British theatre-goers will be the first to see a musical version of the smash-hit sci-fi comedy Back to the Future.

Producers said a show adapted from the movie franchise starring Michael J Fox will open in the West End next year - the 30th anniversary of the film.

And a Broadway run is a possibility if the new musical flies as well as the film's specially equipped DeLorean car-turned time machine.

The new musical will have a book by Zemeckis, Bob Gale and Jamie Lloyd and new music and lyrics by composer Alan Silvestri and songwriter and record producer Glen Ballard. Lloyd will also direct.

In the 1985 film, Marty McFly (Fox) travels back to his home town in 1955. Once there, he gets caught up in the soap opera lives of his own teenage parents, including his mother, who develops a crush on her future son.

The film was written by Zemeckis and Gale and had plenty of music, including the Huey Lewis and the News theme tune The Power Of Love and Marty McFly's futuristic rendition of Johnny B Goode.

The film, which co-starred Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson, was so successful that it spawned two more sequels in 1989 and 1990.The new musical will join such recent Gen X screen-to-stage remakes as Ghost, 'Little Shop Of Horrors, 'Flashdance, 'Dirty Dancing, 'Big, Legally Blonde, The Wedding Singer, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Elf.