The King and I musical remake in the works from Paramount Pictures

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It has been reported that Paramount Pictures and Temple Hill are developing a new take on The King and I, the classic musical from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.

Based on Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King of Siam, which was itself inspired by real-life events, The King and I follows Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher who is hired by King Mongkut of Siam to teach his children. The musical spawned a feature-film that starred Yul Brynner (who also starred in the stage musical) and Deborah Kerr and was hugely successful, finding itself nominated for nine Academy Awards and winning five, including Best Actor for Brynner. Several other adaptations followed, the most recent being Anna and the King, a 1999 film that starred Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat. At this point, Paramount and Temple Hill's new take on The King and I doesn't have a writer or director attached, but it's said that they're "hoping to bring a contemporary perspective to the project and incorporate diversity and contrasting worldviews by incorporating real history and the musical into it." Musicals have been making a comeback in recent years, with Hamilton on Disney+ proving to be particularly popular.