Perhaps it has something to do with the Beach Boys reuniting at this year's Grammy Awards, but suddenly people really want to make movies based around the California band. Aaron Eckhart and Vera Farmiga have both signed on to star in The Drummer, a film about band co-founder Dennis Wilson, and now a musical based on their songs is in the works too. What's more, the project has just found its helmer.
Michael Sucsy, whose first feature film, The Vow, has already earned more than $100 million at the domestic box office, has been hired by Fox 2000 to direct the new movie. Unlike many musicals that find their way to the big screen, this will be a wholly original piece written by Susannah Grant (the Academy Award-nominated writer of Erin Brokovich). Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who previously brought titles like Hairspray and Chicago to the big screen, are ushering this one to theaters as well. The film doesn't have a title yet and there are no plot details other than that it will be "based on a fictional story and characters created by Grant." The project was out to directors last week and Sucsy was the filmmaker that best responded to the material, according to Variety.
While I can't say that I'm a big fan of musicals, The Beach Boys was such a big band in my life growing up that it might be hard to ignore this one. While my biggest concern about the project is that they will manage to horribly misuse the music, my greater hope is that it will introduce the younger viewers to some of the best music ever made.
