A group calling itself the Michael Crawford Phantom Movie Campaign has taken out a two-page advertisement in the film industry newspaper Daily Variety urging the stage musical's creator Lord Lloyd Webber to cast the versatile British star in the film version of the musical.

Antonio Banderas: A bigger draw at the box office?

Based on a French novel, Phantom of the Opera first opened in London in 1986 and since then there have been 13 productions world-wide.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas has been hotly tipped for the film role. He even gave his preparation for the role as the reason for pulling out of a film about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, last summer.

Banderas cut his musical teeth in the Hollywood version of Evita, which also spurned the British singer Elaine Paige in the main role in favour of the bigger box office draw of Madonna.

Julie Andrews: Lost out to Audrey Hepburn in the 1960s

There is a tradition of musical stars losing out to more bankable and glamorous actors when musicals are transferred to the silver screen.

Julie Andrews lost out to Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film version of My Fair Lady, despite Andrews' Broadway success in the role and Hepburn's lack of vocal ability.

The advertisement supporting Crawford stresses that the actor's 1,300 stage performances in the role have taken $80m at theatre box offices and urges Lord Lloyd Webber to "show the courage of your original conviction" by casting Crawford".

It reads: "Phantom is poised potentially to make or break the musical film genre. Will you take it to new heights or bury it?"