Not One But TWO Phantom of the Opera TV Shows Currently in the Works

Wonderful news for those of you cherishing fond memories of their Phantom of the Opera phase (you know who you are): There’s not one but two TV adaptations of the original, turn-of-the-century novel currently in the works. Dueling Phantoms! Double the Phantom! Now with more musical menace than ever!

Deadline reports there’s an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1909 novel currently in the works, to be directed by Amelie‘s Jean-Pierre Jeunet and produced by L.A.-based Endemol North America (previously responsible for… Hell on Wheels). They’ve bumped the action from the 19th to the 20th century, for maximum fizz:

Described as a drama brimming with tortured love affairs, sex, murder and mystery among the international jet set at the dawn of the Jazz Age, the Phantom Of The Opera series is set in 1919 against a backdrop of the Paris Peace Conference. The story centers on a British World War I fighter pilot with burns covering half of his body. He finds himself at the center of a string of murders that threatens to embroil the city’s gathered world leaders. The “Opera” in this re-imagining is an opera house that is home to the hottest nightclub in Paris — think Studio 54 — whose American Josephine Baker-esque headliner finds herself in the cross hairs of the serial killer.

Hm. Interesting.

However, this is not the only time-shifted Phantom of the Opera TV adaptation currently in the works. Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry and ABC, come on down! Variety reports they’re working on a “drama with musical elements” (so again, no Andrew Lloyd Webber) set in today’s music biz. It’ll “incorporate musical moments into story lines in the same vein as the ABC drama ‘Nashville,'” according to Variety. Who wants to bet the project’s publicists have circulated more than one email ordering “NOBODY MENTION SMASH“?

Anything to replace the memory of the time some fool thought Gerard Butler was an adequate stand-in for Michael Crawford.