July 21, 2025
Xavier Collin/Sipa USA
Tina Fey will reportedly join the production team for an upcoming movie adaptation of Broadway hit 'John Proctor is the Villain.'
Nearly a decade after converting her comedic classic "Mean Girls" into a Broadway show, and just over a year since tailoring that play back into a movie musical, Tina Fey is now spearheading a stage-to-screen adaptation.
The Upper Darby native will reportedly join award-winning producer Marc Platt on an original film for Tony Award-nominated play "John Proctor is the Villain" for Universal Studios.
Following a "competitive situation," Universal Studios gained the film rights to the play, with Fey and Platt confirmed to produce, the Hollywood Reporter reported Friday. Playwright Kimberly Belflower will work on the film's script and actress Sadie Sink, who snagged a Tony Award nomination this year for her role in the play, will also be an executive producer.
"John Proctor is the Villain" follows a rural high school class in Georgia that are assigned a reading of Arthur Miller's classic "The Crucible," which inspires the girls to start a feminism club — causing them to reevaluate their relationships with the men in their lives, and with each other.
The play first debuted on a Broadway stage in March and became an instant hit with audiences, referencing modern cultural and music elements, including Taylor Swift, into its script which resonated with younger theatergoers. During the 2025 Tony Awards, "John Proctor" picked up seven nominations, including Best Play and three performance nods.
Fey's production credit to the play comes after she transitioned her 2004 film "Mean Girls," which was written and produced by Fey, into a musical for Broadway audiences in 2018. It was greenlit for a movie-musical adaptation in 2020 and was released in theaters in 2024.
Fey most recently starred alongside fellow Philadelphia native Colman Domingo in Netflix's "The Four Seasons" series, in which she took the helm as writer and executive producer.
No casting confirmations or timeline estimates have been released yet for the movie adaptation of "John Proctor is the Villain."
