Howard, Baumbach to Adapt ‘The Emperor’s Children’

Howard, Baumbach, Messud: Ron Howard will direct adaptation of Claire Messud’s beloved New York fin de siècle novel The Emperor’s Children, with Noah Baumbach writing the screenplay for Universal. The Gawker girls totally guessed Baumbach, but we expect that Howard will make them die inside a little. [Variety]

Michael Tolkin on Nine: Screenwriter Michael Tolkin (The Player) will write adaptation of musical Nine for the Weinstein Company and director Rob Marshall. Based on Fellini’s 8 1/2, musical follows a film director looking back on the women of his life. [Variety]

Linus Roache on L&O: Law & Order names a new D.A. to fill the shoes of promoted Sam Waterston: Linus Roache, who was in Batman Begins but is most famous for that movie Priest like a dozen years ago. Chung-chung! [Variety]

Guess Who’s Coming to Broadway: Kenny Leon will direct stage adaptation of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with an eye toward hitting Broadway in 2008. Todd Kreidler, August Wilson’s dramaturge, will write the script. Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher will not star. [Playbill]

Silence! Gets a Run: 2005 Fringe hit Silence! The Musical, tongue-in-cheek adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs by Jon Kaplan, Al Kaplan, and Hunter Bell, will get Off Broadway run this fall. Guess they finally got the rights! We look forward to reviewers struggling with song titles like “If I Could Smell Her Cunt.� [Playbill]