Director Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 fantasy drama Pan’s Labyrinth will be coming to a stage near you as a musical production. Del Toro and Jeremy Ungar have already written the play that centers on a young stepdaughter of a twisted army officer in 1944 Fascist Spain. The girl finds escape in a fantasy world of imaginative creatures that lead her through an old labyrinthine garden. Paul Williams has been signed to write the lyrics and two-time Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel) will write the music. Hit the jump to read more about the progress of Pan’s Labyrinth the musical from the creative team.

The trailer for the documentary Paul Williams: Still Alive has gone online.  As I mentioned in my review from SXSW, it doesn’t matter if you know of Paul Williams before you see the movie or not.  For fans of the 70s celebrity who wrote “Rainbow Connection”, “We’ve Only Just Begun”, and other hit songs, it’s a wonderful way to reconnect with a beloved performer.  For those who are meeting Williams for the first time, it’s great to see him through the eyes of director Stephen Kessler.  The trailer does a good job of conveying how Kessler’s adoration of Williams is the heart of the movie, and how Williams is confused about being the subject of a documentary.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Paul Williams: Still Alive opens June 8th.

Part of the magic of Paul Williams: Still Alive is that you don’t need to have ever heard of Paul Williams to enjoy the film.  Director Stephen Kessler does an excellent job of sharing his adoration for Williams, and then keeping us hooked as we watch the complex relationship between a fan and his idol.  Through humor, patience, and perhaps a tad too much self-absorption, Kessler shows us what happens when an idol becomes human in the eyes of his fan, and why that can turn adoration into admiration.

Paul Williams: Still Alive is certainly unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen. The project started as director Stephen Kessler’s (Vegas Vacation, The Independent) attempt to make a fairly benign documentary profile about prolific songwriter and longtime television personality Paul Williams, but it mutated into something more. Williams clearly felt somewhat awkward about being a documentary subject and the movie transformed into being as much about the loving and uneasy relationship formed between the film’s director and subject as it is about Williams himself. The result is a very funny, sweet, and revealing movie far more interesting than a more straightforward profile ever could have been. Hit the jump for more.

Jackson Rathbone and Erika Christensen have signed on to star in the feature adaptation of the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel The Idiot.  The thriller centers on “a man of pure spirit who thinks he can save the world but is caught between a wildly beautiful and fragile woman, a woman he is falling in love with and a friend who is trying to destroy him.”  Variety reports Paul Williams will direct with an eye toward a September shoot in Los Angeles.  Donald Kushner (Tron: Legacy) will produce.  Intandem Films is currently shopping the package to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read the official book synopsis after the jump.