Fans of Terry Pratchett’s wonderfully weird Discworld novels will be pleased to learn that the 28th book in the series, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is to be adapted into a feature length animated film.
As The Bookseller reports, the independent film companies Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media to develop the animated film. The book was the first novel in the Discworld series to be aimed at children and the film, entitled The Amazing Maurice will follow suite. The screenplay is being written by award-winning writer Terry Rossio, who also worked on Shrek, Aladdin, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Carter Goodrich, who previously worked on Ratatouille and Brave will serve as character designer.
The original novel was inspired by the German fairly-tale The Pied Piper, but also serves as a satire of the genre, complete with Pratchett’s classic humour. The book follows a cat named Maurice and a young girl named Melissa, who lead their own legion of rats to a town called Bad Blintz. The novel won Pratchett the Carnegie Medal.
Producer and CEO of Ulysses Filmproduktion, Emely Christians, said: “When I read it, I knew we had to turn this amazing novel into an amazing film. 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.”
Producer and CEO of Cantilever Media, Andrew Baker, said: “As a lifelong Pratchett fan, bringing to the screen one of his most cherished novels is going to be immensely exciting. Terry Rossio’s screenplay twists and turns and produces an unexpected yet heart-warming ending, with Carter Goodrich’s designs bringing these characters to life in their own unique style, which I’m sure audiences will love.”
If you’d like to read the book before the series airs, then it’s available on the link below.
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