Bill Condon to direct Dreamgirls for the big screen

Variety reports that out writer-director Bill Condon (Kinsey) has been tapped to direct the long-awaited film adaptation of the Broadway smash Dreamgirls. Condon, who won an Oscar for the screenplay of Gods and Monsters, received an Academy Award nomination for writing another musical adaptation, Chicago. Dreamgirls tells the story of a Supremes-like trio of female singers who rise from obscurity to superstardom. Condon tells Variety: "There are few musicals that should be turned into movies, and this is one of them, because there's such a great central idea. It's about the price you pay for crossover success in the music business. I feel like Chicago was my university education on how to write the screenplay for a musical, and I'm excited at the chance to take it to the next level." The film version will retain the book and lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. Condon and producer Laurence Mark say they will probably cast a star in the role of Curtis Taylor Jr., the pop Svengali who discovers the girls and guides them to fame, but may leave some of the female leads open to a newcomer, much as the Broadway producers did in discovering Jennifer Holliday.