Will Ferrell & Kristen Wiig Are Developing a New Movie Musical (About Musicals) from Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman

Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig are joining the crusade to bring musicals to the big screen. The comedy duo are on board to develop a new movie musical based on the book Everything Is Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals. The film will feature a score by Broadway favorites Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and a script from Dear Evan Hansen book writer Steven Levenson.

The book by Steve Young and Sport Murphy charts the history of American companies employing Broadway names—from actors to composers—to present lavish productions geared toward employees. From the 1950s to the 1980s, these shows would serve to educate and motivate industrial workers of companies such as American Standard, G.E., Exxon and Coca-Cola.

Marc Platt is set to produce, following his work this year on the movie musical La La Land and Fox’s Grease: Live. While contracts are still being negotiated, the project is slated to go through Amblin Entertainment (who bought the pitch) and Universal Pictures.

This isn’t the only screen project Shaiman and Wittman have lined up—the Hairspray and Smash/Bombshell collaborators have also penned songs for Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda.