Warner Bros. Pictures is reportedly planning a new musical feature based on the 1986 film, which was itself based on a stage production inspired by Roger Corman’s 1960 film of the same name.
Deadline reports Berlanti will direct the film from a script penned by Matthew Robinson (In Search of Humans), who previously wrote and co-directed The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais.
Corman’s 1960 film followed an awkward flower-shop clerk named Seymour who discovers a strange plant that — as he soon learns — lives off human blood. Things take a dark turn as he struggles to nurture the demanding plant, which is not only growing at an extraordinary rate, but is also able to talk. The film was famous for having the first featured role for Jack Nicholson.
The 1960 film was later adapted for an off-Broadway musical by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman and then turned into a musical feature by Oz that starred Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, and Steve Martin. (Bill Murray made a cameo in the role originally played by Nicholson.) The film earned an Academy Award nomination for its visual effects and a “Best Original Song” nomination for Menken and Ashman’s Mean Green Mother from Outer Space.
Little Shop of Horrors won’t be the first directorial project for Berlanti, who also directed 2010’s Life As We Know It. These days, however, he’s best known for executive producing and serving as the narrative architect of The CW’s four interconnected superhero series based on DC Comics characters: The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl. He’s also the executive producer on the series Blindspot and the upcoming Archie Comics spinoff series Riverdale.
