Thomas Kail is perhaps best known as the stage director of Hamilton having been a key player in bringing the award-winning mega hit musical and scoring a Tony Award along the way. Having worked in TV for a while, he's been looking to make the jump to cinema and is adding a new version of Fiddler On The Roof to his development list.
Originally created for the stage by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein, Fiddler is the story of Tevye, the father of five daughters who tries to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions in 1906 amid an edict from the Tsar evicting the Jews from the small town of Anatevka. The musical opened on Broadway in 1964 and won multiple Tony Awards, going to be revived several times. Cinematically, Norman Jewison's 1971 adaptation scored three Oscars from a nomination haul of eight. So there's some pressure to follow both of those, but if anyone is up to the task, it's Kail.
Steven Levenson, who worked with the director on TV series Fosse/Verdon, is writing the script, and MGM is backing the film. Kail's version of Hamilton, recorded in the theatre with the original cast, will be released on Disney+ on 3 July.