Promising to be either the best idea or the worst debacle, Paul McCartney is writing a musical It's a Wonderful Life

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      As ideas go, it’s one that has the potential to be as every bit as fantastic as Mary Bailey’s renovation of the Old Granville House, or every bit as disastrous as the 1978 film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

      Evidently not one who believes in retirement, Paul McCartney has, according to his website, been busy writing a musical version of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life. That gives one of the greatest songwriters to ever walk the planet the daunting task of not ruining one of the greatest movies ever made.

      Helping the former Beatle tackle his first musical are Billy Elliot screenwriter Lee Hall and producer Bill Kenwright.

      “Like many of these things this all started with an email,” McCartney stated on his website. “Bill had asked if it was something I might be up for. Writing a musical is not something that had ever really appealed to me but Bill and I met up with Lee Hall and had a chat and I found myself thinking this could be interesting and fun.‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a universal story we can all relate to.”

      McCartney—who recently sold out Vancouver’s BC Place—has said he’s currently putting the final touches on the heartwarming story of a man with anger management problems who, in no particular order: pushes around his wife, yells at his crying kids, gets into fistights at bars, drives drunk around town, and gives every indication he would happily roger the shit out of the tramp-like Violet Bick if he wasn’t married.

      McCartney musical version of It’s a Wonderful Life is scheduled to debut in the U.K. in late 2020. There is no advance word on whether he'll play up the fact that the booze-soaked town known Pottersville looks about 10 times as much fun as boring old Bedford Falls. 

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