Gully Boy director Zoya Akhtar is all set to direct a live-action musical based on the Archie comics for Netflix, the streaming platform announced. Titled The Archies, the film will be set in the 1960s.
Talking about this collaboration, director Akhtar said in a press release, “I am super excited to have the chance to bring The Archies to life. It was a large part of my childhood and teenage years. The characters are iconic and globally loved, which is also why I am a little nervous. I have to make sure the film stokes the nostalgia of a generation that grew up on the comic and yet resonates with the young adults today.”
Archie Comics CEO and Publisher Jon Goldwater added, “We know that these characters have global appeal, and translating them into other settings and cultures is just the start of what we have planned for future multimedia adaptations”.
Pratiksha Rao, Director, Films and Licensing, Netflix India, stated, “The characters, adventures, and friendships in Archies have found fans across the world for generations. With Archie Comics, Graphic India, and Tiger Baby, we have an extraordinary opportunity to recreate the world of Archie comics, this time as a live-action musical. Zoya has an incredible and unique ability to make stories and the characters in them relatable, making them feel like they are an extension of our own self. We are thrilled to partner with her in bringing to life the world of Archies to fans and our members in India and around the world.”
Recommended
The extremely popular comic is about the adventures of teenager Archie Andrews and other key characters – Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Jughead Jones, and Reggie Mantle – in the fictional town Riverdale. Recently, the comic even inspired the television series Riverdale. Archie (as an individual) debuted in December 1941, in Pep Comics No. 22. However, in the late 1950s artist Dan DeCarlo gave Archie the look that defined the look of Archie Comics for the next half a century.
It has been speculated that the Akhtar film will see Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s younger daughter Khushi Kapoor, and Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda making their debut with the film. No official confirmation about this has been made yet.