Ten musical movies currently in the works

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 recently 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!

Fun Home

Already, this film adaptation has had an on/off relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. He supposedly scored the rights to produce and star, and then Alison Bechdel publicly stated that Gyllenhaal was out and they were seeking a new star. However, only last year, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that the actor and his company, Nine Stories, had signed a deal with Amazon, and one of the projects was the Tony Award-winning musical.

Guys and Dolls

Last year, 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.

Jekyll and Hyde

Just before the pandemic hit in 2020, it was announced that Alexander Dinelaris had completed a script and negotiations were in place for an autumn 2020 production. However, we’ve heard nothing since. What we do know is that the rights for a feature film were secured in 2013 and that Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse (who penned the tunes) were on board to help with casting. We’re still holding out hope for this one.

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.

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 development for Disney+. Reported in The Hollywood Reporter in 2020, 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 last year, 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 this summer, which had Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre popping!

Sunset Boulevard

Okay, we know this has been heavily rumoured for some time, but we want this to happen almost as much as Glenn Close does. The mega-success of Nicole Scherzinger‘s turn in Jamie Lloyd‘s recent revival has got tongues wagging again about a big-screen adaptation, with Scherzinger saying, “there has been talk” of it happening. In the words of Norma Desmond: “It’s the pictures that got small!”

In addition, Andrew Lloyd Webber has suggested that a new Phantom of the Opera film is in mind.

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