They’re making a “Romeo and Juliet style musical” about the life of Pharrell Williams, according to the Hollywood Reporter. If you don’t recognize the name, and thus my joke fell completely flat, he’s the guy behind many things, but probably most notable in recent memory for Happy, a song so catchy that people literally made 24hr loops so it would never stop playing.
Back to the story, there’s some big names attached who have contributed to American Idiot, Spring Awakening, and Toy Story 4, though we’ll forgive that last one. (Toy Story 1-3 were one of the great movie trilogies and I’m frightened that 4 is just a straight money grab that won’t hold a candle to the originals.)
I also won’t be the first to point out the obvious — given that Mr. Williams is alive and well, clearly their version of the story isn’t going to end the same. So I am expecting that this is that thing I’ve always talked about when the Lion King comes up, how every “oh noes, boy and girl can’t be together because they’re from two different worlds” story ends up being branded a Romeo and Juliet story. They do get a bonus that Williams grew up in Virginia Beach, and Virginia/Verona is an easy switch :).
At least we know it’ll have good music.