Sweet Oz! “Wicked” fans now have a chance to visit Munchkinland. Well, sort of.
When Jon M. Chu was making the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, practical sets were a must. “Wicked’s” grand production shot in 17 stages and on four backlots, two of which were the size of four American football fields. Among the sets was Munchkinland’s Munchkin Village, which was nestled among a field of tulips. And because everything was real, nine million tulips were needed.
Initially, production designer Nathan Crowley was met with a little pushback and was questioned on why he wouldn’t use visual effects for the tulips. Crowley insisted on aligning with Chu’s vision of doing everything on camera. “I said, ’I have to do this, and you have to go with me,’” Crowley tells Variety. “And they did.’”
Crowley’s next challenge was pulling it off. “I said to Adam [Richards], my location manager and said, ‘We’re going to grow tulips, and we have to learn about tulip farming.’” They found a tulip farmer, Mark Eves in Norfolk, England, who offered to help plant and grow the bulbs — all nine million.
Says Crowley, “They were the colors of the rainbow. They came up and it was just beautiful.”
Chu’s film is an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, and explains the story of the two witches before “The Wizard of Oz.”
The endless rows of tulips made for a spectacular visual captured by Alice Brooks’ cinematography. The film’s opening number “No One Mourns the Wicked” is set in Munchkin Village — which Crowley built, and the tulips serve as a painterly backdrop.
“I knew it could work because I grew 500 acres of corn on ‘Interstellar,’” Crowley says of his vision with the tulips. “I knew I could…with the right farmer.”
But what happened to the tulips when production ended? “Mark [Eves] plants them,” Crowley responds. “Tulip farming is about putting the bulbs in the ground, you grow the flowers and you chop the heads off.” He adds, “The bulbs get bigger, and the next season, you put the bulb in the greenhouse, and that’s where you get your flowers. So he took the bulbs and grew them.”
Belmont Farms, owned by Eves, will open to the public next April and allow visitors to experience the tulips and Oz’s Munchkinland.
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