”Pride” musical in development, Matthew Warchus announces

Director Matthew Warchus is currently doing the press rounds for his upcoming movie adaptation of hit musical Matilda (which he also directed), which we’ll be covering live from the red carpet later this week.

In the meantime (and in a slightly different direction), it seems that Warchus is also planning on bringing one of his films to the stage.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter today, Warchus revealed that his much-loved 2014 film Pride, penned by Stephen Beresford, will be making its way from screen to stage in the near future.

He explained: “When I was sent the screenplay, my immediate reply was that I’d love to do it and are the stage adaptation rights available as it should be a musical.”

Not one to play coy, he added: “We are working on the musical now. Stephen Beresford, who wrote the screenplay, has written the adaptation already and we have songwriters working on it who are already delivering material. So this is becoming a reality.”

The film follows a group of protestors during the mining strikes, who come from an LGBTQ+ background. On screen it starred the likes of Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Andrew Scott.

Premiere dates, creatives and more are all to be revealed in due course. The plans were originally rumoured way back in 2014, but have now seemingly progressed.

Warchus also revealed he’d love to work on an E.T. stage production – saying with “sort of puppetry that can be done now, I think it might be possible somehow to adapt [it].”

In the meantime, the Old Vic’s artistic director is gearing up for a busy 2023, which may include the repeat of a musical favourite in London.

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