Woody Allen is adapting his Academy Award nominated screenplay Bullets Over Broadway into a full-on Broadway musical.
The New York Times is reporting that Allen is transforming his story of a playwright, played by John Cusack in the 1994 film, who is forced to hire a mobster’s girlfriend to play the lead in a show he is attempting to produce in order to get the funds necessary to mount it. The show’s tunes will be chosen from popular jazz songs of the era.
This, of course, isn’t the first time that Allen will have work produced for the stage. He wrote the play Don’t Drink The Water, which was turned into a 1969 movie that Allen did not participate in and a 1994 television movie in which he directed and starred. More famous was his play Play It Again Sam, which became the 1972 film.
This is also the not the first time that Allen has created a musical using pre-existing songs. His 1996 film Everyone Says I Love You used a number of songs from the American Songbook, including a few from the movies of one of Allen’s idols, the Marx Brothers.
Although it appears as if the project is in a relatively early stage, the producers seem hopeful for a 2013 premier.
