Dan Lin And Jonathan Eirich Producing Film Adaptation Of ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ For Disney

Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich are producing a Disney film adaptation of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, through their Rideback banner, Deadline can confirm.

Rideback’s Ryan Halprin will exec produce.

Based on the improvisational play C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, created by Rebecca Feldman, Jay Reiss, Sarah Saltzberg, and Dan Fogler, Spelling Bee is a musical that follows a spelling bee taking place at the fictional Putnam Valley Middle School. Its main characters include the six quirky adolescents competing in the Bee, and the three equally quirky grown-ups running it. Performed both on and off Broadway, the musical has picked up a number of major awards throughout the years, including Tonys for Best Book and Best Featured Actor.

The musical comedy’s music and lyrics were penned by William Finn, with a book by Rachel Sheinkin and from an initial concept by Feldman, and additional material by Reiss.

It wasn’t clear, at time of reporting, who will write and direct the live-action adaptation.

Lin and Eirich’s recent credits through their Rideback production company include Disney’s 2019 remake of Aladdin, and Netflix drama The Two Popes.

News of the Spelling Bee adaptation was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.