James Cameron "almost" directed Wicked 15 years ago, but he "couldn't find the song"

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Avatar, but make it Wicked

Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked: For Good
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James Cameron says he almost directed Wicked some 15 years ago – though he's not the only director who threw his hat in the ring.

"I almost made Wicked," Cameron revealed on The Town with Matthew Belloni. "I really love the story. The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorites. This is going back 15 years. I couldn't find the song."

Up until its massively successful release in 2024, Universal had been trying to make a Wicked movie since the 1990s. And because this well before the stage musical came to be, it would've been a straight adaptation of the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West – without any music at all. At one point, Robert Zemeckis was attached to direct, followed by Broadway director Stephen Daldry, before eventually landing in Jon M. Chu's lap circa 2021.

Lauren Milici
Lauren Milici
Senior Entertainment Writer

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

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