Following up on the OffBeat news post regarding Nine Lives being optioned as a potential television miniseries, we learned this week from Chris Joseph (of the Threadhead Foundation) that a development agreement has been reached with a production company and that they are moving forward. Joseph said in a Facebook post “Much work needs to be done, and like I said, this doesn’t guarantee anything. But it’s a lovely and very promising start. I couldn’t be happier.”

Nine Lives, the book about nine characters in New Orleans spanning the years from Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was later adapted into a musical. Threadhead Records produced an album of the musical’s 39 songs.

Composer Paul Sanchez along with writer Colman DeKay created the musical based on Dan Baum’s book. Although the potential television miniseries may or may not contain music, Sanchez was thrilled to learn of Joseph’s efforts. “Chris Joseph just would not let Nine Lives fade away. After a decade of trying to turn it into theater in New York and not finding a way to do so, I mentioned to Chris that I thought it would work better as a limited-run series. He asked if I was cool if he bought the rights to the book from Dan’s estate as the option had not been picked up by the folks in New York who had it for the last decade. I said sure, I’ve seen Chris accomplish the impossible, so I have faith in him driving the bus. Within a month he had a company interested and is now negotiating with them. It’s exciting to know that Nine Lives has more lives to go,” said Sanchez. Learn more about Nine Lives here: