Entertainment conglomerate Concord has launched an Originals division tasked with developing new projects across a variety of formats from its large library of intellectual property holdings, which include the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, August Wilson, Adrienne Kennedy, Kander and Ebb, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Irving Berlin, and more. Concord also controls works by such music artists as Cyndi Lauper, James Taylor, Phil Collins, and Otis Redding.
Sophia Dilley will lead the new division as senior vice president, heading a team that includes Directors of Development and Production Wesley Adams and Charles Hopkins and Development Coordinator Quile Gomez.
Among the first projects being worked on are new adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1958 musical Flower Drum Song. The project is being worked on in collaboration with Daniel Dae Kim's 3AD and Janet Yang Productions, which will re-imagine the musical for the screen.
Originally adapted as a film in 1961, the musical centers on a community of Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco. This new take on the property would not be its first re-imagining; a 2002 Broadway revival featured a dramatically revised book by David Henry Hwang.
Additional projects include the previously-announced TV serial adaptation of Oklahoma! and film re-make of The King and I, a film inspired by Blues artist Robert Johnson penned by Is God Is playwright Aleshea Harris titled The Bluesman, and a scripted podcast inspired by the Mexican ballad "Peregrina" and based on New York Times journalist Alma Reed's memoir of the same name.
