You might want to pour yourself a stiff drink for this one: The next big-screen flick looking to hop to Broadway is Cocktail, the middling 1988 Tom Cruise star vehicle about bartenders. According to the New York Post, the film is is currently being adapted into a musical by screenwriter Heywood Gould, who told the Post he was "writing it as we speak." Gould said that Martin Richards is on board as producer, and that while no casting has been made, Katie Holmes is on his radar to co-star, no doubt as the story's love interest, Jordan. No word on a composer or source of music for the proposed show.
The original film, written by Gould and directed by Roger Donaldson, featured Tom Cruise as ex-Army soldier turned bartender Brian, who takes his special brand of bottle-flipping mixology to Jamaica to make money for his dream bar among the island's rich vacationers and hotel owners. Playing opposite co-star Elisabeth Shue, as well as current Bye Bye Birdie star Gina Gershon, Cruise's Brian must navigate the rocky island waters of love, business and booze en route to true happiness. The campy tagline for the flick ended up becoming a cult favorite line of bartenders and servers everywhere: "When he pours, he reigns."
Academy and Tony Award winner Richards is best known for producing dozens of stage hits, including La Cage aux Folles, Grand Hotel, Sweeney Todd and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, as well as films like Chicago and The Shining.
Holmes, of course, famously made her Broadway debut opposite John Lithgow, Diane Weist and Patrick Wilson in last season's All My Sons revival.