Musicals being adapted into movies – all the latest news

When we aren’t looking out for new musicals and plays being developed to champion and support, we’re looking at screen adaptations!

You may have seen we previously posted a list of classic musicals that have yet to make it to the big screen, and while researching, we discovered some musical movie adaptations that are in varying stages of development…

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Can you spell “anticipation”? That’s how we feel waiting for this hit musical to arrive. In 2021, we reported that the musical comedy had been picked up by Disney+ for a film adaptation, and we’re still buzzing about it!

Guys and Dolls

Back in 2024, we reported that Rob Marshall (Chicago, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins Returns) is heading up a new Guys and Dolls flick. Rumours of a fresh Hollywood take have been swirling for years, with names like Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt previously floated. But the roaring success of the Bridge Theatre’s revival could be this one’s lucky break.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

We’ve all been witness to the magic that Jon M Chu is capable of when putting mega-musicals on film. He’s the directorial vision behind Wicked, Wicked: For Good and In The Heights, and has confirmed that an adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice classic is in the works. Go, go, go and read more here!

Merrily We Roll Along

This is one that we’re happy to confirm is underway, old friends! Ben Platt, Paul Mescal and Beanie Feldstein have already begun filming the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth piece. Richard Linklater is directing and intends to shoot the film in real-time (albeit in reverse) over the course of 19 years or so. It is predicted that two of the sequences have been filmed so far. Patience is a virtue, they say.

On Your Feet!

1-2-3, an On Your Feet movie adaptation is coming! The jukebox musical, based on the lives and music of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, is being written and directed for the screen by Lissette Feliciano. There were even rumours that a certain Evita star may be attached to play Estefan…

Once On This Island

A Caribbean-set retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s Once on This Island is in long-gestating development for Disney+. Playwright Jocelyn Bioh and director Wanuri Kahiu are developing the feature adaptation of the 1990 Broadway musical, while Marc Platt is producing. Just like the Storytellers, we gossip, we wait and then we will dance!

Shucked

When Shucked closed on Broadway, the producers had the last laugh – announcing a feature film was in development! Being set up with Mandalay Pictures, Robert Horn, who wrote the book, will be working on the screenplay. A-maize-ing news following the musical’s UK premiere last summer, which had Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre popping!

Octet

Dave Malloy’s cult sensation musical about an a capella group that meets in a basement to purge themselves of their digital woes caused a huge stir when it was revealed that none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda will be adapting it for the big screen – and what’s more, the cast is completely stellar.  Filming has been completed so we can only assume it will arrive sooner rather than later.

Which would you most like to see? Let us know!