The Producers (2005 film)

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The Producers (2005)

Promotional poster for The Producers (2005)
Directed by Susan Stroman
Produced by Mel Brooks and Jonathan Sanger
Written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan (screenplay)
Starring Nathan Lane
Matthew Broderick
Uma Thurman
Will Ferrell
Gary Beach
Roger Bart
Music by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Cinematography John Bailey and Charles Minsky
Editing by Steven Weisberg
Distributed by Universal Pictures (US)
Columbia Pictures (non-US)
Release date(s) December 16, 2005 (Select Cities)
25 December 2005 (Nationwide in the US)
Running time 134 minutes
Language English
Budget $45,000,000 USD (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Producers is a 2005 film based on the 2001 Broadway musical of the same name, which is in turn based on the 1968 movie starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Andréas Voutsinas. The movie is directed by Susan Stroman (the director and choreographer of the original Broadway production). The film received a limited release in the United States on December 16, 2005; the film expanded to over 600 theaters on December 25, 2005. The film achieved a box office total of just over $3,000,000 in its opening weekend of wide release. It was released on DVD in the US (Region 1) on May 16, 2006. It is rated PG-13 for sexual humor and references.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film opens ("Opening Night") with the flop musical "Funny Boy" based off of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Afterward, Leo Bloom arrives at the office of Max Bialystock, the show's washed up producer. Max Bialystock has hired Leo Bloom as his accountant. While studying Max's books, Leo inadvertently inspires Max to put on a show that is certain to fail at the box office and cleverly change their accounts leaving them with $2,000,000 to spend. At first, Leo refuses to participate. Max, who cannot change the books himself, attempts to coax Leo into the scheme. ("We Can Do It") Leo still refuses and returns to his old accounting firm, Whitehall & Marks.

After being chastised by Mr. Marks, Leo fantasizes about being a Broadway producer. ("I Wanna Be A Producer") Leo quits his job and with Max, forms Bialystock & Bloom. Max and Leo search for "the worst play ever written" and discover "Springtime for Hitler" written by a neo-Nazi named Franz Liebkind. They are coerced into performing Adolf Hitler's favorite tune in order to gain Liebkind's signature for Broadway rights to the musical. ("Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop") They solicite a gay drag queen, Roger De Bris (the worst director in the world) to direct and choreograph the play. De Bris initally refuses saying that the musical is far too dark and gritty and that Broadway needs to be more "gay". ("Keep It Gay") Ulla, a beautiful Swedish woman, appears at their office for casting despite there being no auditions. Max insists on hiring her as their secretary and auditioning her. ("When You've Got It, Flaunt It")

To gain the finances for the musical Max has sexual affairs with every old lady across town. ("Along Came Bialy") Max and Leo return the office to discover that Ulla has redecorated it to be entirely white. After Max leaves, Leo laments about Ulla and the dangers of sexual affairs straying him from his work, culminating in a kiss between Leo and Ulla. ("That Face") Later, at the auditions for the role of Hitler, Franz becomes angered at a performer's rendition of a beloved German song. Franz storms the stage and sings the song the correct way. ("Haben Sie Gehört Das Deutsche Band?") Max hires Franz to play Hitler.

On opening night, as the cast and crew prepare to go on stage, Leo wishes everyone "good luck" to which the players are horrified. They explain to Leo that it is in fact "bad luck" to say "good luck" on opening night and that the correct phrase is to say "break a leg". ("It's Bad Luck to Say Good Luck on Opening Night") Franz leaves to prepare and, in his rush, literally breaks his leg. Max enlists Roger De Bris to perform the role in his place. Roger accepts.

