Director Adam Shankman sure seems to love his musicals, as following Hairspray he’s now signed up to bring the Broadway show Rock Of Ages to the big screen. Shankman started out as a dancer and choreographer, and it was actually in that guise that he first got into the film business, before getting into the directing with movies like The Pacifier and Cheaper By The Dozen 2. However it now seems his success is allowing him to go back to what he loves.
Although Shankman seems to have many hundreds of projects in the pipeline, it appears that Rock Of Ages is being pushed to the front of the queue, as Variety reports that New Line wants to start filming next summer for a release in 2011.
The musical, which was a big hit on Broadway, will be surfing the Mamma Mia! wave, as rather than featuring original music, it takes 80s rock anthems by the likes of Journey, Twisted Sister, Joan Jett and Bon Jovi, and uses them to tell the story of two people who meet and fall in love at a nightclub, while also trying to save the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll club from destruction, and working out how they can follow their dreams.
The musical opened on Broadway earlier this year, and has been such a success that New Line immediately put it on the fast-track for a film version, getting the show’s creator, Chris D’Arienzo, to adapt it for the screen. They’re also working hard at securing the rights to all the songs, including classics like We Built This City, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Cum On Feel The Noize, The Final Countdown, and Every Rose Has Its Thorn. It could certainly make an interesting movie (with lots of big hair), and with its endless rock anthems, may well attract a slightly different audience to the usual musical crowd,