According to Deadline, StudioCanal and producer David Heyman (“Harry Potter”) have managed to lure Paul King (Bunny and the Bull), director of last year’s surprise hit Paddington, back to the director’s chair for Paddington 2! King will also co-write the script with Simon Farnaby (“Yonderland”), who had an acting role in the first film as well as Bunny and the Bull and episodes of “The Mighty Boosh” that King directed.
From the beloved novels by Michael Bond, the first Paddington told the story of the comic misadventures of a young Peruvian bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) who travels to the city in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family who read the label around his neck that says “Please look after this bear. Thank you,” and offer him a temporary haven. It looked as though his luck had changed until this rarest of bears caught the eye of a museum taxidermist named Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman).
Besides Kidman and Whishaw, 2014’s Paddington also featured an all-star British cast, including Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Julie Walters, Jim Broadben, Peter Capaldi, Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon. It grossed an impressive $260 million at the worldwide box office on a relatively modest $50 million budget. The Weinstein Company distributed it domestically to the tune of $76 million.
As a producer known for quality control, Heyman will be allowing King the time he needs to develop the project properly, with no target release date yet assigned.
