Scribe pair on deck for 'Yankees'

Tolan, Martineau already at work on M'max's next musical

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein has sent Peter Tolan and Mike Martineau to the plate to script a new screen version of "Damn Yankees," the 1955 musical that will be produced by the "Chicago" team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

Tolan is best known for scripting "Analyze This," but he has written with Martineau going back to the Tolan-created TV series "The Job" and "The Larry Sanders Show." The scribes have already begun writing, as Weinstein and co-prexy of production Meryl Poster aim to make it Miramax's musical followup to "Chicago," which became the studio's biggest-grossing film and won six Oscars, including best picture.

'Guys and Dolls' redo

Storyline Entertainment partners Zadan and Meron, who were exec producers on "Chicago," also made a Miramax deal for a remake of "Guys and Dolls." That film won't be made until after "Damn Yankees," a musical that won seven Tony Awards and was choreographed by Bob Fosse.

The musical was about a Washington Senators fan who sold his soul to the devil to become a star player and help his team beat the Yankees to win the pennant. The original music and lyrics were done by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, the book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, the latter of whom wrote the novel "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant," on which the musical was based. "Damn Yankees" was turned into a 1958 film that starred Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston.