Monty Python's 'Spamalot' Movie Trots Over From Fox To Paramount

Spamalot is not dead yet! In fact, it's getting better now that it's moved studios after two years of development over at 20th Century Fox. The feature film adaptation of the Monty Python musical has been acquired by Paramount Pictures, which has put the Spamalot movie back on track after the project was sidelined at Fox following the Disney acquisition.

Paramount is looking on the bright side of life, with the acquisition of Spamalot, the upcoming movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Variety reports. Paramount picks up the project after the Spamalot movie was initially set up at 20th Century Fox, but sidelined during the Disney-Fox deal in 2019.

The team on the Spamalot movie remains mostly the same, with Broadway veteran and original Spamalot choreographer Casey Nicholaw still on board to direct and the show's book writer Eric Idle still attached to pen the screenplay. Idle will serve as producer alongside Dan Jinks, while Jon Gonda and Mike Ireland are executing producing the project for Paramount. The studio plans to begin casting and push production efforts this year.

This will be the second time this satirical spin of the legend of King Arthur will grace the big screen under the banner of Monty Python. Spamalot is a musical twist on the 1975 classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, albeit with a few new characters and musical numbers added (and sadly, fewer jokes about coconuts). But Spamalot, which first hit Broadway in 2005 in a show starring Tim Curry and directed by Mike Nichols, became a phenomenon that could stand on its own, taking Broadway by storm and becoming one of the most popular stage musicals in recent years, making an initial run of 1,500 performances and seeing several worldwide revivals since then. The original run received 14 Tony Awards nominations and won in three categories, including Best Musical.

I'm a fan of both Spamalot and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and am excited to see the musical take adapted to the big screen (whenever that is). Contrary to the more absurd, surrealist comedy of the original 1975 film, Spamalot is decidedly more fleshed out with some broader humor designed for wider audiences. But it still retains that weird Monty Python humor, which is only complemented by the ridiculously funny earworms like "Not Dead Yet" and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." It's likely that Spamalot will follow in the vein of other successful movie-to-musical-to movie titles, like Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Producers.