Will Ferrell has confirmed that he is attempting to adapt his film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga into a Broadway musical.
The Netflix comedy, released in 2020, stars Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as a pair of Icelandic musicians, Lars Erickssong and Singrit Ericksdottir, who realise their dream of performing at Eurovision.
Although the film, written by Ferrell, received mixed reviews from critics, it earned a cult following among Eurovision fans with some of the original songs becoming hits in their own right.
Ferrell, 57, is a self-confessed superfan of the competition, previously calling it “incredible”.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, which featured other Eurovision alumni Olly Alexander (and Norton himself, who commentates on the event for the BBC), Ferrell revealed that he is working on a stage version of the film.
After revealing that he was at the 2024 competition in Malmo, Sweden, the Anchorman star joked: “I just can’t stay away.”
He then added: “No, we’re trying to develop it into a Broadway show. We went with [a] songwriter and director [to Eurovision] as they had never seen it. My wife happens to be Swedish, so Malmo, Sweden, Eurovision... and here we are now.”
Ferrell claimed to have been silent for three hours after watching the contest for the first time. “I was just like, ‘What is this thing, it’s incredible,’” he told Screen Rant. “The staging, the kind of costumes, the catchiness of the songs, some of the songs are actually really good.”
He continued: “It was from the sublime to the ridiculous and I just remember in that moment thinking, ‘That would be a great movie,’ but I thought that someone in Europe would have done it.”
The film takes its cues from real-life moments that have unfolded across Eurovision’s storied history. For example, one of the most memorable scenes, in which Lars and Sigrit fall off the stage after Sigrit’s scarf is caught in a giant hamster wheel on which Lars is running, is a reference to Ukraine’s 2014 entry.
Ferrell appeared on the BBC chat show on Friday night (24 January) alongside Reese Witherspoon to promote their new comedy, You’re Cordially Invited. Other guests included Death in Paradise star Don Gilet and Academy Award nominee Ariana Grande.
