Ever since the first synopsis for the live action/CGI adaptation of PADDINGTON BEAR hit the web late last year, all has been rather quiet on that front until now.
Although Emma Thompson’s recent polishing of the film’s script may have changed the plot slightly, we now have some solid casting news. Colin Firth has informed the Daily Mail that he will be voicing the title character. The piece also reveals Julie Walters will play Mrs. Bird the housekeeper, Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins will play Mr. and Mrs. Brown, while Jim Broadbent has been cast in an unspecified role. MOULIN ROUGE star Nicole Kidman will play the ‘villain’.
Firth went on to describe Paddington himself:
“Paddington will be computer generated, and I will speak his lines with, I suspect, a slight Peruvian flavour. Every other character in the film will be real, live, human beings. But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I’m going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington”.
The film will shoot in London and partially in Costa Rica, with MIGHTY BOOSH director Paul King behind the camera, for a planned release in late 2014.
Source: Daily Mail
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