"The Car Man" was originally produced by Matthew Bourne's company Adventures in Motion Pictures. Subtitled "An Auto-Erotic Thriller", the ballet first previewed on 16 May 2000 at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, England, and then was staged at the Old Vic in London in September of that year. The ballet was filmed for TV in the UK by Channel 4 and broadcast at Christmas in 2001; it was subsequently released on DVD. The principal cast of the film included Scott Ambler as Dino, Saranne Curtin as Lana, Alan Vincent as Luca, Etta Murfitt as Rita, and Will Kemp as Angelo. "The Car Man" played in Los Angeles in summer 2001 and was supposed to transfer to New York, but plans to do so were set aside after the terrorist attacks in the US of 11 September 2001.