With the recent release of In The Heights, and Steven Spielberg‘s upcoming West Side Story remake, Hollywood’s new interest in throwback musicals that began with the huge success of La La Land and The Greatest Showman years ago remains strong.
And it will continue; Bill Condon has been hired to direct a new version of Guys And Dolls for Tristar Pictures.
The project has been in the works for a while but with a director now on board, can really begin moving forward. Condon may not be a household name, but he’s got strong musical pedigree.
He previously directed Dreamgirls, wrote Best Picture winner Chicago, co-wrote The Greatest Showman, and directed Disney’s live-action Beauty And The Beast, which made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
That’s pretty much the exact resume you’re looking for if you’re Tristar Pictures and you’re developing a musical. Of course, this is far from the first time a remake of Guys And Dolls has been talked about in Hollywood.
A remake was previously in development at 20th Century Fox, where Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were poised to play the roles popularized by Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra in the 1955 film. But that project fell through and the studio’s rights lapsed, which allowed TriStar to swoop in.
The rights package includes the remake rights to the 1955 movie, the rights to the Broadway musical, as well as the original Damon Runyon short stories about gangsters and gamblers that serve as the basis for the main story.
Condon was reportedly weighing several projects that were interested in him before choosing Guys And Dolls. Tristar’s enthusiasm for the project, according to Deadline, was what sold him. The studio is aiming to get the film off the ground quickly.
Guys And Dolls feels very mid-20th century with its depiction of gangsters and dames, so it will be interesting to see how this remake works on the screen. Will it remain set in the 1950s? Or will it be updated for contemporary times? The gangster film has changed dramatically since 1955, so maybe those changes could be incorporated somehow.
So while it’s unclear exactly how this new version of Guys And Dolls will look, what is clear is that the musical revival currently occurring in Hollywood will continue.
Spielberg’s West Side Story, Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pinocchio, Dear Evan Hansen, and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie are all musicals expected to arrive within the next year.
When you throw in the musical biopics such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman which reside in a very similar genre, the musicals market is getting quite busy. We’ll see whether Guys And Dolls can make its mark. Considering Condon’s track record in the genre, it’s probably a good bet that it will.
#Peace.Love.GuysAndDolls
