CANNES ~ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown has been adapted for US television and a Broadway musical version is about to begin rehearsals, the movie’s director Pedro Almodovar said.

“The dialogues are done; the songs are almost finished” for the stage version, Almodovar told reporters at Cannes, where his latest oeuvre, Broken Embraces, is in the running for the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize.

US television network Fox has already filmed a pilot episode of the 1988 Women film, a melodramatic tragedy mixed with frenetic comedy that launched Almodovar’s international career, he said.

Fox is using using the scriptwriter of the hit series Grey’s Anatomy, said the director.

Broken Embraces, starring Penelope Cruz, recounts the tragic love affair of an ageing director who has turned blind and wants to make his swansong film, and a young actress.