Second PHANTOM OF THE OPERA TV Series Now in the Works

By: Nov. 04, 2014
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Deadline reports that a new series based on THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is heading to TV. The project, written by Tony Krantz and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the second project based on the classic french tale to be announced.

As BWW reported last week, ABC and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' Marc Cherry are reuniting to develop a television adaptation of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA which will not be based upon Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical. Instead, Cherry and ABC are turning to Gaston Leroux's original 1909 novel.

The latest project will also be based on Leroux's novel and will keep the Paris setting yet change the time period from the 19th century to the early 20th century.

The project is being described "a drama brimming with tortured love affairs, sex, murder and mystery among the international jet set at the dawn of the Jazz Age, the Phantom Of The Opera series is set in 1919 against a backdrop of the Paris Peace Conference. The story centers on a British World War I fighter pilot with burns covering half of his body. He finds himself at the center of a string of murders that threatens to embroil the city's gathered world leaders. The "Opera" in this re-imagining is an opera house that is home to the hottest nightclub in Paris - think Studio 54 - whose American Josephine Baker-esque headliner finds herself in the cross hairs of the serial killer."

Said Krantz, "Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a brilliant director and his films are true masterpieces. The opportunity to write and produce a story of love, murder and intrigue at the dawn of the New World, interpreted through the eyes of such a master, is quite simply anyone's dream come true."

Read the story in full here!

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA tells the story of a masked figure who lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it. He falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine, and devotes himself to creating a new star by nurturing her extraordinary talents and by employing all of the devious methods at his command.



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