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Danya Taymor, director of Broadway’s John Proctor Is the Villain, will return to the project to helm the forthcoming movie adaptation, Deadline has confirmed. For her direction of the stage production, she received one of the show’s seven Tony nominations.
The film adaptation of the Broadway play was announced last summer and will feature a screenplay by Kimberly Bellflower, who will adapt her stage script. Casting, production, and release details are forthcoming.
Universal is producing and distributing the film, with Marc Platt (Wicked movie, La La Land, Dear Evan Hanson) and Tina Fey (Mean Girls) attached as producers. Sadie Sink, who earned a Tony nomination for her performance as Shelby, will serve as an executive producer. As a filmmaker, she has directed a screen adaptation of Will Arbery’s Plano.
Prior to John Proctor, Taymor directed The Outsiders on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. She was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for the production. Her other Broadway credits are Pass Over and Thérèse Raquin.
In John Proctor is the Villain, five young women – fueled by pop music, optimism, and fury – clash with their school, their Georgia town, and the stories they’ve been instructed to believe. As their class dissects The Crucible, they begin to question who we deem heroic, who we call a villain, and who gets burned in the process.
Before hitting Broadway, the play was produced in Washington, D.C. in 2022 at the Studio Theatre and in Boston at the Huntington Theatre Company in 2024. Broadway performances for John Proctor Is the Villain, with direction by Tony Award winner Danya Taymor opened at the Booth Theatre (222 W 45th St) on April 14, 2025. It was nominated for seven total Tonys, including Best Play. The show played its final performance on September 7, 2025.
Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas
