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Mean Girls Movie Musical Taps Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne to Direct

Plastics, meet Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne.

Paramount has hired the filmmakers, who are married, to direct the movie adaptation of “Mean Girls: The Musical.” The upcoming version isn’t a remake of Tina Fey’s 2004 modern cult classic — about cliquey high schoolers for whom the limit does not exist — but rather a cinematic take of the song-and-dance version that opened on Broadway in 2018.

Paramount Players, the studio’s division that’s developing the film, is keeping the exact logline under wraps, even though the stage version was faithful to the original source material. The cast has not been set yet. However, Fey, who wrote the screenplay and adapted it into a musical, previously told Variety the original Broadway actors — Erika Henningsen, Taylor Louderman and Ashley Park — won’t reprise their roles on screen. Lindsey Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried played the core clique, who call themselves the Plastics, in the first film.

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“I think our Broadway actors are probably too [laughs] old,” she said. “It’s been four years since they did it on Broadway.”

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After nearly two years on Broadway, “Mean Girls” played its final performance on March 11 — the day before venues were forced to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Though Broadway has slowly started to rebound, “Mean Girls” isn’t returning to the Great White Way. Prior to its final bow, “Mean Girls” grossed $124 million at the Broadway box office and became one of the rare shows to recoup its investment. It scored nine Tony Award nominations, including nods for best musical and score.

“Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, who backed the original film and the Broadway adaptation, is producing the upcoming movie musical with Fey. Fey is writing the script, which features music by her husband, Jeff Richmond, and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Erin David, Caroline Maroney and Micah Frank are overseeing for Broadway Video and Eric Gurian for Little Stranger.

Perez and Jayne, whose partnership spans film, music videos and television, recently collaborated on the series “Quarter Life Poetry.” They are repped by UTA, and Annie Lee and Daniel Passman at Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.

Deadline Hollywood first reported the news of Perez and Jayne’s hiring.

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