Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig Are Your Dream Cast for a Musical from ‘Hairspray’ Writers, ‘La La Land’ Producer

Hollywood might be bringing back the movie musical for real. After the thrilling success of La La Land, which is now in theaters and a serious awards contender, studios are scouring their contacts lists for those triple threats who can act, sing, and tap dance their way through a script. Today, Saturday Night Live alumni Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig have signed on to a musical project from the producer of La La Land and the songwriters behind the Broadway version of Hairspray, adapted from the book Everything is Coming Up Profits.

Deadline reports that the musical is currently in development with the king of Hollywood musicals Marc Platt set to produce and songsmiths Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman attached to write the music. All the deals are in the final stages of negotiation, including the rights to the book Everything is Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals by Steve Young and Mike Murphy.

According to Deadline:

The book reveals how corporate America employed Broadway talent to take part in industrial shows from the 1950s to the 1980s to help motivate sales forces and educate employees on products. Some of those musical shows were actually recorded for posterity and the subject matter lends itself to some great humor as some of these actors had to play inanimate objects (and would fight for those roles) or get overly excited about diesel engines, bathtubs or selling tires while they dreamed of being “somebody.”

It sounds like a hilarious premise, and we can vividly imagine both Wiig and Ferrell fighting over roles as kitchen appliances or other household objects. It actually sounds like a skit right out of the weird depths of SNL. And a musical about musicals makes me think of stuff like The Producers and the ultimate meta-musical Singin’ in the Rain, which itself was about how hard it was to develop a movie once studios switched from silent films to talkies. The project doesn’t have a director yet, but the producers are probably looking around the awards brackets for promising faces. And let’s not forget the Coen brothers directed one of the best musical numbers of the year in Hail, Caesar! We won’t know until all deals are finalized and a director is found when exactly we can expect to see this movie, but count us very excited.