1:00 pm PST 2/12/2021
in
Borys Kit
The musical, which debuted in 1951, was an instant success, winning Tonys for best musical, best actress and best actor by Yul Brenner, who catapulted him to Hollywood fame.
Paramount Pictures is singing happily as it prepares to launch a new feature The King of Rodgers and Hammerstein and me.
The studio acquired the rights to the musical that comes from the famous duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, creators of Broadway classics like Sound of music and Oklahoma!
Temple Hill, the banner directed by Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey and behind recent films like Happiest Season and Love, Simon, will produce the new version. Concord, which acquired the Rodgers & Hammerstein catalog in 2017, will also act as a producer.
The musical was based on Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel, Anna and the King of Siam, which in itself was based on the real events that took place in the 1860s in what is now Thailand, when the king of western tendency hired an English teacher to act as a governess for the royal children.
The musical, which debuted for the first time in 1951, was an instant success, winning Tonys for best musical, best actress (for Gertrude Lawrence) and best actor for Yul Brenner, who catapulted to Hollywood fame at the same time that it was forever associated with the role. With songs like I whistle a happy tune and Meeting you, the musical went through several revivals and tours.
It was also adapted for cinema in 1956, with Brynner reprising his role as King, opposite Deborah Kerr. The film received nine Oscar nominations, five victories, although it was banned in Thailand.
No writer or director is attached to this stage, but, according to studio sources, the producers and the studio hope to bring a contemporary perspective to the project and to incorporate contrasting diversity and worldviews by incorporating the real story and the musical.