The late Terry Pratchett‘s work has gotten a bit of a revival with the live-action take on ‘Good Omens‘ on Amazon and now his novel ‘The Amazing Maurice’ is set to become an animated feature film! The animation is based upon ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’ which was the 28th “Discworld” novel to be published by Doubleday back in 2001.

This novel was optioned by Germany-based Ulysses Filmproduktion who will work with Ireland’s Cantilever Media to bring it to life. Terry Rossio (‘Shrek,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’) has penned the screenplay, and we’ll see Carter Goodrich (‘Brave,’ ‘Ratatouille’) tackling character design for director Toby Genkel (‘Ooops! Noah Is Gone…’.)

The film is slated to have a $17 million production budget.

For those unfamiliar with ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents,’ the tale was Pratchett’s take on the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Maurice is a cat who needs to make a quick buck. When he stumbled across a kid who is playing a pipe and has a horde of literate rats, an idea forms of having the kid take on the role of the Pied Piper. Only things backfire when they end up in the town of Bad Blintz, which is where the real fun begins.

Cantilever Media CEO Andrew Baker has shared that the project has been in pre-development for years and is now ready to push forward with now that they have a completed script and character designs with a hope of a 2022 release.

According to Baker:

“Terry Rossio’s screenplay twists and turns and produces an unexpected yet heartwarming ending, with Carter Goodrich’s designs bringing these characters to life in their own unique style, which I’m sure audiences will love.”

Executive producer Rob Wilkins, who is also the managing director of Narrativia that manages Pratchett’s properties, said that the author came up with the idea when he saw the Maxfield Parrish painting of the Pied Piper in the bar of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco:

“Terry seemed lost in the painting, and so I finished my beer and ordered another. By the time it arrived, Terry had sketched out the plot for ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’ and had played it directly into my brain like a mini-movie.”

Wilkins went on to share that the author “would be delighted with the character designs of Carter Goodrich” and that “bringing this story to life was so important to Terry, and it upsets me that he won’t get to see the finished film, but the teams at Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media are honoring his vision, and I am absolutely delighted.”

The CEO of Ulysses Emely Christians also added that:

“The Amazing Maurice’ will be the first animated feature film ever made from a Terry Pratchett novel. It will get Ulysses’ complete focus and attention to detail to fulfill our promise: to make a wonderful movie from this very funny, unique, strong and awesome story.”

The original novel was a fun read, and I can’t wait to see how they bring it to life!

Are you looking forward to checking out ‘The Amazing Maurice’ when it is released? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

Source: Variety