Christopher Walken to Play Captain Hook in NBC's 'Peter Pan'
NBC is going big for its upcoming live performance of Peter Pan.
Oscar winner Christopher Walken will star as Captain Hook in NBC's follow-up to The Sound of Music, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt is expected to make the announcement during his session Sunday at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour.
The casting reunites Walken with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron after his starring role in the producers' film adaptation of Hairspray.
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Based on James M. Barrie's revered book and musical, NBC's new take, which hails from Universal Television, comes after the network in 1955 staged a live broadcast of the Broadway production of Peter Pan that opened in 1954. The show, starring Tony winners Mary Martin and Cyril Richard drew 65 million viewers -- the highest rating for a single night program at the time. NBC later broadcast the show live again in 1956 and 1960. It was also the first broadcast of a musical in color.
'The exhilarating thing about doing these live musicals is giving the stage to a thrilling performer like Chris, and seeing his once-in-a-lifetime performance unfold at the same moment the audience is watching at home,' EPs Zadan and Meron said.
Added Walken: 'I started my career in musicals and it's wonderful after all this time, at this point in my career, to be in this classic musical I watched as a child and to work with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan again after Hairspray. It's a chance to put on my tap shoes again.'
Walken has appeared in more than 100 feature films and TV series. He won the Oscar for his role in the The Deer Hunter and was nominated for Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can.' His credits also include film musicals including Pennies From Heaven in which he danced to 'Let's Misbehave.' He's currently dancing again in Clint Eastwood's adaptation of Broadway hit Jersey Boys. His 13 Broadway credits include his Tony-nominated performance in James Joyce's The Dead as well as for the 2010 play A Behanding in Spokane, in which he also played a man with a severed hand.
Walken, repped by ICM Partners and Greenberg Traurig, joins Dustin Hoffman and Colin O'Donoghue, who played Hook in the feature film and on ABC's Once Upon a Time.
NBC's decision to repeat the live musical performance comes as broadcast networks are looking to draw eyeballs (and awards-season cachet) in an increasingly competitive landscape and DVR era.
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