Stanley Kubrick Estate Approves ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Stage Adaptation from Armando Iannucci

Amid the “Oppenheimer” anticipation, another bomb has been dropped: Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” will be adapted as a stage production on the West End.

The project, led by “Veep” and “Avenue 5” creator Armando Iannucci, is the first-ever adaptation of a Kubrick property. Kubrick’s widow, Christiane Kubrick, confirmed the upcoming play based on the 1964 political satire film starring Peter Sellers.

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“We have always been reluctant to let anyone adapt any of Stanley’s work, and we never have. It was so important to him that it wasn’t changed from how he finished it,” Christiane told the BBC. “But we could not resist authorizing this project: the time is right, the people doing it are fantastic, and ‘Strangelove’ should be brought to a new and younger audience. I am sure Stanley would have approved it too.”

“Dr. Strangelove” parodies the American military responding to the Soviet Union attacks amid the Cold War, with a nuclear holocaust being unleashed in the process. The film was released in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Iannucci is known for political satires, including “Veep,” “Avenue 5,” and “The Death of Stalin.” Iannucci adapts “Dr. Strangelove” with West End playwright Sean Foley, who was behind “The Ladykillers” adaptation and “I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical.” The theater venue has not yet been announced; the “Dr. Strangelove” show will open in fall 2024.

Iannucci has access to the Kubrick archive for the stage production. The showrunner shared that he has found discarded scenes and drafts of “Dr. Strangelove” that will be incorporated into the play.

While the production will be set in the 1960s, Iannucci reflected on the relevancy of the story today.

“As a story, weirdly it hasn’t gone away. It seems the right time to remind people of the mad logic behind these dangerous games that superpowers play,” he told the BBC. “Not just with the war in Ukraine, but also the whole apocalyptic sense of global warming and so on — it feels like a very relevant reassertion of the message that, this is the madness staring at us if we don’t do anything about it. And currently, we aren’t doing anything about it. So the outcome is not good. But if you can leave the theater with that message and a smile, then all the better.”

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