The director of the cult classic Bend It Like Beckham has confirmed that she is currently working on a sequel.
The BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Gurinder Chadha will work with the current head coach of the US women’s national soccer team and her husband and co-writer, Paul Mayeda Berges, to develop the concept and script of the sequel — which will either be a movie or a TV series.
Released in 2002, the original movie is widely credited with championing a generation of women to take up football, and kickstarted the careers of Keira Knightley (then 17) and Parminder Nagra (then 27). From a budget of £3.5m ($AUD7.1m), the movie ended up grossing almost £60m ($AUD122m).
Over the weekend, famed British director said that it was “a good time” for her “to go back and investigate the characters.”
“We’ve been part of changing the game for women,” she told BBC while she was visiting Switzerland where England’s Lionesses are preparing for the Women’s European Championship final against world champions Spain.
“A lot has changed since the original movie, but I think that people still don’t think that women should play football,” she said. “There are people who still don’t take it seriously, although the Lionesses are riding high. I’ve left it a while, but I thought: look at the Euros, look at the Lionesses.”
Chadha, who has since made several feel-good films, including the teenage rom-com ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging’ and Bollywood-inflected version of a Jane Austen classic, ‘Bride & Prejudice’ — announced a release date of 2027 to coincide with the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Brazil and the original movie’s 25th anniversary.
She told the BBC that she did not expected the original to be so successful.
She had wanted to “uplift girls, girls who grew up like me, who were always being told how to dress, how to look, what to say, what not to say”.
“What I did was say you can do what you want, and you can have it all, and I think that’s a really great message to put out again. I think there’s still stuff to say, and stuff to challenge.”
For the sequel, Chadha said she hopes to reunite the original cast and that members of the current England squad will be “queuing up” for cameo roles.
“Everything hinges on the script and if the original cast likes it,” she said. “I am working really hard to make sure every character I bring back has a decent arc and scenes.”
Speaking to Deadline, she revealed that she had only come up with an idea for the sequel “last month.”
“I didn’t want to do anything because I didn’t have a story,” she said. “And then I came up with a great story, really super-cool story. So now I’m inspired. Literally came up with it just about a month ago. It’s my very clear wish to bring the characters back very, very soon.”
“Women’s football is more competitive, more exciting, and more global than ever. It is an honour for me to be a small part of it.”
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