“Oh I’d love to do a musical. A song-and-dance musical, with an original music, modern day story, not from Broadway not with previous music. But it’s very difficult. It’s impossible at the moment. I think it’s the Holy Grail for any film director,” Danny Boyle told us a few years ago. And while that hasn’t come to pass, he has flirted with bringing a Broadway show to the screen, at one time taking a very hard look at “My Fair Lady.” But now it’s another stage show that may finally allow Boyle to realize his dream.
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Baz Bamigboye reports that Boyle is in talks to direct “Miss Saigon.” The project is set up at Working Title, where producers Cameron Mackintosh, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, who teamed for Tom Hooper‘s “Les Miserables,” are moving it along, but no word yet on who has penned the screenplay. That’s about all the the details at the moment, but the producers have been trying to get it made, and at one time Lee Daniels was attached to helm it. However, with “Miss Saigon” set to return to Broadway this spring, the timing of this news and movie couldn’t be better.
The story of the relationship between an American GI and Vietnamese bargirl during the Vietnam War has been criticized in some quarters over the years for being racist and misogynistic, so it’ll be interesting to see how those concerns might be addressed in a feature film adaptation.
As for Boyle, it’s another potential project on his plate, which now includes the FX series “Trust.” But what about “Trainspotting 2“? Word on that has gone a bit quiet, but hopefully the plans to shoot this year are still in the cards.