James Corden says 'Into the Woods' best experience of his career

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In director Rob Marshall's fairy tale mash-up musical, "Into the Woods," James Corden and Emily Blunt play a baker and his wife.

They're a couple desperate to have a child, but a witch, played by Meryl Streep, curses the two to make that dream impossible.

She tells the couple she can reverse the curse, but her demands send the two on an adventure "into the woods" where they encounter several famous fairy tale characters.

Blunt said as an actress she needed a director like Rob Marshall, especially for such a demanding movie.

"You need somebody like Rob Marshall because I think all of us kind of felt out of our comfort zone...Rob Marshall just has this way of emboldening you to the point where you feel like you can do anything, and he gives you space to mess up, to be big, to be small, whatever you want to do until you find your sweet spot," she said.

And Corden said the movie would not have bee possible without Marshall directing.

"The experience of making this film was one of the greatest times of my career, and I think that was the case of almost everybody involved," he said. "To take a musical that was already beloved, that was first performed in 1987 and is three hours and 10 minutes long - to cut an hour and 10 minutes and not lose a beat of story, a beat of humor, a beat of emotion...I don't think you will ever be able to realize how difficult that is."

"Into the Woods" is now in theaters nationwide.