Casting will begin immediately for the project that will be broadcast live and feature all the songs from the beloved film, as well as songs featured in the 1959 Broadway score that never made it to the screen. An air-date for The Sound of Music has not been announced.

"It isn't our intention to produce a remake of the movie version of The Sound of Music - that would be artistic blasphemy," Zadan said in a statement. "What we want to do, instead, is to give audiences a completely fresh experience of this great Tony Award-winning stage musical in the form of a classic television event, combined with the spontaneity of a live performance. And all of the actors will be singing live; there will be no lip-synching to pre-recordings."

"It is our supreme pleasure to broadcast – live – a new version of the seminal Broadway musical The Sound of Music for a whole new generation," added Greenblatt. "There used to be a tradition of broadcasting musicals live back in the 1950s and we're thrilled to do it once again with a musical that has been a family classic for five decades. There is no more talented and creative producing team than Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to bring Rodgers and Hammerstein's final - and most beloved - collaboration to network television in this groundbreaking live telecast."

The Sound of Music, the 1960 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, features music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, with a book penned by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The 1965 film adaptation earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Songs from the stage production include "My Favorite Things," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," "Do-Re-Mi," "So Long, Farewell," "The Lonely Goatherd," "Edelweiss," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and the title song.