It has been announced today that David Heyman is teaming up with StudioCanal to produce Paul King’s long awaited Paddington Bear movie.
We last reported on this project exactly two years ago when King was announced as the director of David Walliams and Matt Lucas’s recent BBC series Come Fly with Me, throwing the Paddington movie King had been working on with co-writer Hamish McColl, who then went on to write the screenplay for Johnny English Reborn, into doubt.
Now those projects have come and gone the time is right for the Paddington movie to move into production and having the director of The Mighty Boosh and the 2009 big screen adventure Bunny and the Bull behind this one sets us up for a charming and unique take on Michael Bond’s famous bear, although the release does state it’ll be a ‘modern take’ on the character which is a little unsettling.
The film will be a mixture of CG and live action, a move which is unsurprising given the ground laid by the Garfields and Smurfs of this world. No casting has been announced yet, perhaps Stephen Fry will have a cameo and maybe Noel Fielding will make good on his desire to play the Peruvian cousin of Paddington.
