Utah’s most popular Christmas movie is about to go live.
Fox announced Friday that a live musical version of “A Christmas Story” will premiere in December, according to USA Today.
The Fox production will be based based on the 1983 holiday film, in which young Ralphie hopes to get a BB gun for Christmas, and the Tony-award winning musical that opened in 2012, USA Today reported.
No cast has been announced yet.
Marc Platt (“Grease Live!” and “La La Land”) will be the show’s executive producer. He will work alongside Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won an Oscar for their work on “La La Land.”
“‘A Christmas Story’ is one of the most beloved holiday films of all time — audiences have made a yearly ritual of rewatching it — and we are so thrilled to have Marc leading the charge in bringing the musical version of that film to television,” Fox Entertainment President David Madden said in a statement, according to USA Today. "The extraordinarily gifted Pasek and Paul were instrumental in transposing the movie to the stage, and we believe the transition to live television event will be just as entertaining for viewers.”
Late last year, a map from CableTV.com identified “A Christmas Story” as Utah’s favorite holiday flick, according to the Deseret News.
Water Gardens Pleasant Grove theater aired the film for $1 during the holiday season, the Deseret News reported. Mike Daniels, owner of the theater, said the film often draws big crowds.
Researchers reviewed Google Trends data to determine each state’s favorite.
Everyone’s favorite film varied by region, according to the Deseret News. Southerners preferred “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” while the North enjoyed “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“Perhaps the warmer temperatures and the lack of snow put a little more spook into the West’s seasonal preferences, or maybe a more open culture and a larger population of minorities leans their holiday viewing toward embracing the weird and different,” according to the report.