A youth adaptation of Phantom of the Opera is in development at Disney+. The original novel by Gaston Leroux is set in the Paris Opera Palais Garnier, which is haunted by a vengeful “phantom” who takes a young singer under his wing, and has been adapted for the screen many times since its first publication as a serial novel between 1909 and 1910. The most famous Phantom of the Opera The adaptation is probably the 1986 stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was made into a film in 2004 under the direction of Joel Schumacher and starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum.

Per DeadlineDisney+ is in early development to a young adult reinterpretation of The Phantom of the Opera. High School Musical And progeny Director Kenny Ortega is in charge of directing the project, which was written by At midnight‘s Giovanni M. Porta from a story the writer co-created with Eric Bromberg. Ortega will also executive produce the project, which could potentially become a franchise in the style of his previous Disney collaborations, which include the 1993 cult classic Hocus Pocus.

What this Disney+ project means for the Phantom of the Opera franchise

Kenny Ortega’s Phantom franchise could be something unique

This report does not indicate whether this new version of the story is intended to be a new original musical. If so, it could be the first musical adaptation to hit the screen in some time. Although the most well-known version of the novel is a musical, It is most often adapted into horror films with less emphasized musical elementsincluding the silent film classic from 1925 with Lon Chaney, a slasher-inspired film from 1989 with Nightmare on Elm StreetRobert Englund and the Italian horror master Dario Argento Phantom of the Opera from 1998.

Beyond Brian De Palma’s 1974 cult classic Phantom of the ParadiseSignificant musical adaptations of Leroux’s novel have so far been largely limited to various interpretations of the Webber musical. The last original music interpretation took place in 2011 with the relaxed French-language animated adaptation A monster in ParisThis would leave plenty of room for Ortega’s version to carve out a niche as a new musical interpretation, should she choose to pursue that genre.

Our interpretation of Kenny Ortega’s Phantom of the Opera

It’s unclear where a Phantom franchise might go

There have already been reinterpretations of the story for young adults, including the 1989 teen slasher. Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge and the Disney Channel movie from 2000 Phantom of the Megaplex. The transformation of the iconic Phantom of the Opera into a franchise could be a big task, even for the man behind the first three progeny And High School Musical Films that both launched successful franchises. The original story is self-contained, which is why no adaptation has yet developed into a robust, long-running franchise, so the adaptation may require significant changes to better fit into a franchise structure.

Source: Deadline