As the show opens, the audience is horrified and begins to walk out until Roger steps on stage as Hitler. Because his performance is so flamboyant, the audience sees the play as a mockery of Hitler rather than Franz's original vision. ("Springtime for Hitler") As a result, the show is a success and the IRS will be keeping tabs on Max and Leo. Max gets arrested for his tax fraud while Leo and Ulla escape to Rio, however they return to stand up for Max in court. The judge sentences them both to five years at Sing Sing prison, however they are pardoned after writing a musical in prison ("Prisoners of Love"), and go on to become successful Broadway producers.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Changes from the original musical

  • Like the 2005 film adaptation of Rent, the remake of The Producers reunites almost all of the original Broadway cast, save for two actors: Cady Huffman, who played Ulla, and was replaced by Uma Thurman; and Brad Oscar, who played Franz Liebkind, and was replaced by Will Ferrell.
  • The songs "The King of Broadway," "In Old Bavaria" were deleted from the film. However, "The King Of Broadway" appears as a bonus on the soundtrack, and "In Old Bavaria" appears as a bonus track on the soundtrack when purchased at Borders. Both songs also appear as deleted scenes on the DVD version.
  • A verse of "I Wanna Be a Producer" is excised from the film. It is the verse where a black accountant sings in the style of a musical along the lines of Show Boat. (It's also included as part of the deleted scenes on the DVD.)
  • Three new songs were written for the movie: "You'll Find Your Happiness In Rio" (replacing "Where Did We Go Right?"), "There's Nothing Like A Show on Broadway", which plays over the end credits, and is followed by "The Hop Clop Goes On".
  • A verse following the flamboyant solo 'Heil Myself' in Springtime for Hitler is excised from the film, where the stormtroopers and Roger DeBris sing 'The Fuhrer is causing a furor.'

