Danny Boyle In Talks To Direct ‘Miss Saigon’ Movie
Danny Boyleis a very busy man. Just this week we heard wasplanning a return to televisionwithTrust, a limited series for FX about the Getty family. And we know he’s still getting the pieces together forTrainspotting 2, which isexpected to shoot later this year. But according to a new report, he’salsoworking on an adaptation ofMiss Saigon, the classic stage musical byClaude-Michel SchönbergandAlain Boublil.The Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye(viaThe Playlist) reports Boyle is in negotiations to directMiss SaigonforCameron Mackintoshand Working Title’sTim BevanandEric Fellner. All three producers previously worked together on Tom Hooper’s 2012 adaptation of that other Broadway staple,Les Misérables– which, as it happens, is also based on a musical by Schönberg and Boublil. There’s no word yet on who wrote theMiss Saigonscreenplay, or which actors might star.
TheMiss Saigonmovie has been in development for several years already. As of 2013, Lee Daniels was trying to get the project off the ground, but it seems he’s quietly departed since then. On the stage,Miss Saigonrecently enjoyed a West End revival that closed in February 2016, and is now on track for a Broadway revival to open in 2017. The show originally premiered in 1989.
Based onGiacomo Puccini’s classic operaMadame Butterfly,Miss Saigonunfolds in Vietnam during the war, following an American G.I. named Chris and a 17-year-old Vietnamese bargirl named Kim. The two fall desperately in love, but are abruptly separated when Chris returns to America. Though the musical remains popular, it’s not without controversy — it’s been criticized for its racist and sexist overtones and its promotion of Orientalist stereotypes.
AlthoughMiss Saigonwill be Boyle’s first time directing a full-fledged musical feature, the director has expressed his interest in the genre before. He flirted with abig-screen adaptationofMy Fair Ladyat one point several years ago. More recently, he was planning a musical biopic of David Bowie, only for Bowie toturn him down.
