Christopher Walken Cast as Hook for NBC’s Live “Peter Pan” Musical

Donna Ward/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — NBC has found its Captain Hook for its upcoming live production of Peter Pan: Christopher Walken.

Walken will play the iconic pirate in Peter Pan Live!, which NBC will air on December 4.

The musical will reunite Walken, who currently stars in the big-screen version of Jersey Boys, with producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who previously worked with him on the 2007 film Hairspray.

“I started my career in musicals and it’s wonderful after all this time, at this point in my career, to be in this classic musical I watched as a child and to work with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan again after Hairspray,” Walken said in a statement. “It’s a chance to put on my tap shoes again.”

Peter Pan Live! is NBC’s follow-up to its hit production of The Sound of Music, which starred Carrie Underwood.

NBC president Robert Greenblatt told reporters Sunday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills that he wanted Kristen Bell to play Peter Pan. However, according to TVLine.com, he stated that her Showtime series House of Lies presented a conflict.

Here are some other NBC tidbits to come from the TCAs:

• The summer series America’s Got Talent, American Ninja Warrior and Last Comic Standing were renewed for next season.
• NBC said its Bill Cosby comedy could premiere as early as next summer.
• The network is bringing Britain’s Red Nose Day fundraising event — held by Comic Relief U.K. to raise money to fight poverty — to the U.S. NBC will air a three-hour Red Nose Day broadcast in May 2015.

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