An 'Amélie' Musical? Quelle horreur!

Jean-Pierre Jeunet hates musicals. Still he did not put a stop to the adaptation of his cult film Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain into a Broadway musical, as reported in an article ("Amélie Poulain" mangé à la sauce Broadway, August 26) in Le Point (my translation):

[The rumor] was confirmed on August 13 by Dan Messé, the American composer charged with the project, on the Facebook page of his group HEM. Interviewed on RTL on Friday, Jeunet pulled no punches about the project. "I absolutely detest musicals and I hate Broadway. I think it is the very incarnation of ridiculous old-fashioned kitsch (la ringardise)," he declared unambiguously.

Why then did he cede the rights to his movie? For philanthropy, pure and simple, he emphasizes. "I support an association called Mécénat Chirurgie cardiaque (Heart surgery support). It costs 10,000 euros to save a child. I have already contributed to helping a dozen or more children and now I tell myself that I may have the chance to save more of them. So I stifle my little problems of conscience," explains the director. That statement is followed by a coup de grâce: "I am deeply disgusted by musicals. I will not go see it, I do not want to hear it spoken of, I will not listen to whatever they create."

Dan Messé, for his part, loves the film and loves the soundtrack by Yann Tiersen, but admits in an interview with Paste magazine that he does not want to write "Parisian music." He may not even use the accordion. One hopes that Jeunet was able to get terms for a major cut of any and all profits.