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Filmmaker Rob Marshall has reportedly signed on with Sony’s TriStar Pictures as director of another film adaptation of the stage musical Guys and Dolls. The project has been in the works for more than twenty years, when producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron came on board. 20th Century Fox had also expressed interest, but TriStar acquired rights to the production in 2019.

Marshall won Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his direction of the film version of the Broadway musical Chicago. Originally a dancer, he made his film debut with a TV adaptation of the musical Annie. Marshall also directed a spate of other acclaimed films, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Memoirs of a Geisha, Mary Poppins Returns, Into the Woods, and Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid.

 

If reports of Marshall’s involvement with Guys and Dolls are true, he would replace Bill Condon, who had directed Dreamgirls and, in 2002, wrote the film adaptation of Chicago that Marshall had directed a decade earlier. Condon also wrote and directed Gods and Monsters and co-authored the script for The Greatest Showman.

The original Tony-winning musical Guys and Dolls ran on Broadway for three years after debuting in 1950. The show focuses on the unlikely romance between Sky Masterson, a playboy-gambler and Sarah Brown, an evangelist at the Save-Our-Soul Mission in the Times Square area.

Guys and Dolls was created by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling, who based the book on stories by the legendary Broadway chronicler Damon Runyon. Frank Loesser was the musical director for the original production, which included songs such as “A Woman in Love,” “Luck Be a Lady,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” A film version of Guys and Dolls was released in 1955, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It starred Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine.

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