It’s been a few months since the last update on the new reboot of Little Shop of Horrors from Warner Bros. and now two exciting updates about the film have potentially been revealed, but keep your expectations handy as neither may pan out. First up, Full Circle Cinema reports that Kingsman and Rocketman star Taron Egerton is in talks to appear in the film, potentially as its lead character, Seymour Krelborn (previously played by Rick Moranis in the 1986 feature adaptation of the musical). Egerton’s talents as a singer were fully utilized in last year’s Elton John biopic, nabbing him the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. He’s also used his vocal stylings in the animated hit Sing, and will reprise his role in the upcoming sequel.
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The next development lends credence to the above as Collider’s Jeff Sneider took to Twitter to not only retweet the above report, but to add his own scoop: Black Widow and Jojo Rabbit star Scarlett Johansson has been offered the part of Audrey for the film, Seymour’s love interest and the namesake for the musical’s carnivorous plant. Now Johansson having the offer for the part does not mean that she’ll accept it or that she’s officially on board, but it presents an interesting development for the film and reveals the kind of talent that they’re targeting for the new version. As previously reported, Emmy and Tony Award-winning Pose star Billy Porter is the favorite to voice the ever hungry Audrey II in the film.
This new version of Little Shop of Horrors was first announced in 2016 where it was revealed that Greg Berlanti was set to direct the reboot based on a script from Matthew Robinson for Warner Bros. There have been few updates since then; however, it was revealed last year that the film had been named one of the recipients of California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program for the fiscal year of 2019-2020. As a result, the studio will likely be pushing for it to begin production soon so they can capitalize on these credits, saving them millions of dollars in the end.
Little Shop of Horrors has a very unique history on the big screen and elsewhere. The film first began as a movie (sans musical numbers) in 1960 from legendary filmmaker Roger Corman. Up until the musical it was only notable for being one of Jack Nicholson’s early movies. In 1982 the stage musical opened Off-Broadway to critical acclaim and was adapted in 1986 for the big screen with Frank Oz directing. Since then it has been revisited on the stage in many forms and even became the basis for short-lived animated series in the early 1990s.
