John Cleese signs a deal with MGM studios in the first step to getting A Fish Called Wanda put on stage.
John Cleese has recently told comedy guide Chortle that MGM has sorted itself out enough to sign a deal over the rights to A Fish Called Wanda which, yes, he will turn into a stage musical with the help of daughter Camillla with whom he has written the book.
Cleese is now looking for a director and will speak with a potential producer next month. On the time it takes to put a musical together, Cleese told Chortle: "It’s like the gestation period of an elephant. Someone told me the average is about eight years, so I’m being patient.
Speaking to Simon Gage in today's Metro, Cleese said: "I thought ‘well, I wrote it and can do anything I like with it. I don’t have to treat it with respect.’ And I very much enjoy writing with my daughter, Camilla, who had the same attitude to musicals as I had: that they had too many songs that go on too long and have too much dancing."
The story follows four oddballs who team up to commit an armed robbery before they try to run off with the money for themselves and features some of the best Anglo-American showdowns of the '80s including this nugget from Jamie Lee Curtis as Wanda: “Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not 'Every man for himself.' And the London Underground is not a political movement!”
Image by Paul Boxley
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