Lionel Richie‘s songs are going to be doing more than “Dancing on the Ceiling” — they’re going to be playing on a theater screen near you.

Variety reports that Walt Disney Studios is developing an original movie musical based on Lionel’s vast catalog of hits.  The musical is tentatively titled All Night Long, and it’ll be live action, rather than animated. 

Lionel and his manager will be co-producers on the film, and the script is being written by Pete Chiarelli, who wrote Crazy Rich Asians and The Proposal.  It’s said to be similar to the Mamma Mia! films, which used hits by ABBA to tell an original story.

The idea was actually Lionel’s, according to Variety: He pitched it to Walt Disney Studios back in January.  Why Disney?  He’s already part of the company, since he’s a judge on American Idol, which airs on ABC, which is owned by Disney.

Earlier this year, another pop star with a string of hits, Bruno Mars, announced that he’d be collaborating with Disney on a movie that he’d both star in and write original music for.

By Andrea Dresdale
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