Rob Reiner Wants to Direct 'Next to Normal' Movie?

It looks like Rob Reiner is putting "movie musical adaptation of Next to Normal" on his Christmas list this year. The Hollywood director has said in multiple interviews that he would love the opportunity to bring the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical to the screen.

"I'd love to do Next to Normal," Reiner told The Malibu Times. "It's about ordinary people, but set to music. It's funny and dark and uplifting. You know, about real stuff."

The director will apparently talk about Next to Normal to anybody who will listen. Earlier this year, he told Moviefone that the show "has the most glorious, beautiful music, and that's what a great musical needs." And in a recent TV interview with Peter Bart, when Bart asked him about his future plans, Reiner replied:

"The picture that I would love to make, that I'm dying to make... I've been lobbying for this since it went on Broadway. There's a play on Broadway, just recently won a Pulitzer Prize and won a couple of Tonys, called Next to Normal.

"It is a completely and utterly unique project and I've been dying to make a musical. It's done brilliantly and it's very uplifting."

Reiner reportedly attended the opening of the touring production of the musical in L.A. on Nov. 28. Playbill points out, "It's an ideal time for Hollywood executives to check out Next to Normal: The national touring production of the show is currently playing the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles through Jan. 2, 2011." The Broadway production is scheduled to close Jan. 16, 2011.

What do you think? Could Reiner -- the director of classics such as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, and The Princess Bride but known more recently for flops including Alex & Emma, Rumor Has It..., and The Story of Us  -- be the right man to bring the award-winning musical to the big screen? Or do you think another director would do a better job?

-- Daniel Lehman