a way to slip his voice into this one too. “I’m as self-promoting as the next guy,” Mr. Vernon said.
Source:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ ... reamworks/
Marty Krofft: Then we also have Lidsville which is already a movie at DreamWorks Animation.
Sid Krofft: Let me tell you how they’re doing Lidsville. It’s going to be like Tommy or Hair. It’s a full blown musical. Alan Menken is doing the music and that’s pretty exciting. I love that studio. On a daily basis, they really know what they’re doing.
Source:
http://collider.com/comic-con-sid-marty-krofft/180792/
Alan Menken wrote:Off to LA for BMI awards and LIDSVILLE meeting. Excited to be doing my first non-Disney animated musical. Hello DreamWorks!
Source:
https://twitter.com/AIMenken/status/70804046423924736
Alan Menken wrote:Gotta be careful what I tweet. It's not a done deal with DreamWorks. Just discussions right now. And FYI ... Disney knows and blesses.
Source:
https://twitter.com/AIMenken/status/72025290007777280
Alan Menken wrote:Kicking off work on LIDSVILLE tomorrow. Me and Glenn finally collaborating with the amazing Audrey Wells. And I'm finally at DreamWorks.
Source:
https://twitter.com/AIMenken/status/118441756760088577
Alan Menken wrote:Just finished 3 intense days of LIDSVILLE creative meetings with Audrey Wells and Glenn Slater. Our heads are spinning! This should be FUN.
Source:
https://twitter.com/AIMenken/status/119512853492412416
Alan Menken wrote:LIDSVILLE starting to take shape. The songs will be an homage to '60s psychedelic concept-album rock. It'll be fun doing our "research".
Source:
https://twitter.com/AIMenken/status/128120901911855104
Alan Menken wrote:LIDSVILLE is underway...FINALLY. Back to the 60's. Peace, love and psychedelia! And DreamWorks is pretty great. So many old friends there.
Source:
https://twitter.com/AIMenken/status/291754782543192064
Q: What about the film projects that you have coming up?
Glenn Slater: I have started work on another film with Alan for Dreamworks, but I can't talk about the details. It's a musical and it's a musical sound that I don't think has been done - ever.
Source:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Ex ... e-20120305
Like every child in the 60s living in the US, Menken was a fan of Indian classical music. "Because of George Harrison we learnt to listen to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan but the Indian music structure uses tones, scales and techniques that I never felt qualified to use," he modestly adds, though Menken has used the sitar and tabla filtered through 60s rock-n-roll for a psychedelic era musical called Lidsville. "It was a wink at The Beatles!"
Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 497481.cms
