Good news for musical fans (and bad news for anyone within earshot of the kind of kid who’s got the entire “Bridge Of Death” sequence memorized by heart), because Monty Python-derived stage show Spamalot is getting its own movie adaptation. And, yes, that does make it a film adaptation of a stage adaptation of a movie that was really mostly just a selection of comedy sketches in the first place, in case you were in the mood to feel kind of confused about your place in the world today.
To be fair, though, Spamalot was already a pretty different beast from Holy Grail. It has an ending, for one thing, and also some legitimately catchy songs. (“Find your graaaaail.”) Written by Eric Idle, with music by John Du Prez, the show won Best Musical at the 2005 Tony Awards, and, despite a few grumblings from the other Pythons back before it started making them all a bunch of money, has been a pretty celebrated success over the years. Now Idle’s penning the script for the movie version, with Casey Nicholaw, the original choreographer for the stage show, attached to direct. (He also just directed and choreographed current Broadway sensation Mean Girls, which might help explain why Fox is so anxious to fast-track Spamalot into theaters.)