Joseph Gordon-Levitt has crafted quite the relationship with Warner Bros. thanks to Christopher Nolan. He starred in the 2010 sci-fi epic Inception and plays a pivotal role in The Dark Knight Rises this summer. Now he’s looking to lead a film for the studio, but this one is far from those efforts.
The Golden Globe nominee is currently aiming to remake the musical Little Shop of Horrors. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the film will derive from Frank Oz’s 1986 musical of the same name. If everything goes as planned, Gordon-Levitt will lead the film as the nerdy florist named Seymour who tends to a plant that feeds on human flesh.
Oz’s Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated “Horrors” hit theaters in 1986 and featured Rick Moranis as Seymour. That film in turn was based on an off-Broadway musical that debuted in 1982 and took from Roger Corman’s non-musical 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors. The stage musical was written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who also wrote music for the film adaptation and eventually found themselves writing music for Disney animated musicals including The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who penned two episodes of Glee and rewrote the script for Broadway disaster Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, will write the screenplay for “Horrors.” Marc Platt, who helped make Legally Blonde, Wanted, and the musical Nine, is set to produce. No director is attached to the project just yet.
Remakes and revamps are a dime a dozen these days, but that's basically been limited to action-oriented franchises. It’s not often that musicals get second chances nowadays. That being said, this is a rather risky move, but an admirable one given that musicals in general aren’t made as frequently as they once were.
Here’s a clip of Gordon-Levitt singing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” to ease your qualms if you’re iffy about his vocal skills.
