“The Producers” Headed Back To Screen

Screen time for Broderick’s Producers

The comedy musical The Producers is to be remade for the big screen featuring the stars of its current sellout Broadway production, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.

The stage adaptation of the 1968 film, which starred Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, has been a New York phenomenon. The show won 12 Tony awards (equivalent to British Olivier awards) in 2001, and has returned for a second run, finishing in April this year.

The new film is scheduled for 2005 production, and release towards the end of the same year.

The Oscar-winning script by Mel Brooks centres on a scam in which two theatre producers create a wilfully atrocious musical about Nazi Germany in order to collect on insurance and defraud investors. Their plan hits the rocks when the play (sample line: “Don’t be silly/Be a smarty/Come and join the Nazi party!”) is an unexpected success.

Meanwhile a London stage adaptation is planned for the West End in the autumn, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Lee Evans.