Director Lee Daniels is looking to remake popular and always controversial stage musical “Miss Saigon” for the big screen. Not only that, Paula Wagner, formerly Tom Cruise’s producing partner and CEO of United Artists, is producing with original show producer Cameron Mackintosh.
“Miss Saigon,” a musical theater show created by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubill has received many criticisms since during its run on stage for what many have perceived as a racist or sexist overtone.
The musical, a modern interpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly” set during the Vietnam War, tells the tragic tale of a Vietnamese bargirl, Kim, who is abandoned by her young American G.I. lover, Chris, in 1975 Saigon.
Producers are hoping to begin filming next year for release in 2011.