Just months after Billy McFarland sold the Fyre Fest brand rights on eBay for a mere $245,300, the infamous event is being developed as a musical.
Titled Fyre Fest The Musical, the project comes from the husband-wife production team of Taika Waititi and Rita Ora. It will center on the life story of McFarland and the failed 2017 festival that landed him in jail for fraud and has since been explored in multiple documentaries.
In a press release, the musical is described as “not just a Greek-sized tragedy of one man’s con. It’s a satirical indictment of an entire generation. Fyre Fest The Musical. It’s about as wrong as a bad idea can go.”
Related Video
While a production timeline and potential Broadway run for Fyre Fest The Musical have not yet been announced, the creative team has been revealed. Frequent Super Bowl commercial director Bryan Buckley will direct and write the book, with music by Oscar- and Grammy-winner Paul Epworth and set design by Hamilton’s David Korins.
“Working in the theater is always fun,” Waititi said in a statement. “I mean I haven’t done it for 15 years because it was no longer fun, but I’ve been told it will be fun this time. And I believe them.”
He continued, “When Bryan Buckley told me he wanted to make a musical about the Fyre Festival, I said, ‘Who the hell is Bryan Buckley?’ I then remembered we’ve been friends and work mates for 15 years so it was kinda hard to say no. Honestly, I think the idea is exciting, weird, and potentially disastrous, which seems apt and is how I like to work. I can’t wait to get started and snatch me some of that sweet American theatre money.”
“I never saw myself doing a theatrical musical comedy,” Buckley added in a statement of his own. “But then again, I never saw something completely mind-bendingly ridiculous and intriguing as what went down with Fyre Festival. A spectacular failed endeavor — that will haunt a generation forever. I cannot wait to get this show out to the world. And yeah man, this time there will actually be music or your money back.”
McFarland’s brand sale came after several aborted attempts to launch Fyre Fest 2, and a purported seven-figure deal that the convicted felon claimed fell through. Unfortunately for McFarland and the original Fyre Festival investors — to whom he owes more than $20 million in restitution — giving up those rights means he won’t see a dime from the musical.
This musical isn’t the only project on Waititi’s docket. He is currently attached to direct a new live-action adaptation of Judge Dredd.