StudioCanal has announced that it is teaming with Neal Street productions to bring Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree series to the big screen, with Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) penning the script.
The film will mark the first ever feature-film adaptation of Blyton’s book series, which was written between 1939 and 1951 and consists of four novels: The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Folk of the Faraway Tree and Up the Faraway Tree. All four books have been optioned by Neal Street.
Each story takes place in the enchanted wood in which The Magic Faraway Tree grows – tall enough to reach the clouds and large enough to contain small houses. At the top of the tree is an ever-rotating series of fantastic worlds, everything from the Land of Birthdays to the Land of Topsy-Turvy. Discovered by our child heroes, the tree and wood provide the background to their adventures.
“The Magic Faraway Tree books are a firework display of the imagination,” states writer Farnaby. “The pages are lit up with wonderful characters, humour, peril and adventure. Most homes have a well worn jam fingerprinted volume somewhere on their shelves. I’m very much looking forward to bringing the likes of the Old Saucepan Man and Dame Washalot to the big screen for fans both old and new.”
“Enid Blyton’s work is timeless,” adds Danny Perkins, CEO of StudioCanal UK. “Like many, I have loved her writing since childhood and it’s incredible to develop such an expansive project with first class partners Neal Street Productions and Simon Farnaby. Not unlike the work of Michael Bond CBE, we very much look forward to bringing enduring family classics to audiences worldwide.”
