Baz Luhrmann thinks the runaway success of his Academy Award-nominated film "Moulin Rouge!" may have paved the way for a revival of the big-screen musical "As we speak, people are trying to rush musicals into production. I know of three already," Luhrmann told UPI, pointing out that productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Rent" and "Chicago" are currently in the works. "These huge corporations all have music companies and film companies. Could be good, you know? The music and the film all in one little package. It's just about money," noted the writer/director of the critical and commercial hits "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" and "Strictly Ballroom." Luhrmann added texture to his 1899 "comic-tragic, Bollywood-like musical opera" by using anachronistic pop music by the likes of Dolly Parton, Elton John, David Bowie, Madonna, Nirvana, U2 and even musical theatre kings Rodgers and Hammerstein But he notes that using music written later than the story is set was actually a common practice employed by writers and directors of musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. "(Using contemporary music) is quite an old idea," Luhrmann said. "When Judy Garland sings: 'Clang, Clang, Clang, goes the trolley,' in "Meet Me in St. Louis," that film is set in 1900, but she is singing 1940s big-band music. She is singing radio music ... and the device is to get inside character and story to understand it through your own music ... It's a basic rule of musicals that the audience have a relationship with the music pre-existing." "Moulin Rouge," garnered eight Oscar nominations -- including nods for best picture and for best actress for Nicole Kidman
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