[edit] Trivia

  • When Will Ferrell's character breaks his leg, he says 'I just broke my leg' and then 'I just broke my other leg'. He says this in the exact way he said it in the Austin Powers films.
  • Nearly all of the plays besides Springtime for Hitler and Prisoners Of Love, produced by Max and later Max & Leo, are spoofs of famous Broadway plays, including Funny Boy: A Musical Version Of Hamlet (referring to both Funny Girl and Rockabye Hamlet), King Leer (King Lear), South Passaic (South Pacific), Death Of A Salesman On Ice (Death Of A Salesman), Katz (Cats), High Button Jews (High Button Shoes) and Maim (Mame).
Roger Bart as Carmen Ghia
Enlarge
Roger Bart as Carmen Ghia
  • In the scene when Ulla first enters Bialystock's office, the King Leer poster next to the door can be seen, and after a few seconds, its eyes start spinning.
  • Mel Brooks had indicated that he was keen to have Australian Television personality Bert Newton playe the role of Franz Liebkind in the film as he had done in the Australian version of he play. For many reasons, Newton was not avaliable so the role went to Will Ferrell
  • Nicole Kidman was originally cast as Ulla. Matthew Broderick allegedly offered her the role while they were filming The Stepford Wives together, to which she immediately said yes without seeing so much as a first draft of the script. She subsequently withdrew due to scheduling conflicts.
  • Originally, the film was almost shot in Toronto. New York State tax incentives made it possible for the production to film in New York City at the new Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. Producer Mel Brooks also jokingly complained that the bagels in Toronto were 'too mushy'.
  • The bit that Max Bialystock reads and claims to be 'too good' as he searches for the worst play is the opening section of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
  • The voices of 'Tom The Cat' (who is thrown by Bialystock into the theater) and the Stormtrooper who says 'Don't be stupid, be a smartie, come and join the Nazi Party!' are provided by Mel Brooks, two voices he also pre-recorded for the Broadway show and one voice (the latter) that he did in the original movie. According to Susan Strohman's DVD commentary, Brooks also provided the voice for Liebkind's pigeons.
  • A number of performers from previous stage productions of The Producers have cameos in the film: Richard Kind, the foreman on the jury, played Max Bialystock on Broadway from December 21, 2004 to July 3, 2005; Brad Oscar, who played the Franz Liebkind in the original production and originally replaced Nathan Lane as Bialystock in 2002, plays the taxi driver; Jai Rodriguez played the role of Carmen Ghia on Broadway in November 2005 and appears in the movie as Sabu.
  • The musical sequence that involves Bialystock leading the old female investors marching through the city street is a homage to the finale of Meredith Willson's The Music Man.
  • After the closing credits, there is an additional song where the cast bids good-bye to the audience. This number is also sung in the stage production right after the final company bow. At the end of the number is a cameo by Mel Brooks himself, who tells the audience: 'Get lost, it's over'. In an interview, Brooks complained that audiences want to stay in the theater after the show is done. He specifically wrote this song to tell everyone to get out. Franz can also be heard asking the audience to buy Mein Kampf at Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.com.
  • Eric Gunhus, who played the 'Lead Tenor Stormtrooper' in the Broadway musical, makes cameos as a member of the ensemble and as one of the little old ladies.
  • When Max is visiting the old ladies in their apartment buildings, he pushes a lot of intercom buttons. One of the names is A. Bancroft, a reference to Mel Brooks' late wife, Anne Bancroft. Another is labeled 'J. Gatsby', a reference to the eponymous protagonist of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. Others include Bloomingdales, which is the name of a department store, and Tisch, which also bears the Tisch School of Arts and Tisch Hospital at NYU. Another name there is C. F. Kane, referring to Charles Foster Kane, from the film Citizen Kane.
  • A further reference to classic musicals is made in the film to Singin' in the Rain, where the song sung in Sing Sing is "Gotta Sing-Sing", an obvious reference to the well-known "Gotta Dance".
  • Mel Brooks' notes in The Producers: The Book, Lyrics, And Story Behind the Biggest Hit in Broadway History! mentions a musical number set in Rio. Brooks notes, however, that the set costs would have been too high, so they got rid of it.
  • The outrageous costumes worn by the chorus girls walking down staircases during the opening sequence of Springtime for Hitler are a homage to the elaborate costumes of Florenz, designed for Ziegfield Follies, as well as to Funny Girl, which itself was about Ziegfield Follies.
  • Max calls Franz Liebkind a "Teutonic twit." In Brooks' Blazing Saddles, Hedley Lamarr called Lili Von Shtupp a "Teutonic twat." In another Blazing Saddles homage, when Max and Leo leave Franz, he presses himself against the door after them, the pose and line ("Vhat nice guys") are taken from Lili again. Max receives Leo's postcard in jail and says to the guard "Who do I know in Rio?" He then asks the guard "Why am I asking you?" in reference to the Blazing Saddles character Hedley Lamarr asking a rhetorical question and, looking straight at the camera, saying "Why am I asking you?" The choreography for the "Prisoners of Love" rehearsal in SingSing involving canes and tap-dancing is the exact same as Gene Wilder/Peter Boyle choreography from Young Frankenstein. Finally, Max saying to the $2 million in the safe, "Hello boys, did you miss me?" and Leo's "Work work work!" is a homage to the scene in Blazing Saddles where Brooks as the governor says the same.
  • Just before Ulla auditions, Leo begins to tell her that an audition really isn't necessary, but is cut off by Max at "nece-". This is also a line from Mel Brooks' movie High Anxiety.
  • The woman who plays the piano during the Hitler auditions played Hold-Me-Touch-Me in the Broadway production.
  • This film takes place in 1959, almost a decade before the original film.
  • In a deleted scene in the Astor Bar, Lane and Broderick are joined in song by a drunk patron, played by Ernie Sabella. The three actors performed together in The Lion King, playing Timon, Simba and Pumbaa respectively. The scene is available on the DVD. Also, this is the second film to have both Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in it, right after The Lion King.
  • Interestingly, amid all the humorous stereotypes of gay people, the characters of Max Bialystock and Roger de Bris are played by gay actors, Nathan Lane and Gary Beach respectively. John Barrowman, the blond lead Nazi singer, is also gay.

[edit] External links

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[edit] Scenes

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