Variety reports that Jon and Al Kaplan, the songwriters of Silence! Silence of the Lambs: The Musical, are penning the score and book for the musical comedy that will be produced by Mark Altman and "Napoleon Dynamite" producer Chris Wyatt. The cult film centers around the frozen head of Adolf Hitler, which is smuggled into the fictitious South American country of Mandoras in the hopes of one day creating a Fourth Reich.
Crown International Productions, which presented the 1963 theatrical release of the film, has signed on as a partner for the musical adaptation.
Silence! The Musical earned the Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Musical at the 2005 NYC Fringe Festival. The Kaplan brothers cite the work of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken as inspiration for their own projects. Ashman and Menken found great success turning another 1960's sci-fi camp film into the hit musical Little Shop of Horrors.
