Guys And Dolls Remake - What We Know So Far

A new feature adaptation of a classic Broadway musical is beginning to take shape. In early July, Deadline reported that TriStar Pictures' "Guys and Dolls" movie musical adaptation had secured a director in Bill Condon. Even if Condon's name doesn't ring a bell, you have undoubtedly enjoyed one of the 21 movies he has directed over the last 30-plus years. Some of Condon's biggest features which he has helmed include "Dreamgirls," "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" and "Part 2," and the Disney live-action remake of "Beauty and the Beast." Needless to say, when it comes to making magic happen on the big screen, Condon is the right director for the job.

Per the Deadline report, it appears Condon has been weighing his options for his next project, and "Guys and Dolls" emerged as the frontrunner following an enthusiastic meeting with TriStar. It's no wonder the studio was eager to get Condon to sign on, considering they only bought the rights to the 1950 Broadway musical and to the Damon Runyon short stories the musical is based on back in 2019. Previous to this purchase, a new "Guys and Dolls" adaptation has been floating around in Hollywood for years. The last time an adaptation of "Guys and Dolls" was in the headlines, it was 20th Century Studios preparing to make it happen in 2016 (via Deadline). With that project now laying dormant as TriStar gears up for its own adaptation, here's what we know so far about TriStar Pictures' upcoming adaptation of the musical "Guys and Dolls."

TriStar Pictures has yet to lock in a release date for its upcoming "Guys and Dolls" adaptation. However, we can use some good old fashioned logic to reason out when we should be able to see the new movie musical on the big screen. With a director now in place for the new adaptation, "Guys and Dolls" can move on to casting each role for the feature and getting a shooting schedule in place. Depending on how casting, scheduling, and other key pre-production tasks like solidifying the script shakes out, filming on "Guys and Dolls" could begin as early as spring or summer 2022 and wrap as early as late 2022. 

But even if "Guys and Dolls" gets all of its filming needs squared away, TriStar will definitely want to release it during one of two moviegoing seasons which have proven to be the best time to launch a big screen musical: the Christmas holiday season or the summer season. Releasing a movie musical around the winter holidays is basically a no-brainer. "Cats," "Les Misérables," "Into the Woods," "La La Land," and even the Condon-directed "Dreamgirls" were all released the December of their respective release years. Heck, Steven Spielberg's upcoming "West Side Story" adaptation is slated for a December 2021 release. 

The holiday season is a prime release window because it could mean potentially high box office receipts for "Guys and Dolls" and a chance at higher visibility for the awards season race. Then again, a summer release slot is also viable for potential box office earnings, even though it's not as road-tested a release slot for movie musicals. Either way, we might not see "Guys and Dolls" until at least 2023 or, more likely, 2024.

Deadline's report on Condon joining the project reminds us that, at one point in the new adaptation's development, both Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were eyed for the male lead roles when 20th Century Studios attempted to get the rights. Unfortunately, 20th Century Studios' eventual merger with Disney would block any efforts by the studio to get both the rights and the project off its feet. With the project finally finding its footing at TriStar, the big question is who will take over the top spots that could have been occupied by Tatum and Gordon-Levitt.

Currently, no big names have been lined up to star in TriStar's new "Guys and Dolls" adaptation. As the project gains momentum, casting should begin soon — if it hasn't already — which means we'll soon find out which stars will step into the shoes of Sky Masterson, Nathan Detroit, Sarah Brown, and Miss Adelaide. Those shoes will be big ones to fill, as whoever gets cast in each respective role will be compared to the actor who played that character in the previous feature film adaptation, 1955's "Guys and Dolls." The mid-20th century adaptation boasted a strong cast. Marlon Brando (in a fairly atypical role for this period of his career) and Frank Sinatra playing Sky and Nathan, respectively, with Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine playing love interests Sarah and Adelaide.

"Guys and Dolls" has lived many lives over the better part of the last century. The Broadway musical is based on two short stories written by Damon Runyon in the 1930s (via NPR). Runyon's short stories are so singular that the term "Runyonesque" has been coined in the wake of their publication. What makes something "Runyonesque," you might ask? If your story places particular focus on the seedier side of Manhattan, specifically the Broadway area, and features shady characters like gamblers and nightclub singers with colorful nicknames who pepper their sentences with equally colorful slang, then it could be called "Runyonesque."

This is precisely the case with "Guys and Dolls." Written by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, the musical follows two big-time gamblers, Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit. Nathan hopes to set up one of the largest craps games in the city. But, because the threat of the operation getting shut down by the cops is so high, Nathan needs a $1,000 security deposit to secure the location he has staked out. Nathan is low on cash, so he decides to get rich quick by betting fellow gambler Sky Masterson $1,000 that Sky can't charm local do-gooder Sarah Brown to go on a romantic vacation with him to Havana, Cuba. 

What begins as a bet for Sky quickly turns into a legitimate romance as he gets closer to Sarah. Meanwhile, Nathan has his own romantic troubles to deal with as his longtime girlfriends, a nightclub singer named Adelaide, keeps asking him to propose. Over the course of the musical, these two couples deal with a variety of obstacles as they take a gamble on love.