Fighting With My Family, the 2019 film starring Florence Pugh and Dwayne Johnson, is being adapted as a stage musical, producers have confirmed.

The film followed the true story of British pro wrestler Saraya Knight, known in the ring as Paige, as she built her career and made her way to WWE.

Johnson, whose own production company is collaborating on the musical, said the story “feels exceptionally well suited for the stage”.

The Hollywood star said that making the film with director Stephen Merchant had been a “truly special experience”, adding: “His brilliant work deserves this new act.”

The film was inspired by a 2012 Channel 4 documentary called The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, which followed Knight and her brother and parents, who are also professional wrestlers.

Her father Patrick is known in the ring as “Rowdy” Ricky Knight, while her mother Julia uses a variety of stage names including Sweet Saraya - the same name they gave their daughter.

The new stage adaptation is being masterminded by Tilted Musicals, the production company run by Girls Aloud songwriter Miranda Cooper and producer Sam Hodges.

Cooper told BBC News the musical will be “not just for wrestling fans - we want it to go way beyond that”, adding that the subject matter lends itself well to the stage.

“Wrestling is so theatrical, you’ve got your heroes and villains, its all about storytelling and everyone is playing a heightened version of themselves in the ring,” she said.

“But watching the film and the documentary, the themes are so much about family, community and belonging. They are kind of off-the-wall characters, but there’s so much love.”

The musical was the brainchild of Jon Brittain, who will be writing the adaptation with a soundtrack composed by Cooper and Nick Coler.

The pair are best known for their work with songwriting outfit Xenomania, who wrote songs for Sugababes, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys and Girls Aloud.

Florence Pugh starred in the film as Paige, a goth outsider who is raised in a chaotic but loving British wrestling dynasty.

An exciting opportunity ultimately takes her from her home in Norwich to the world of WWE in the US.

Along the way, Paige and her brother Zak have a chance encounter with Dwayne Johnson, who plays himself in the film and offers the pair advice on their careers.

Johnson, who also served as a producer on the film, was a hugely successful wrestler known as The Rock for many years before he pivoted to a career as a box office star.

Hodges tells BBC News that director Merchant was “incredibly enthused from the beginning” about the idea.

“He has been phenomenally supportive and generous, sharing scripts and things that didn’t make it into the movie, sharing his videos of experiences with the family it’s based on,” he explained.

Merchant said: “When we were making the film, I always thought of it like a musical: a young woman from the ‘chorus line’ fighting to get her big break, surrounded by theatrical, larger-than-life characters and huge sweeping emotions.

“I approached each wrestling match like it was a different dance number, building to a big show-stopping finale. Seeing the film reimagined for the stage feels like the natural next step.”

The music for the show is being developed with the family in mind, Cooper explained, with songs that reflect their “colourful” personalities.

“Centre stage we have Saraya, who is this mouthy, irreverent outsider, complicated, flawed, and it’s her journey of realising all those attributes are the things that make her really special,” Cooper said. “We’ve been speaking to her and she is awesome.”

She added that there was a “punk sensibility” to the family, but said the songs will “go beyond the pub-rock guitar” sound associated with wrestling, particularly in the US, in favour of something more eclectic.

Early writing sessions “started off referencing Britpop, because they are a quintessentially British family”, Cooper said, but the influences quickly began evolving.

“We’re looking at everything from Chemical Brothers to Propellerheads, drum and bass, all British sounds.

“We want a soundtrack that reflects all these multi-faceted characters that are unique and extraordinary. But I’m really excited and challenged by it.”

Wrestling is set to reach a wider audience in the next few years - the leadership team at WWE changed after the company was purchased by Endeavor in 2023. “So there’s this whole machine there and they’re wanting to essentially create a Marvel-like franchise of WWE stuff,” Hodges noted.

“But here in the UK, Netflix has bought the rights to WWE, so wrestling is back on British television in a way it hasn’t been for 25 years, so it’s an interesting moment for people’s access to wrestling and their relationship with it in this country.”

The film has a dedicated fanbase but was not necessarily a huge hit, so the musical will have to appeal to new audiences.

Hodges said the team are effectively “going to be treating it as an original musical” and think carefully about “how we build the brand of the show - we’re not assuming people have seen the movie”.

The musical will be further workshopped later this year, with the team aiming for the first public performances in 2027.

In a statement, Johnson said he had “no doubt it will be an absolute blast for theatergoers”.

He added that the story is “packed with personal emotion expressed through the dynamic world of wrestling, which has always been about storytelling and connecting with a live audience”.

Source: BBC
-- Agencies