Paddington duo Paul King and Simon Farnaby are bringing Prince Charming to the big screen for Disney.
Director Paul King cut his teeth on Noel Feilding and Julian Barratt’s surreal sitcom The Mighty Boosh, while writer Simon Farnaby was a member of the original Horrible Histories team, who later went on to make the hugely successful Ghosts. They made their feature film debut in 2009 with The Bunny And The Bull.
If 2014’s Paddington captured the hearts of the nation, then 2017’s Paddington 2 – one of the greatest family films ever made – turned them into absolute treasures.
They made a left field turn into prequel territory in 2023 with the delightful Wonka – The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon was robbed of the Best Song Oscar for Never Had Chocolate Like This – and since then film fans have been eager to see what the pair will do next.
Now, we have the answer. According to Deadline, King is directing Prince Charming, a film about the Cinderella character that, intriguingly, “will not specifically be linked to Cinderella“.
King will write the screenplay with Farnaby and Jon Croker.
It’s a busy time for Farnaby, who is also writing an adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree, which will be directed by Ben Gregor. The cast includes Sir Lenny Henry, Claire Foy, Andrew Garfield, Nicola Coughlan and Rebecca Ferguson.
King and Farnaby co-wrote the story for the upcoming Paddington In Peru too with Mark Burton, but handed over screenwriting duties to Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont. Dougal Wilson directs that.
As for timings on Prince Charming, it’s unclear at the moment. But we’ll keep you posted as we hear more.
