Stephen Sondheim poses as he arrives at a special screening of the DreamWorks Pictures film ''Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California
Stephen Sondheim poses as he arrives at a special screening of the DreamWorks Pictures film ''Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California December 5, 2007. Reuters

The award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods is headed to the movies with Chicago director Rob Marshall, Walt Disney film studio said on Wednesday.

Disney said that Marshall will direct the Tony award-winning spin on classic fairy tales for film from a screen adaptation by Sondheim's frequent collaborator, James Lapine.

We are thrilled to be collaborating with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine on this extraordinary and inspiring work, Marshall said in a statement with co-producer John DeLuca.

Marshall's most recent film was Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which gave Disney one of last summer's biggest box office hits.

Marshall also directed the best picture Oscar musical Chicago, starring Renee Zellweger, in 2002. But his last Broadway musical film adaptation, Nine in 2009, was a critical and commercial flop despite a star-studded cast including Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren and Penelope Cruz.

Into the Woods weaves together several classic fairytales, including Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, in a modern twist on the theme of happily ever after.

The original stage version won three Tony awards in 1988, and a Broadway revival picked up another Tony in 2002.

No casting and no release date were announced for the new film adaptation, which follows the 2007 Tim Burton-directed screen version of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp.