Reimagined THE KING AND I Film Is in the Works

This news is something wonderful! According to Deadline, Paramount Pictures will remake Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic musical, The King and I. Paramount reportedly intends to "reimagine this classic story with a contemporary perspective that explores diversity and the contrasting worldviews of the characters by drawing from real history and the musical."

The original 1956 film was directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck, based on the 1951 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical, based in turn on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. The film starred Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, and was a critical and commercial success, nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 5, including Best Actor for Brynner.

The most recent Broadway revival of The King and I opened in 2015 and starred Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara, who won a Tony Award for her performance.

Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children.

With one of the finest scores ever written, The King and I features such classics as "Whistle a Happy Tune", "Getting to Know You" and "Shall We Dance."

Photo Credit: Paul Kolnik