LONDON, May 27 (UPI) -- Spy thriller novelist Frederick Forsyth has signed on with Andrew Lloyd Webber to create "Phantom of Manhattan," a sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera."
The sequel is set 20 years after the original and continues the life of Erik, the phantom who wears a mask to hide his disfigured face, The Daily Mail reported Sunday.
Lloyd Webber and Forsyth have reportedly met several times in the past few weeks to discuss the project, in which the Phantom leave Paris to get a fresh start in New York.
Forsyth -- author of "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Dogs of War" -- wrote the Phantom story in a 2000 book that was said to have shown insufficient reverence for Gaston Leroux's classic work, "The Phantom of the Opera."
"It's taken me 10 years to decide to do this and I want to base it on the ideas I had with Freddie Forsyth years ago for something called 'The Phantom of Manhattan' that came out as a book," Lloyd Webber said. "There are various things in the plotting that I'm not very happy with and I think I've solved them. I hope we can sort them out but I'm really pretty buzzed up about it."
