Universal Pictures has nabbed spec script “Phantom,” a reimagined musical take on “Phantom of the Opera” set in New Orleans, with EGOT recipient and award-winning producer John Legend, Emmy and Grammy nominated producer Harvey Mason Jr. and Emmy and Tony Award-winning producer Mike Jackson attached to produce, according to an individual with knowledge of the project.
The spec script was written by John Fusco (“The Highwayman”).
Mason Jr. will produce for his Harvey Mason Media banner. Legend and Jackson will produce on behalf of Get Lifted Film Co., with Ty Stiklorius executive producing.
The original “Phantom of the Opera” was written by Gaston Leroux in 1910 and was made into a silent horror film at Universal starring Lon Chaney in 1925. Another movie was made in 1943 starring Claude Rains. Andrew Lloyd Webber made “Phantom of the Opera” as a musical in 1986.
“I have long wanted to explore ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ in a contemporary and new way and in a French Quarter setting” Fusco said in a statement to TheWrap. “New Orleans is not only known as America’s most-haunted city, but the music, Creole culture, voodoo mystique, and the pageantry of Mardi Gras, inspire a natural adaptation of the original Paris setting.”
Harvey Mason Media is represented by UTA and attorneys Granderson Des Rochers; Get Lifted is represented by WME and Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finklestein and Lezcano; Fusco is represented by UTA and Cliff Roberts of Syndicate.
Deadline first reported the news.