‘Amelie’ Set to be Adapted for Broadway

Broadway can soon welcome the 2001 Jean-Pierre Jeunet romantic comedy Amélie to the stage. The announcement came via composer Dan Messe who shared the information on Facebook saying, “So not the best kept secret, but still I’m happy to announce that I’ve been commissioned to adapt the film Amélie for Broadway. The creative team includes Craig Lucas (book) and Nathan Tysen (co-lyrics). Can’t wait to share it with you!” Playbill.com released that Pam MacKinnon, who won a Tony Award for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, is set to direct the show.

The project has been in the works since 2009 which was when Messe was originally approached to do a collaboration. Once they settled on Amélie, Messe began brainstorming as to how he would make the show unique and distinct from the popular film. One change is that the music for the Broadway production will sound more like Messe’s own than Yann Tiersen’s (original composer for the film).

Messe has said, “It definitely sounds like me. One of the big challenges for me is that there is already iconic music associated with this piece. The Yann Tiersen score is amazing. It’s like one of the best movie scores there is. It’s one of the reasons why I love the film. But, it’s not what I do. He’s a very different sort of composer than I am. And I’m not interested in doing Parisian music. I don’t think I’m even going to use accordion in my score. The music sounds like mine. But certainly, I’m not playing up the Americana elements either. I’m not having pedal steel and fiddle, but it’ll be hyper-romantic and playful more than anything.”

Amélie was well loved and very successful when it released. It earned approximately $179.3 million worldwide, won four Cesar Awards in France, and  was nominated for five Oscars including Best Foreign Language Film.

Further information about the Broadway production of Amélie including cast and release dates will be revealed at a later time.