K.T Simpson
Disney has begun moving on a live-action musical for “Hunchback”, based on the Victor Hugo novel. Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang has been tapped to write the adaptation with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz to write the music.
Josh Gad is set to produce alongside Mandeville – both of “Beauty and the Beast” fame – and rumour has it that Gad may also be in line for the lead role, but casting has reportedly not been locked in just yet.
Per the Deadline report: The new film will pull from that 1996 animated film and the Hugo novel but not the stage production that Schwartz and Menken collaborated on in Europe. David Hoberman, who runs Mandeville with Todd Lieberman, has been fixated on a live-action “Hunchback” for over 30 years going back to when he was Disney film president. An early attempt led to the animated film and another resulted in a limited TV series on ABC. Now it has come back around as a feature film, and while it is early and not on the Disney release calendar, “Hunchback” has some of the most storied players from the stage and musical realms.
