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Could Matthew Bourne be turning his attentions from stage to film? Baz Bamigboye, the arts correspondent of The Daily Mail has been reporting from this years Cannes Film Festival. The following article appeared in yesterdays DAILY MAIL...

THE BALLET HERO BOURNE AGAIN FOR FILM
by Baz Bamigboye

"Matthew Bourne, the man largely responsible for stripping ballet of its tutus and bringing dance to the masses, is planning to do something about which he has long dreamed — make a movie.
Bourne, who choreographed Mary Poppins (now on Broadway) and Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, has linked up with BBC Films to develop a big-screen film where dance will be used to tell a story.

But he won’t be just plonking his ballets Swan Lake, Car Man, Nutcracker!, Edward Scissorhands and Play Without Words in front of a camera.

‘It will be an original work,’ insisted BBC Film producer Joe Oppenheimer.
Bourne’s starting point for his ballets is usually an image from a classic film.
His Swan Lake, for instance, was partly inspired by Hitchcock’s The Birds, while The Servant, starring Dirk Bogarde, was the starting point for Play Without Words.
Bourne’s whole life is coloured by movies.

Oppenheimer said Bourne was still working on a structure and narrative for the film.
‘It really could be about anything, and the dance forms used could be anything from ballet to Busby Berkeley movie musical style,’ he told me, cautioning that filming could still be a year or two away"