Good Morning POU!
Annie is a 2014 American musical comedy film directed by Will Gluck, produced by Village Roadshow Pictures and Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing’s Columbia Pictures.
A contemporary film adaptation of the 1977 Broadway musical of the same name (which in turn is based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray), the film stars Quvenzhané Wallis in the title role, Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Cameron Diaz (in her final film role before her subsequent retirement from acting). This was the second remake of Annie. Annie began production in August 2013 and was released theatrically on December 19, 2014 to generally negative reviews from critics.
Annie received two Golden Globe Award nominations in the categories of Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical (for Wallis) and Best Original Song. Conversely, the film received two Golden Raspberry nominations and won in the category of Worst Remake while Diaz was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
While the film incorporates notable songs from the original Broadway production, written by composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Martin Charnin, the songs themselves were rearranged by Sia and Greg Kurstin to reflect its new contemporary setting. Executive music supervisor Matt Sullivan explained that there was a desire to make the film’s use of music “seamless” rather than “abrupt”, and to maintain the integrity and familiarity of the musical’s most iconic songs, including “Tomorrow” and “It’s the Hard Knock Life”. The songs were rearranged with a percussive, pop-inspired style: in particular, “It’s the Hard Knock Life” — whilst maintaining the use of “natural” sounds for its rhythm — was updated in a hip hop style.