Can It Can-Can to Broadway? MOULIN ROUGE Will Get Developmental Lab This Fall

According to an Equity casting notice, Baz Luhrmann's revolutionary film Moulin Rouge! might come to the stage as a new musical with a book by John Logan, directed by Alex Timbers. A developmental lab will begin in New York City at the end of October.

Released by Twentieth Century Fox, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and has earned over $179 million worldwide. At the 74th Academy Awards, film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and won two.

On the announcement that John Logan and Alex Timbers had signed on to create the new musical, Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann, the film's director, producer, and co-writer, said, "I first encountered Alex Timbers through the remarkable and inventive production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jacksonand the brilliance of Here Lies Love. I immediately recognized the young director's creative spirit and felt we shared similar sensibilities and instincts. So I'm tremendously happy to celebrate that Moulin Rouge! will be under his direction and that the book will be the creation of the gifted Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan whose writing I also admire deeply. It's immensely gratifying to know that a new wave of artists will be leading Moulin Rouge! into its rightful theatrical realm."

Moulin Rouge! tells the story of a young poet/writer, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine using the musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France.

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