Hollywood is, once again, obsessed with movie musicals. This year alone, we’ve already had “In the Heights,” and we’re about to see “Dear Evan Hansen” and Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” And it appears the major studios aren’t slowing down anytime soon, as the long-in-development “Guys and Dolls” remake is moving ahead with a new filmmaker.
According to THR, Bill Condon (no stranger to film musicals) is attached to direct a new version of “Guys and Dolls” for TriStar. For those unaware, “Guys and Dolls” is set in Depression-era New York City where gamblers are attempting to find a location for a game. The original Broadway run of the show from 1950 ended up winning awards and becoming incredibly popular, leading to multiple runs over the decades, including the most recent revival in 2015. In 1955, the first film version of “Guys and Dolls” was released, starring Marlon Brando.
As mentioned, Condon is a filmmaker very familiar with the task of adapting musicals. Not only was he a writer on the film versions of “Chicago” and “The Greatest Showman,” but he also directed the live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” and “Dreamgirls.” So, the idea of him tackling “Guys and Dolls” is hardly controversial.
This isn’t the first time Hollywood tried to remake the popular musical. Multiple times over the past couple of decades, various versions of “Guys and Dolls” were proposed, with folks like Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Justin Timberlake all rumored to be attached. Most recently, Vin Diesel shared a story about how he and Spielberg were interested in doing a remake of the musical, but obviously, that never came to be.
No release date has been set for Condon’s version of “Guys and Dolls.”