Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal Doing ‘Damn Yankees’

New Line Cinemas has attached stars Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal to star in their updated adaptation of the musical ‘Dam Yankees’.   Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are set to write the script, and Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the duo behind the new version of ‘Hairspray’, are producing.

“Damn Yankees,” which debuted on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, focuses on Joe Boyd, a happily married man whose devotion to a hapless pro baseball team prompts him to make a bargain with the devil to help the team. He’s transformed into slugger Joe Hardy, in exchange for Boyd’s soul. Boyd can break the deal, but the deadline occurs during the World Series. For good measure, the devil engages Lola, a gorgeous lost soul, to seduce the slugger and seal his fate.

Carrey is set to play the devil, and Gyllenhaal will be playing Boyd.   This is the first musical for each actor.   The intention is to get a script from Ganz and Mandel before meeting directors, and actresses who’ll want to play Lola.

The original was directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Bob Fosse, with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and book by Abbott and Douglass Wallop. “Damn Yankees” was turned into a 1958 Warner Bros. film that was directed by Abbott and Stanley Donen, with Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon re-creating their stage performances, and Tab Hunter playing the slugger.

Source: Variety