Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Sports Night) to write Flaming Lips musical
Academy Award-nominated and multiple-Emmy award winning playright Aaron Sorkin has signed on to write a musical adaptation of The Flaming Lips's beloved 2002 album, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips, confirmed the story and, regarding Sorkin's participation, noted:
Maybe that means they'll need to build a stage with lots of hallways on it. It will be a giant tube that's always moving!'.
The musical's debut is likely years off, and details of the plot aren't specific yet. Coyne does compare the plot to Terry Gilliam's classic film, Brazil, and explains:
There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that.'
The Flaming Lips released At War with the Mystics last year while Sorkin has been working on both Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and is working on upcoming films including Charlie Wilson's War and his play, The Farnsworth Invention is currently being staged in San Diego, California.