NBC confirms it is talking to Aaron Sorkin about mounting a live production of his 1989 hit Broadway play A Few Good Men. It’s still in a preliminary stage — no deals have been made on the project — but the hope is to have Sorkin write for a live production based on his original play.
Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron– NBC’s go-to guys for live productions, having produced last year’s live adaptation of Broadway play The Sound Of Music – are shepherding the project, having put it under the nose of NBC Entertainment Group chief Bob Greenblatt. Sony TV is a participant in association with Zadan and Meron; it holds rights from the original feature film deal on the play, which resulted in the 1992 TriStar Pictures hit about a court-martial case against two Marines accused of killing another. Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore starred.
NBC has made no secret of its enthusiasm for live TV specials; last December’s live holiday confection, the Carrie Underwood-starring The Sound Of Music Live! scored an impressive 18.6 million viewers and a 4.6 rating in adults 18-49 on a Thursday night — NBC’s best adults 18-49 Thursday average with non-sports programming in since the night of the ER finale in April 2009, and the largest overall Thursday audience in almost 10 years, since the night of the Frasier finale in May 2004. The network is following that up with Zadan and Meron’s re-staging of Broadway hitPeter Pan for this coming holiday season, on December 4.