Sam Mendes Directing 'Chocolate Factory' Musical

Because 007 is on the sidelines right now until MGM gets sold or ditches the franchise to help pay off its mountain of debt, the key players are finding other things to do. Daniel Craig has already been cast as Robert Downey, Jr.'s replacement in Cowboys & Aliens, and he may have just landed the male lead in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, arguably the biggest uncast role in Hollywood at the moment. Sam Mendes might be/might have been directing Bond 23, and he was certainly some kind of creative consultant on the project before EON Productions officially hit the brakes on it. So now, Mendes is going back to his roots, directing the stage version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While Mendes is also working on a film called Chesil Beach with Carey Mulligan, the musical version of Chocolate Factory is probably more noteworthy. The songs are by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who previously adapted John Waters' Hairspray into a big time musical. The plan is to premiere the show on the West End in 2011, then bring it to Broadway after that. There's no casting yet, but you can imagine it might attract a wee spot of talent, thanks to Mendes' ascension into the director's chair. Even if he was just trying theater for the first time, that might be a big ticket item, but since he was already a very established stage director before American Beauty, it makes this even more of an event. As for Bond...keep waiting. This and Craig's projects probably mean nothing at all can happen in terms of production for another year, and since the November reserved parking for the franchise would be next to impossible for 2011 on that schedule, it's not promising that we'll see Bond before the next presidential elections in 2012.