Following in the footsteps of other blockbusters who went from the big screen to the stage, Little Miss Sunshine is turning into a musical.

Little Miss Sunshine is a story about a uniquely strange and dysfunctional family on a road trip so the youngest daughter can perform in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.  The film premiered in 2006 at the Sundance film festival and was nominated for four Academy Awards. Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, and Greg Kinnear starred.

The movie will be adapted for the stage by William Finn and James Lapine.  The duo is responsible for the hilarious The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which debuted in 2005.  Lapine is a three time Tony Award winner and has collaborated on several occasions with theater legend Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Sunday In The Park With George).

This movie already has some musical elements as it revolves around a little girl’s dream of being in a beauty pageant.

 Heck, it even has a raunchy dance scene when she lives that dream.  I’m curious to see how they’ll adapt the characters though.  Alan Arkin’s heroin addicted grandfather character may translate well, but the older brother character is mute for most of the movie (and his quiet is essential to his character).  How will that work on stage?

The folks over at MTV are already predicting music that may be used and the EW writers are very excited about this news.  I’m going to leave speculation up to them and just hope for the best.

The Little Miss Sunshine musical is set to premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in February 2011.