Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, co-writers of the 1985 Machael J Fox film will reunite to write the Back to the Future stage adaptation. "We can't think of a better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film." said Gale.

The film centers around Marty McFly (Fox) who travels back in time using a souped up DeLorean. He finds himself in 1955 at a crucial point early on in his parents' relationship. Back to the Future was a huge hit for Zemeckis, spawning two equally popular sequels.

Bob Gale has said that the musical will be "true to the spirit of the film without being a slavish remake". He went on to tell the BTTF site that they "intend to use music from the movie along with brand new songs to make a version of Back to the Future that is fresh, entertaining and takes advantage of all the amazing things that can now be done on stage."

Music and lyrics for the West End show will be co-authored by composer Alan Silvestri and songwriter Glen Ballard. Ballard is a six-time Grammy winner and has co-written and produced such works as Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album and co-wrote the music for the stage adaptation of Ghost.

Set to direct the Back to the Future stage musical is Britain's Jamie Lloyd, who also directed the sell-out production of Macbeth starring James McCavoy, at London's Trafalgar Studios. Lloyd has been "a huge fan" of the film since he was a child, he's said, and continued that his production would "include illusions, skateboarding and many other surprises that will capture the spirit of the film but freshly interpret it for a new audience."

Back to the Future joins a number of hit films from the 1980s that have been adapted to stage performance, among them Dirty Dancing, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Ghost.

-Jacob Porteous

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