After having moved up the start of the national tour of their hit musical by four months, "South Park" writers and "Book of Mormon" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have announced that there will be a movie adaptation of the Broadway blockbuster. Don't worry if you're a purist and want to see the show first, though — they've said that the movie won't come out for "several years."

This seems like an interesting decision to me. Of course, it's completely logical from a fiscal standpoint — "Mormon" is a cash cow, and they might as well make as much money off of it as they can. But I don't know how it will work as a movie. In general, I find myself disappointed by contemporary movie adaptations of musicals, and I don't want this show to be ruined for me. There's something about the world of live theater that leads to a suspension of disbelief that is totally acceptable. On Broadway (or in any live musical), it's totally acceptable for characters to suddenly burst into song, but in the context of a movie, it somehow becomes forced and awkward unless it's handled very well.

Part of this stems from the function of songs as internal monologues, I suppose — it's hard to film internal monologues. That's what voiceovers are for! Other numbers work to advance the plot, and I think those are the songs that work best in film adaptation. I can easily see "Hello" or "Joseph Smith American Moses" being possibly even more fantastic in the context of a movie, but I don't know how "I Believe" will work. Then again, who thought that a musical about religion, much less the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, could be as good as "Book of Mormon" is? Hopefully Parker & Stone will happily surprise me once again.

Reach Katie here and read her review of the Broadway production.