Craig Zadan Quotes

Neil and I are most thrilled that we were able to bring musical theatre to the enormous audience that 'The Sound of Music' reached

Craig Zadan

The reality of producing the Oscars is that it's a blood sport. With social media, everyone has a chance to voice their opinions. You have to know that entering into this special world requires a very thick skin

Craig Zadan

Neil and I had the greatest experience of our lives doing 'Chicago' with Latifah. Then we had the second best experience of our lives doing 'Hairspray.'

Craig Zadan

The future for us is not to go bigger but to go different

Craig Zadan

The people with mean things to say, say them. At the end of the day, the mean things and the good things only drive viewership. So what do you want? You want the ratings

Craig Zadan

Basically, we had the idea of doing this production of 'Steel Magnolias,' and we spoke to Queen Latifah about it, and she got excited

Craig Zadan

We zero in on family as a theme because it makes the movies emotionally available to a universal audience

Craig Zadan

In the past, once a movie musical was made, it was believed that you were left with that version, good or bad, for posterity

Craig Zadan

It's expensive to produce musicals on television

Craig Zadan

He's perfect for anything. I would hire Hugh Jackman to come to my house and have dinner

Craig Zadan

We're finding that the casting of 'A Few Good Men' is different from the musicals because the kind of actors that you need to do it are movie actors, basically

Craig Zadan

I think maybe the most important thing that we have to say is that people don't often talk about network executives being brave. You don't talk about them as having integrity and a higher purpose, because it's a job... except for Bob Greenblatt. He is a theatre person. He loves and understands it

Craig Zadan

'Chicago' kind of set the bar in terms of how we approach musicals, and tone is one of the key elements

Craig Zadan

I think we sublimated our Broadway desires by doing theater in Hollywood - not on stage but by doing the movies of 'Chicago' and 'Hairspray' and also musicals on TV. We did Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Cinderella' and 'Gypsy' and 'Annie.' Even 'Smash' was like doing theater

Craig Zadan

I would say that, first of all, if you have the honor of being chosen to produce the Oscars, you usually get only one crack at it. We were the first people in sixteen years to do it three times in a row, and it was one of the most profound experiences you could ever imagine

Craig Zadan

We have a particular philosophy in the casting room that we don't really tell the actors - the actors tell us

Craig Zadan