“Wicked” has been a huge success for Universal Pictures, but the yellow brick road to the big screen was not an easy one. Long before it was the biggest show to hit Broadway, the movie rights to Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” were a hot commodity in late ‘90s Hollywood.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, “Wicked” producer Marc Platt revealed details about the original non-musical, straight forward film adaptation. He explained that after several studios and production companies showed interest in the title, it ended up with Demi Moore’s company, Moving Pictures, and Universal.

At the time, “The Substance” star was one of the biggest movie stars in the world and one of the most powerful women in the business. Her producing partner Suzanne Todd can’t say for certain which role she was interested in, but thinks she would have probably played Elphaba.

“I think on different days she could do either, but in the moment it was definitely for Elphaba,” Todd said.

Moving Pictures never developed the film to the point of casting Glinda, but they had some very big names in mind for the Good Witch.

“At the time, there were a few people top of mind: Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson, Nicole Kidman,” Todd said.

Apparently, there was quite an A-list of stars vying for the project. Among them were EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, future “Homeland” star Claire Danes, “Desperade” breakout Salma Hayek and “Roseanne” actress Laurie Metcalf. It’s not clear if all these artists wanted to play Elphaba, but they definitely wanted to be involved in the project, especially Goldberg.

“Whoopi Goldberg’s manager wanted to buy it for her,” Todd said. “But I really wanted it.” The “Sister Act” star’s publicist, Brad Cafarelli, revealed, “This is true. Whoopi loved the book and tried hard to get the rights.”

Wicked | What Is This Feeling

Once the rights were settled, the development process revealed some difficulties Platt hadn’t previously considered. One was the budget, as the expansive world of Oz required a lot of visual effects. Todd explained that this led to a possible budget of “$35- or $37 million,” which was a big sum for a film like this. This is pretty crazy considering the rumored budget for both parts of the blockbuster is $320 million.

They also had to figure out how to portray Elphaba’s heartbreak and sadness on screen, when she keeps it all inside and doesn’t really share her pain with anyone. Platt was reluctant to use excessive voiceover or narration.

“It’s harder in a traditional film,” Platt said. “Usually you need another character to talk to, and you tell your best friend what you’re thinking or feeling.”

As we know now, the answer to this problem was to just let her sing a song about her emotions.

When Moore stepped back from the business for a while, Moving Pictures moved on from the project, but Universal kept the movie rights. Though Platt still couldn’t seem to get things sorted out for a film adaptation, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz came in with an intriguing idea. What if it became a stage musical, then it could be a movie down the road?

A few unforgettable songs and tweaks to the story later, the rest is history. The stage musical opened in 2003, so it’s hard to picture “Wicked” without music guiding the story, but we are interested in the thought of Goldberg being involved. We don’t know who she would’ve played, but she would’ve been a fascinating Wizard.