PIPPIN is Heading to the Big Screen; James Ponsoldt to Pen Adaptation!

According to Deadline.com, The Weinstein Company has officially brought on board James Ponsoldt to pen a film adaptation of the musical Pippin. No film version of Pippin has ever been produced.

In Pippin, Royal heir Pippin is spurred on by a mysterious group of performers to embark on a death-defying journey to find his "corner of the sky."

A revival of Roger O. Hirson and Stephen Schwartz's coming-of-age musical comedy Pippin is currently in previews at Broadway's Music Box Theatre, directed by Diane Paulus with choreography by Chet Walker in the style of Bob Fosse, who was the original Broadway production's director in 1972.

The original production of Pippin won five Tony Awards and five Drama Desk Awards, and ran for close to 2000 performances before closing in 1977. Pippin is noted for many Broadway standards including "Corner of the Sky," "Magic To Do," "Glory," "No Time at All," "Morning Glow," and "Love Song."

Pippin has also been featured in large productions in the West End in 1972, at Paper Mill Playhouse in 2000, in a New York concert version in 2004, in Los Angeles at CTG's Mark Taper Forum in 2009, at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in 2011, at Kansas City Repertory Theatre in 2012, and at A.R.T. in Cambridge for its pre-Broadway run of the current revival.

Writer and director Ponsoldt's credits include The Spectacular Now and Smashed. Upcoming projects also include Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, based on the forthcoming novel by Silver Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus