Paramount Adapting ‘Mean Girls’ Musical Into Movie

Mean Girls will soon be singing and dancing its way back to the big screen.

The Broadway musical adaptation of the 2004 teen comedy will now be adapted into a feature film by Paramount.

Mean Girls — both the original movie and the musical — follows teenager Cady Heron, who moves from Africa with her scientist parents to the suburbs of Illinois, where she gets swept up in the dynamics of her new high school’s social hierarchy and falls in with a popular clique known as The Plastics. 

Lorne Michaels will return to produce with Tina Fey. Fey, who wrote the book for the Broadway show, will write the feature script, with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin.

The news of the movie musical comes as producers of Broadway’s Mean Girls are in final talks for the show to bow in London’s West End in late spring of 2021. At the same time, producers have announced recoupment of the New York production’s capitalization; the hit Broadway run has generated $118 million in grosses to date, not including revenues from the current national tour.

“I’m very excited to bring Mean Girls back to the big screen,” Fey said Thursday in a statement. “It’s been incredibly gratifying to see how much the movie and the musical have meant to audiences. I’ve spent 16 years with these characters now. They are my Marvel Universe, and I love them dearly.”

Added Michaels, “It has been a joy to work on Mean Girls and to watch it go from film, to musical, and now to musical film. I am very proud that Tina’s story and characters continue to resonate with new generations. We are all excited to continue to work with Sonia Friedman and her team as we prepare for London.”

Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams starred in the original film, which earned a massive $128 million at the global box office and has since achieved cult teen-movie status.

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