Netflix & BBC Team Up for ‘Watership Down’ Miniseries

[AncalagonTheBlack]

‘Watership Down’: BBC & Netflix Team On Miniseries With James McAvoy, Nic Hoult And John Boyega

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Netflix and the BBC are teaming on a blockbuster adaptation of the classic novel Watership Down. The four-part animated miniseries is the brainchild of dynamic Brit production-management banner 42. The series will premiere on BBC One in the UK and internationally on Netflix. An A-list collection of talent has been assembled for the project including Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ John Boyega, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Ben Kingsley and Gemma Arterton.

The new series is written by Tom Bidwell (My Mad Fat Diary) and directed by Noam Murro (300: Rise Of The Empire). It will be a co-production between BBC One and Netflix and produced by 42 and Murro’s bannner Biscuit Films.

The drama is co-directed by Pete Dodd (Fantastic Mr Fox), produced by Hugo Sands, and the CG animation team will be led by with Dublin-based animation studio Brown Bag Films.

According to Variety, the four-part series will feature the voice talents of James McAvoy (X-Men) as Hazel, Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Fiver, Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3) as General Woundwort, John Boyega (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) as Bigwig, Gemma Arterton (Hansel and Gretel) as Clover, Miles Jupp (The Thick of It) as Blackberry, Freddie Fox (Pride) as Captain Holly, Olivia Colman (The Night Manager) as Strawberry, and Anne-Marie Duff (Suffragette) as Hyzenthlay.

 

[Calibandar]

Cool. No word then on when it will be out?

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Will be interesting what tone they go for with this. Couple of weeks ago the original was on TV and there were numerous complaints from parents about how dark and disturbing it was, they assumed it was a lovely fluffy tale about bunnies. 

Heres hoping there is no toning it down.

[Richard Writhen]

The original animated movie and book are both straight epic. So this may be as well.

 

 

 

But yeah. Scarred for life as a kid lawl.

[Astromech]

Interesting choices for voice actors. Any chance of David Attenborough narrating? :) I hope it is as dark as the 1978 animated adaptation.

[Astromech]

Interesting choices for voice actors. I hope it is as dark as the 1978 animated adaptation. I fear it won't be, however.

[Veltigar]

Big fan of this property, but I don't really see the need for it. We already have an amazing book, animated film, animated series and song, so do we really need another animated property. Now, if this was somehow live action with all those actors playing bunnies, that would be great fun  

EDIT: Also, no role for John Hurt, which is disappointing. 

[Isis]

It took me about five years or something to get the courage up to watch the film again as an adult (from recording it on TV to actually watching it). I think I am probably too much of a sap to watch this (am I?), even though it's one of my favourite books and it holds a very special place in my heart. :/

But, let's hope they don't sugarcoat any of it.

 

[red snow]

If it doesn't give a new generation of children nightmares for life then it won't be doing it properly. I think there was a kids version of WAtership down in the early 2000s that was completely forgotten so I suspect they'll stick to the source material.

The actual book has plenty of elements that the mini-series can fully explore. They could spend more time on Efrafa and on cowslip's warren. They should also expand on Hazel's leadership skills in terms of utlising rabbits with stronger skillsets and how the relationship with Bigwig develops.

The voice cast is pretty damn strong but I agree with others that they need to have guest vocals from the original where possible eg John Hurt could be the leader of the original warren that Hazel and co leave.

How do they approach the gender issues? I'm for it being left as is but I can also see how there may be a temptation to have some female rabbits with roles that aren't just breeding related. I think there's only Hyzenflay (the efrafa doe) who gets an interesting role. Given the matriarchal behaviour of rabbits they could have actually inverted the genders of the rabbits. The vocal cast suggests they are sticking to their guns though.

Edit There were a few places where the t was missing in "rabbits" which could make me look very bad out of context!

[Slick Mongoose]

Yeah, it's not a proper adaptation without a psychedelic river of blood.

[drawkcabi]

I loved, loved, loved, LOVED the movie as a kid.

Funny thing though, I was super sensitive as a kid, everything scared me, but I saw this movie on TV when I was about seven and it thrilled me more than scared me. Movies like The Blob, and even The Muppet Movie and Airplane scared me, keep me up at night scared me, but with WD it was like the thrill of going on a roller coaster, gets the adrenaline up but it's not nightmare fuel really.

But I mostly agree with Veltigar (especially about the actors in bunny suits! ) really doesn't feel necessary however like Red Snow mentioned, the series could explore the rabbits' mythology more and it could be interesting. I'll check it out.

Also, get Sacha Baron Cohen for Keeyar!

[lizaellis]

This series is going to be somewhat interesting. I say this because of John Boyega being added in it. He is no doubt a class actor. He has gained a lot of fame in this very young age. He really can be attractive as in Star Wars Force Awakens, he wore Finn Leather Jacket. Visit Sky-Seller for more.