Disney has announced today it has a brand new project in the works: a musical comedy called Penelope, loosely based on the classic fairytale of The Princess and the Pea. Robert Sudduth, known for his work on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on Paramount+, will be writing the script for the new project while Will Gluck serves as producer.
Exact details about the plot of Penelope are being kept under lock and key, as is Disney’s tradition, but it has been confirmed that the musical will take its inspiration from the fairytale of The Princess and the Pea. Initially published in 1835 by Hans Christian Andersen, who is also the author of The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Snow Queen (which would go on to inspire Frozen). The Princess and the Pea tell the story of a prince who’s looking to marry a princess, but no matter how far he travels or how hard he looks, he’s unable to find a true princess; until, one stormy night, a lady shows up at the gates of his castle claiming to be a true princess. To test the stranger, the Queen – the prince’s mother – has her sleep on twenty mattresses and twenty feather-down beds on top of that, but beneath the very last mattress, she places a single pea. When the princess wakes up complaining about something poking her in the back, the Queen decides that she is, in fact, a true princess, as only a true princess would be so sensitive as to feel the pea through all the mattresses.
Disney’s ‘Penelope’: The Latest in a Long Line of Adaptations
Penelope is far from being the first adaptation of The Princess and the Pea: in the nearly two hundred years since its publication, the story has been adapted countless times, including a 1959 stage musical called Once Upon A Mattress, which would be revived in 1997 with Sarah Jessica Parker in the lead role. Other adaptations include a 2002 Hungarian animated film, a 2005 movie starring Carol Burnett and Zoey Deschanel, and several parodies where the pea is replaced by something like a bowling ball.
Penelope will be Disney’s first take on the classic fairy tale; a film adaptation was reportedly announced in 2012 but never released. Penelope will be produced by Olive Bridge Entertainment’s Will Gluck, who is also involved in a live-action remake of The Aristocats, and Robert Sudduth has been charged with writing the script, according to Deadline. Sudduth, best known for his TV work on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (2020), its upcoming prequel, and Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (2022), has previously worked alongside Will Packer and Eva Longoria on Tias, a Latin-American drama for Universal.
Further information on Penelope’s plot, cast, or development will hopefully be released soon and will be shared as it is revealed.
