Emma Thompson to Direct 'Nanny McPhee' Musical

The film-to-stage adaptation will not star Thompson, who played the titular nanny in the original 2005 movie.

Emma Thompson is set to direct the stage musical based on Nanny McPhee after starring as the titular character in the 2005 movie, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

But the Sense and Sensibility star is not expected to appear in the film-to-stage adaptation. Thompson is writing the book and lyrics for the theatrical version, with music by Scottish singer-songwriter Gary Clark.

Thompson penned the screenplay for the original Nanny McPhee feature from Universal Pictures and Working Title Films, which portrayed a governess using magic to rein in seven misbehaving children in her care.

Thompson also co-wrote the sequel, Nanny McPhee Returns, with Christianna Brand, on whose Nurse Matilda fiction series the original Nanny McPhee movie was based. Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, who had previous success on both sides of the Atlantic with the screen-to-stage smash Billy Elliott, will produce the new musical.

A second workshop of the show reportedly is being planned for later this year, with a West End debut another year or more away.

Thompson voice-starred in last year's Beauty and the Beast and is set to appear in BBC and Amazon's King Lear and David Kerr's Johnny English Strikes Again. She also will voice the role of Polynesia in The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle.

Thompson is repped by CAA and the U.K.'s Hamilton Hodell.