Musical Go-Round

Following the success of Moulin Rouge! and Chicago much ink was spilled on the "rebirth of the movie musical". But the initial hopes of a flood of big screen tuners yielded only a trio of box office disappointments (The Phantom of the Opera, Rent and The Producers).

However, on the dancing heels of the popular Dreamgirls and Hairspray, it seems we are finally seeing a rise in the production of all kinds of movie musicals, not just those based off of stage hits like this Christmas' Sweeney Todd (pictured).

Once, touted as a "natural musical", is the indie sleeper of the year whose fan base will only grow as it continues to open wider. Fox Searchlight is even taking advantage of a concert tour headlined by the film's unlikely stars to help promote it and build award season buzz.

Promising to be a trippy visual feast (at least) is Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, which uses The Beatles catalog as its song score. Sony took over the editing of the film from Taymor, so the results look iffy at this point. Nevertheless, the film (which stars Evan Rachel Wood, Eddie Izzard and Bono) will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

On the family friendly front, there hasn't been a full-fledged animated musical for some time, but it looks like Disney is returning to the formula, or at least stirring it up a bit, with Enchanted. Combing animation and live action a la Mary Poppins, the comedy/fantasy will feature songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (the Oscar-winning team from Pocahontas). Amy Adams stars as a storybook princess who is transported to modern day New York by an evil witch (Susan Sarandon). Patrick Dempsey and Hairspray's James Marsden play her prince charmings. (Visit the official site to watch the trailer.)

Also down the pike from Disney will be two toon tuners based on the fairy tales Rapunzel (co-directed by ace animator Glen Keane) and The Frog Prince (reworked as The Princess and the Frog and set in New Orleans, complete with a jazz score by Randy Newman). The latter film will feature Disney's first African American princess.

Dream Balloon Productions will throw their hat into the ring as well with Snowyville, a Christmas-themed animated adventure featuring Tim Curry.

And finally: Two so-called "celebrities" I never wanted to mention here, Simon Cowell and Paris Hilton, are also entering into the movie musical biz with two separate, but equally questionable, projects in the works. And if I'm being honest with you, that is so not hot.

Links via Imdb.com, USAToday.com, Playbill.com, TIFF07.ca, Disney.go.com, AnimatedFilms.Suite101.com, MSNBC.msn.com, Cinematical.com and EW.com.