Rocky Director Alex Timbers to Helm Universal's Comical Romeo & Juliet Adaptation Rosaline

Alex Timbers is going to make Romeo & Juliet really, really funny! Nope, we're not kidding. The two-time Tony-nominated director, whose musical production of Rocky will enter the Broadway ring in February, has signed on to direct Rosaline, a "comedic and revisionist" take on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. No actors are attached to the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rosaline, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ((500) Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now), is "set in the classic period of the play but uses modern language as it tells the story from the viewpoint of Rosaline, Romeo’s first love, whom he dumps for her cousin, Juliet." Based on Rebecca Serle's 2012 novel When You Were Mine, Rosaline has been "compared to Wicked...in the sense that it tells a classic story from a different perspective."

Timbers earned Tony nominations for co-directing Peter and the Starcatcher and writing the book of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which he also directed. His other directing credits include Here Lies Love, The Pee-wee Herman Show, Gutenberg! The Musical, Boozy and A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Christmas Pageant. Timbers also recently directed an exploratory presentation of a live show starring the Muppets for Disney Theatrical.