Crack open a celebratory jar of marmalade: Paddington Bear is likely to be tottering to the big screen for a third time, according to Variety.
The intellectual property rights for the orphan ursidae have been adopted by StudioCanal. According to its chairman-CEO Didier Lupfer, the company is “committed” to pawing a third Paddington film out of Michael Bond’s books. There are also plans – still fuzzy – to launch a new animated TV series.
Paddington, released in 2014 by StudioCanal, was a worldwide hit, making $290m (£198m) at the global box office, the highest gross to date for a family film made outside of Hollywood. Featuring Ben Whishaw as the voice of the Peruvian bear, it told the story of Paddington’s journey from South America, his sheltering by the Brown family and his escaping the clutches of a sadistic taxidermist played by Nicole Kidman. Paddington was originally to be voiced by Colin Firth, who “consciously uncoupled” from the project after realising his voice wasn’t right for the part.
Paddington 2 is due to go into production in October and has a planned 2017 release date. Writer-director Paul King will return for the sequel, but Whishaw has yet to announce whether he’ll get his claws back into the role.
