Walt Disney Studios is going to do what they do best and create a new original musical for the big screen, using the song catalog from Grammy winner Lionel Richie.
According to Variety, the live-action project is in the early stages of development and is tentatively titled All Night Long. The film will pull from Richie’s greatest hits. The film is being developed for a theatrical release, before ultimately going to Disney’s streaming service Disney+.
Richie and his manager Bruce Eskowitz are producing the project with Cavalry Media executives Dana Brunetti and Matt Del Piano. Screenwriter Pete Chiarelli (Crazy Rich Asians, The Proposal) is currently at work on the script. Richie, who is no stranger to Walt Disney Company as he is currently a judge on ABC’s American Idol, pitched the project earlier this year.
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The film is expected to have a ”Jukebox musical vibe” similar to the smash hit Mamma Mia, which took in a whopping $600 million at the worldwide box office on just a $52 million budget.
Lionel Richie was a member of the funk and soul band the Commodores. The Commodores became established as a popular soul group; their first several albums had a danceable, funky sound, as in such tracks as “Machine Gun” and “Brick House”. Over time, Richie wrote and sang more romantic, easy-listening ballads such as “Easy”, “Three Times a Lady”, “Still”, and the breakup ballad “Sail On”. Richie launched a solo career in 1982 and his 1982 debut solo album, Lionel Richie, contained three hit singles: the U.S. number-one song “Truly”, and the top five hits “You Are” and “My Love”. The album hit No. 3 on the music charts and sold over four million copies. His 1983 follow-up album, Can’t Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies, propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. He also co-wrote the 1985 charity single “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson, which sold over 20 million copies.Over the course of his career, Richie has sold over 90 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.
Disney is also working on a brand new musical with fellow Grammy winner Bruno Mars, as well as a new musical spin-off of A Christmas Carol titled Marley, with the team who worked on 2017’s billion-dollar live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. The studio is also developing the long in development Bob The Musical with Channing Tatum attached to star.
Source: Variety
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