Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas and Rachel Zegler are all set to join the cast of Studiocanal’s Paddington In Peru, while Emily Mortimer will replace Sally Hawkins in the role of Mrs. Brown.
Production on the film will begin on July 24, 2023, with filming taking place in the UK, Peru and Colombia. Colman, Banderas, Zegler and Mortimer are all in advanced negotiations to join the cast, which will include returning cast members Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin, plus Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington and Imelda Staunton as the voice of Aunt Lucy.
Paddington In Peru, a sequel to 2014’s Paddington and 2017’s Paddington 2, will see the eponymous bear and the Brown family visit his Aunt Lucy at the Home for Retired Bears in Peru, only for a mystery to plunge them into an adventure through the Amazon rainforest and up Peruvian mountains.
Colman will play a character named The Reverend Mother, a “blithe and sunny” guitar-playing nun who runs the Home for Retired Bears. Banderas will play riverboat captain Hunter Cabot, who assists the Brown family on their adventure, with Zegler as his daughter Gina Cabot.
Dougal Wilson is directing the film, which is produced by David Heyman and Rosie Alison for Heyday Films. The Paddington In Peru script is by Mark Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont, from a story by Paul King, director of the first two films, Simon Farnaby and Burton. King is also an executive producer on the project alongside Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern and Dan MacRae from Studiocanal and Tim Wellspring and Jeffrey Clifford.
Of leaving the role she played in the first two films, Hawkins said, “For me it has felt the right time to hand the reins over to another, and one can’t get much better than the truly wonderful Emily Mortimer, she is extraordinarily special. She will embody the essence of Mary Brown and yet make it utterly her own.
“However, I am, and will always be in love with Paddington’s world,” continued Hawkins. “I already greatly miss my on- and off-screen family – the experience of making the first two films has truly been some of the best and most creative times I have had in the world of film. They both gave me so much joy. I will forever hold them so very close to my heart indeed.”
Heyman said he is “very sorry” that Hawkins is departing the franchise, but “thrilled and grateful to be welcoming the brilliant Emily Mortimer into the Brown family.”
Studiocanal, which developed the film, is fully financing and will distribute in the UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand as well as through partners in China and Japan. Sony Pictures will distribute in the US, Canada and other key international territories including Latin America.
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