Who ever thought Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead would get to be on Broadway before a movie? That could surprisingly come to fruition thanks to a surprising partnership between Archie Comics, Anchorman director Adam McKay and Funny Or Die.
The publisher announced the project today, with McKay writing the book and Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater and CCO Roberto Aguitte-Sacasa overseeing. Tryptyk Studios, the company behind An American In Paris, brought the package together and producers Tara Smith, B. Swibel and Adam Westbrook will oversee for the company. Funny Or Die is a presenting partner.
“Archie represents a bygone era of America” McKay said in a statement. “And like all bygone eras, there are elements we miss and elements that should be bygone. This will be a musical that deals with both those realities in a bright, colorful and slightly demented way.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Adam McKay and Funny Or Die to finally bring Archie to the stage,” Goldwater added. “We’ve always thought that Archie was destined to be a big Broadway star – and now that moment has come! I’ve long admired Adam’s work and the pairing of Archie’s world with his brilliant humor and sensibility is the perfect fit. We look forward to developing this project together with this incredible team.”
The plan is to bring the show to New York, but no dates were announced. Archie Comics also didn’t say who will write the songs.
This sounds like the latest effort by Archie Comics to give the iconic character a foothold in another medium. Plans for Archie movies have been stuck in development hell (including a 2013 idea at Warner Bros. that had Archie and friends meeting zombies) and ideas for new TV shows haven’t gotten off the ground either.