The Matrix getting stage remake from Danny Boyle

The Matrix will be heading to the stage, with Trainspotting filmmaker Danny Boyle set to direct the project.

As reported by Business Manchester, Boyle will direct Free Your Mind, which is a musical adaptation of the sci-fi series.

The stage show, which will open the new Factory International arts venue in Manchester in October 2023, has been described as a “large-scale immersive performance based on The Matrix films [which will use] spectacular visual effects, a cast of professional dancers and hundreds of Manchester participants [to] recreate some of the film’s most iconic scenes”.

Related: Matrix fan theory reimagines what the machines are up to

Boyle, who pulled out of directing the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, will re-team with choreographer Kenrick 'H2O' Sandy. The pair had previously collaborated on the 2012 Opening Ceremony for the London Olympics.

Boyle, who won an Academy Award in 2008 for Slumdog Millionaire, said of the project and the Factory venue: “I’m delighted to be part of Factory International as a starting point for a kind of identity that this extraordinary new building is going to have.

“It’s a space that gives you an enormous amount of potential. It’s wildly ambitious in terms of its scale. In my lifetime, to see a new space like this open is hugely empowering, and I hope the new generation of artists feel that power.”

The Matrix franchise was created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, with the original 1999 film being regarded as a sci-fi classic.

Related: The Matrix Resurrections challenges its own queer themes

It was followed initially by two sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions, which were both released in 2003. A follow-up film, Resurrections, was released last year, with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith all reprising their roles from the original trilogy.

Though a fifth film isn’t currently in development, Reeves has previously stated he’d be open to returning if director Lana Wachowski wanted to do it, saying: “I mean, if she wanted to do another story and wanted to include me I would be honoured and grateful.”

Free Your Mind will play at the Factory International in Manchester from October 18 to November 5, 2023.

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George Lewis

Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media.  His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.