Image caption French actress Audrey Tautou was praised for her role as Amelie in the 2001 film

The 2001 Oscar-nominated romance Amelie, which starred Audrey Tautou, is on its way to Broadway.

US composer Dan Messe will write the score for a new musical adaptation of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movie, according to the Facebook page of his band, Hem.

Messe will collaborate with playwright Craig Lucas and composer Nathan Tysen.

Amelie tells the story of a shy waitress who sets out from Paris' Montmartre district on a mission to make others happy.

The film, which sold 8.6m tickets in France and earned $152m (£97m) worldwide, cast a nostalgic eye on contemporary Paris and catapulted Tautou to stardom.

Messe confirmed his role in the project after several leaks in the media.

"So not the best kept secret, but still I'm happy to announce that I've been commissioned to adapt the film Amelie for Broadway," he wrote on Facebook.

'Gorgeous' music

A fan of the film for many years, Messe told Paste Magazine that Hem's 2007 song Half Asleep was influenced by a scene from the movie.

"I wrote that imagining that scene where Amelie and Nino are speaking between the door," he says, "So I'd already written a song for those characters, but then it took years and years to get the rights."

Messe described composer Yann Tiersen's original film music as "one of the best movie scores there is," adding: "It's one of the reasons why I love the film."

But he said the musical would be recognisably different.

"I'm not interested in doing Parisian music. I don't think I'm even going to use accordion in my score.

"The music sounds like mine. But certainly, I'm not playing up the Americana elements either. I'm not having pedal steel and fiddle, but it'll be hyper-romantic and playful more than anything."

Amelie won four Cesar Awards in France and was nominated for five Oscars, including best foreign language film.