Variety is reporting that ABC Studios is in development on a “The Phantom of the Opera” musical series from “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry that will NOT be affiliated with the long-running Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Although it will take its cues from Gaston Leroux’s 1909 novel, this new “Phantom of the Opera” will be a contemporary drama revolving around the cutthroat world of the music business and will incorporate musical moments into storylines in a similar vein as ABC’s show “Nashville.”
Cherry is executive producing with Sabrina Wind through the duos Cherry/Wind Productions, while Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (Broadway’s “First Date”) are writing the teleplay and executive producing.
The original story, about a ghost who haunts an opera house and helps a budding singer, has been adapted many times before, most famously by Lon Chaney in a 1925 silent movie and by Brian De Palma for Phantom of the Paradise, a 1974 satire also set in the contemporary music business.
