Universal to adapt Broadway and his film "Dear Evan Hansen" to the movies – Variety

The Tony Award-winning musical "Dear Evan Hansen" is coming to the big screen.

Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the film on the Broadway hit, with "Wonder" director Stephen Chbosky, who directs the film.

According to sources, Ben Platt, who created the role and won a Tony for his performance, is in the first interviews to return in his shirt with blue stripes and his casting for the film. Ben's father, Marc Platt, and Adam Siegel perform the adaptation, while "Dear Evan Hansen" playwright Steven Levenson writes the script. The lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the music for the show, will be the executive producers of La La Land and "The Greatest Showman".

The story follows Hansen, a high school student with social anxiety. He is unintentionally caught in a lie after the family of a classmate who committed suicide has confused one of Hansen's letters with their son's suicide letter.

The musical was nominated for nine Tonys and won five, including best music, best actor, best actress (Rachel Bay Jones) and best score. He is currently on a national tour that includes a stopover in Los Angeles.

Levenson and Chbosky are taken over by WME and lawyers Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush and Kaller. Pasek and Paul are joined by CAA, Kraft-Engel Management and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.

Deadline Hollywood has announced the news.