It looks as if Paddington Bear will be the latest literary/animated character to make his way to the big screen a la Stuart Little and Garfield. According to Daily Variety, Warner Bros. Pictures and Harry Potter producer David Heyman have tapped Mr. Bean’s Holiday scribe Hamish McColl to script an adaptation of Michael Bond’s series of children’s books, which have been made into two popular animated series.
CG animation will likely combine with live action to tell the story of a talking bear from Darkest Peru who comes to live with a family London. Though polite and well-meaning, the marmalade sandwich craving Paddington has a knack for getting into trouble. Since the first book was published in 1958, the eleven-volume series has been translated into 30 languages and have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
The first animated series, broadcast by BBC in 1975, was produced by the author and London-based animation company FilmFair, and featured a stop-motion Paddington Bear interacting with 2D-animated characters. Cinar Films and Hanna-Barbera later set the property in a completely 2D world with the 1997 series The Adventures of Paddington Bear, which is now part of the Cookie Jar Ent. library.
Heyman is producing the Paddington film through his London-based Heyday Films, with Rosie Alison will supervising for the company. Overseeing production for Warner Bros. is the studio’s U.K.-based production VP Ollie Madden, along with Los Angeles-based exec VP of production Kevin McCormick.
