Laverne Cox to play Frank-N-Furter in Fox’s Rocky Horror Picture Show

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

For the past thirteen years, executive producer Gail Berman has been trying to get a television take on the musical THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW off the ground, and back in April the project was set up at Fox, with Kenny Ortega attached to direct and choreograph. 

The network's decision whether or not to go ahead with the special depended on the cast that Berman, Ortega, and producer Lou Adler (who also produced the 1975 film version) would be able to assemble. The Rocky Horror Picture Show TV special now has its first cast member, and Fox is so impressed that they have officially given the special a green light to head into production for a fall 2016 premiere.

The first cast member to sign on is transgender actress Laverne Cox, who is best known for her role on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. She will be stepping into the fishnet stockings of "sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania" Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a role that was rocked by Tim Curry forty years ago.

I'm not familiar with Cox's acting abilities, I've never watched OITNB, but she seems like an interesting choice and I'm willing to give her a chance. Curry will be a very tough act to follow, he made his version of the character a cinema icon, so I wish Cox the best of luck in trying to fill those platform shoes.

A fan of the original film, I'm very open to this whole idea. It might be a fun way to spend two hours sometime next year. If it's not it will just slip into obscurity, while the 1975 movie isn't going anywhere. It holds the record for longest period of non-stop theatrical distribution, with many theatres continuing to have monthly screenings of it.

The TV adaptation is said to be faithfully sticking to the text and score, but greatly reimagining the story visually.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show follows sweethearts Janet Weiss and Brad Majors, played in the movie by Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, who stumble upon Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s bizarre abode. Frank-N-Furter, a sexually ambiguous flirtatious alien mad-scientist, is holding an annual Transylvanian science convention to showcase the birth of “Rocky Horror” – a fit, attractive man created solely to fulfill Frank’s desires.