Sabrina Carpenter & Lorene Scafaria Teaming On ‘Alice In Wonderland’-Inspired Musical For Universal
On the heels of six Grammy nominations for her seventh studio album Man’s Best Friend, pop star Sabrina Carpenter has inked a deal to star in and produce an untitled musical, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, for Universal Pictures.
For Carpenter, the project will mark a first attempt at anchoring a major studio picture. Plot details are under wraps. DGA Award and two-time Emmy nominee Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers, Succession) is set to direct from her own script.
In addition to Carpenter, Marc Platt will produce through Universal-based Marc Platt Productions, which releases Wicked: For Good with Universal on November 21. Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton will also produce through Alloy Entertainment. SVP Production Development Ryan Jones and Director of Production Development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the project for the studio, with Katie McNicol overseeing for Marc Platt Productions.
While Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is in the public domain, the book has historically been tied to Disney, which released both the iconic 1951 animated film of the same name as well as a pair of live-action features starring Mia Wasikowska in the 2010s. Universal’s spin on the property comes following the Tim Burton-directed Alice in Wonderland (2010), which grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, and sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) from James Bobin, which fared less well, while still grossing nearly $300 million.
As an actor, Carpenter’s credits include Prime Video’s Emergency and the indie drama The Short History of the Long Road — both Sundance titles — as well as the Tall Girl films from Netflix, Disney+’s Clouds and 20th Century Fox’s The Hate U Give. Most recently, she signed on to guest star in a Muppet Show special for Disney+.
A two-time Grammy winner, Carpenter just added a second North America leg to her Short n’ Sweet Tour, which includes six shows at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and five shows at Madison Square Garden in New York. Her album Man’s Best Friend debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 upon its August release and amassed over 180 million streams in the U.S. within the first week. The artist is repped by Foundation Media Partners, Volara Management, and Paradigm.
Scafaria is known for the films Hustlers, The Meddler and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, as well as her directing on Succession and New Girl. More recently, she directed multiple episodes, including the pilot, of Rachel Sennott’s HBO series I Love LA, on where she’s also an executive producer.
She’s also inked a deal to direct Jonty, an A24 comedy starring Jesse Plemons and Cole Escola, as we first reported in September.
Scafaria is repped by UTA and Dern Weber.
