Sky announced the voice cast of its upcoming animated adaption of the late Terry Pratchett's fantasy novel The Amazing Maurice. Leading the voice cast of the feature film will be Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and House, M.D alumn Hugh Laurie.
Published in 2001 as the 28th novel in Pratchett's Discworld series and the first written for children, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents reimagines the Pied Piper of Hamelin fairytale and parodies folk tales. The story centers on a streetwise ginger cat named Maurice who befriends a boy who plays the pipe and a horde of talking rats. Together they develop a money-making scam to infest towns with rats and have the boy lead them away, but their scheme unravels once they try to deceive the citizens of Bad Blintz.
Laurie will reportedly voice the titular ginger cat while Clarke will portray the daughter of Bad Blintz's mayor, Malicia. They will be joined by David Thewlis, Himesh Pate, Gemma Arterton, and Hugh Bonneville. The cast will be guided by co-directors Toby Genkel and Florian Westermann, who previously helmed Two by Two: Overboard! and served as CG director on Little Dodo, respectively. The Amazing Maurice adaptation is being produced with the support of the Pratchett estate and in association with Pratchett's production company Narrativia.
Narrativa is currently planning to produce multiple adaptations of Pratchett's Discworld novels, having recently partnered with Endeavor Content and Motive Pictures for a new series of screen adaptions. Which titles will be first in line to be adapted as part of the deal was not announced, but the company assured fans each project will be "absolutely faithful" to the source material.
In 2018, prior to Narrativa partnership with Endeavor Content and Motive Pictures, BBC America ordered an eight-part series adaptation of Pratchett's The Watch. The network is scheduled to premiere the fantasy police procedural on January 2, 2021.
The Amazing Maurice is scheduled to be released in the U.K. in 2022.
Source: Variety