As a stage musical, "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat'" has been hugely popular around the world, with some 20,000 amateur productions on record. Thanks to Elton John's production company, Rocket Pictures, the musical will be able to add "cartoon movie" to its ever-growing list of adaptations.
Movie to include new songs
During STX Entertainment's CinemaCon presentation Tuesday, it was announced that they would be working on the "Joseph" cartoon in conjunction with Rocket Pictures and the Really Useful Group -- the firm representing Andrew Lloyd Webber's work internationally.
"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" was originally created as a full-length concept album in 1970, before being produced for the stage in London in 1972. The show eventually premiered on Broadway a decade later, in 1982. It was the second of many highly successful musicals by the writing duo of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, after the huge, international success of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
It was announced that the cartoon movie will feature a number of new songs by Lloyd Webber and Rice. However, it was not clear if the new songs would replace existing songs or increase the length of the musical that is already prodominantly sung-through.
More family and animation films announced by STX
During their CinemaCon presentation, exclusively for members of the National Association of Theatre Owners, STX Entertainment announced it would be launching a multi-platform family and animation movie division influenced by their background in Asian Film markets.
On the roster for upcoming STX Entertainment releases announced today:
- An animated feature film based on the "UGLY DOLLS" toy franchise, directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is Rodriguez's first animated movie, who is better known for darker and more violent work like "Sin City" and "Machete."
- An as yet untitled animated movie featuring Eddie Murphy's first return to cartoon voicework since the final "Shrek" sequel. Murphy will be making the comfortable leap from Shrek's donkey to a character called "Bo the Bull."
STX has yet to announce release dates for any of their new films, but given the standard timelines for animated movies, audiences should expect to see them roll out starting in 2018.
