The riotous schoolgirls of St Trinian's are set to return to the cinema screen, with Rupert Everett in Alastair Sim's celebrated role as headmistress Miss Fritton, it has been reported.

Ealing Studios wants to revive the classic comedies, trade weekly Screen International has reported.

The magazine said Ealing Studios co-owner Barnaby Thompson had already approached Everett about playing the role, and was also hoping Kylie Minogue would play a schoolgirl.

Joyce Grenfell played WPC Ruby Gates in the originals

"We are going to have a lot of fun with it," said Mr Thompson, who has been working with Everett on the forthcoming film of The Important Of Being Earnest.

"If Kylie Minogue wants a part as one of the girls, great," he added.

The St Trinian's comedies, about an out-of-control girls' boarding school, began in 1954 with The Belles of St Trinian's.

They starred George Cole as Flash Harry and featured many great comedy actors of the time - including Joyce Grenfell, Terry-Thomas and Sheila Hancock.

Hancock returned for the last of the series, The Wildcats of St Trinian's, in 1980.

'Contemporary view'

Mr Thompson has bought the rights to the St Trinian's films and aims to update them for modern audiences.

"We won't have to change that much - it'll be a rundown boarding school only in 2002, so the essential set up is exactly the same," he told Screen International.

"The changes will be more in terms of the tone, giving it a more contemporary view of the world," he said.

The revival is part of a £50m redevelopment plan for the Ealing Studios in west London, which produced a string of great comedies in the 1950s.

Classics from the studios included Passport To Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets.

The studios have recently been used for the film hits Notting Hill and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.