Volume 1, Issue 1

ENTERTAINMENT: HOT FLIX


EVITA

What goes around, comes around. Sometimes. In 1977, director Alan Parker first heard the Evita  concept album and immediately inquired about doing a film adaptation but dropped the idea when producer Robert Stigwood chose to first pursue a stage adaptation.  However, in 1979, Stigwood invited Parker to the Broadway opening of Evita  and asked him if he’d like to direct a film version. At that time Parker was directing the movie musical Fame, and promised Stigwood he’d give him an answer when he finished, which he did. Parker didn’t  feel like directing back-to-back musicals, so his answer was no, a decision he admits “regretting for fifteen years”.
 In the 80’s, Parker directed such diverse films as Pink Floyd-The Wall, Birdy, Angel Heart, Mississippi Burning and The Commitments, earning his second Academy Award nomination (Mississippi Burning)  for “Best Director” in the process. The Evita  project, meanwhile, was attached to such stars as Meryl Streep and Barbara Streisand, and directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone, but the deal never quite came together. 
Finally, in 1994, producer Andy Vajna  approached Parker and offered him another chance to direct Evita,  and this time Parker accepted, thrilled for the opportunity to eliminate the “regret” and start work on a project  he calls “a passion of mine and a great challenge for any filmmaker”.



















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