Elton Set to Write Phantom Screenplay
Date: 8 May 2000
The long-talked about screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera looks set to become a reality with the news this weekend that the composer has appointed Ben Elton to write the screenplay.
At first glance, the left-wing stand-up and author Elton may look like an odd choice, but Elton and Lloyd Webber have already been happily collaborating for a year on the new Belfast-based football musical, The Beautiful Game, which has its world premiere at the West End's Cambridge Theatre in September. Elton's own theatre writing credits include the Olivier Award-winning adaptation of his own novel Popcorn. He makes his screenwriting and directorial debut with the release next month of the adaptation of his latest novel Maybe Baby.
The Phantom of the Opera film will be directed by Shekhar Kapur, the Oscar-winning Indian director of Elizabeth, and will star the Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas as the Phantom, a part famously originated on stage by Michael Crawford. The part of Christine, the young ingénue the Phantom falls in love with, played by Sarah Brightman on stage, is likely to be played by 19-year-old Laura Michelle Kelly, who starred in Lloyd Webber's last stage musical, Whistle Down The Wind.
The Phantom of the Opera, which premiered in October 1986, is the most successful money-making show ever. It has grossed more than £1.82 billion in worldwide box office sales and has been seen by more than 50 million people in 91 cities in 15 countries around the world. It continues to play to sell-out West End audiences at Her Majesty's Theatre.
The Phantom is based on the 1911 novel by Gaston Leroux. Two Hollywood versions of the story have already been made - the 1925 silent movie starring Lon Chaney Snr and the 1943 remake starring Claude Rains. This will be the first musicalised screen adaptation.
Commenting on the appointment of Elton in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Lloyd Webber said: 'With a phenomenon like Phantom, there was simply no reason to do it on screen until now. The only way I can justify doing it is as a huge wide-screen film, with a total rethink.
He continued: 'I had absolutely no interest in working with some Hollywood screen writer who does not really understand why the Phantom works, and Ben is a wonderful, instinctive writer. He is the best shot we've got.'
Related Content
