BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Musical Headed to the West End in 2013 or 2014?

According to the Daily Mail, David Beckham has given producers permission to use his name in the title of a new musical based on the film Bend It Like Beckham, which will also feature footage of his signature, curving free kick. Workshops are set for early next year.

Read the original report here.

The film debuted in 2002, starring Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, and directed by Gurinder Chadha, who will also direct the stage adaptation.

Howard Goodall (Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley, Red Dwarf, The Hired Man, Love Story) will craft the score, with lyrics by Charles Hart and book by Chadha and her husband, Paul Mayeda Berges. Choregrapher Lynne Page has also signed on to the project.

The creative team plans to include some Punjabi and Hindi slang terms, as well as a mesh of Hindi and English—"Hinglish"—in the show. Goodall and Hart are in the process of finishing the first act, and workshops are planned for next year, leading up to a fall 2013 or perhaps a 2014 premiere.