No New Song for Streep? Director Rob Marshall Talks Into the Woods Movie Changes

You’ve seen the pics. You’ve watched the teaser. But are you still a bit nervous about Disney’s upcoming Into the Woods film adaptation? If so, Rob Marshall has some words of assurance for you. The movie musical vet recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about bringing the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine tuner to the big screen. And though the new song was cut, there's still a shot for Sondheim to take home another Oscar.

The previously reported new song written for Meryl Streep’s Witch has landed on the cutting room floor. “It was beautiful and spectacular,” Marshall says of the number Sondheim wrote specifically for the film, “but it was very clear…that [the movie] was stronger without.” If the song instead appears as the first music cue in the end credits, it would still be eligible for an Oscar, according to Academy rulings.

And while it appears that one of the film’s major deviations from the show, Rapunzel’s fate, is still omitted, Marshall promises, “Rapunzel’s end is still pretty dark, it’s just a different kind of dark, and it’s just as harrowing, and just as sad.”

“I’m actually really impressed Disney’s doing this film, because it’s very brave,” Marshall adds. “I don’t feel we’ve watered it down in any way, shape or form. We’ve just made it a film.”

As we still anxiously wait for the film’s release on Christmas Day, Marshall promises, “We built this thing using the best parts of Into the Woods which is so much of it…it’ll all be very clear when people see it. They’ll understand, it’s all there.”

In addition to Streep, Into the Woods stars Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Chris Pine as her prince, Johnny Depp as the Wolf, James Corden as the Baker, Emily Blunt as his wife, Mackenzie Mauzy as Rapunzel, Billy Magnussen as her prince and Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood.