‘Wicked’ Director Strikes First-Look Deal with Paramount for Films and TV

Jon M. Chu has signed a major first-look deal with Paramount to develop and produce both films and TV shows.

The three-year deal, starting January 2, 2026, will have Chu and his production company based on the Paramount lot.

He will work closely with Paramount Pictures Co-Chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, Motion Picture Group President Don Granger, and Paramount Television Studios President Matt Thunell. This information comes from sources familiar with the deal.

Chu is best known for directing Wicked: For Good, which opened in November and set the record for the biggest global opening ever for a movie based on a Broadway show. It also became the second biggest opening at the U.S. box office in 2025.

He has a packed slate of upcoming projects. Chu will direct a movie adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go!, produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Animation with Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Bad Robot Productions.

He is also attached to The Great Chinese Art Heist, based on a GQ article about museum robberies in Europe involving stolen Chinese antiquities, with Jimmy O. Yang, Jessica Gao, and Ken Cheng writing the script.

Chu is producing an animated Play-Doh film for Entertainment One and Hasbro. He will also direct and co-produce Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, for Amazon MGM Studios and the Really Useful Group.

Other upcoming projects include a film adaptation of Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me for Universal, the live-action adaptation of the video game Split Fiction starring Sydney Sweeney, and the live-action Hot Wheels movie with Mattel and Warner Bros., which he will also direct.

Chu has said in the past that he is passionate about bringing musicals and unique stories to the screen, and this new deal with Paramount gives him the opportunity to expand his creative projects in both movies and television.

Jon M. Chu continues to prove he is one of Hollywood’s most versatile directors, moving between musicals, animation, and adaptations of popular franchises. This first-look deal with Paramount gives him a platform to develop even more exciting projects. What do you think about Chu’s upcoming slate? Share your thoughts in the comments.