Deven May to Star in Film Version of Bat Boy

According to IMDB, a film version of the musical Bat Boy is in the works, with original star Deven May slated to headline the film.

May, who was recently cast as Tommy DeVito in the national tour of Jersey Boys, will once again play the title character, who is transformed from a pointy-eared inarticulate creature to a cultivated young man facing the prejudices of his adopted family.

The film version of Bat Boy, which has become a popular show regionally and in schools, will be directed by John Landis, whose credits include Blues Brothers 2000, Beverly Hills Cop III, Innocent Blood, Coming to America, and An American Werewolf in London, and The Blues Brothers, as well as the Michael Jackson music video classic "Thriller."

Bat Boy--which is the only well-known musical to be based upon an article from the Weekly World News--features music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe (upcoming Legally Blonde), with a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming.  The two librettists of Bat Boy, which played Off-Broadway's Union Square Theatre in 2001, will adapt the musical's book into a screenplay. 

No stars other than May have been announced for the film.  In addition to May, Bat Boy originally starred Kerry Butler, Kaitlin Hopkins, Kathy Brier, Trent Armand Kendall and more.

In addition to Bat Boy (for which he won a Theatre World Award), May has been seen at NYMF in Warrior and in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at Goodspeed.  Other credits include Camelot and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as well as the TV shows "OZ" and "Days of Our Lives," and the films Temptation and Fabled.  He also starred in Bat Boy in LA, where the show originated, and in London.