The Wind In The Willows is one of those pieces of literature that’s has been adapted routinely in nearly every medium for decades and decades, and now director Ray Griggs wants to bring it into the 21st century with a high-tech/low-tech approach reminiscent of Where The Wild Things Are. WETA will assist with the process that will have actors in animal suits with animatronic faces perform against their pre-recorded dialogue.
Deja Vu writer Bill Marsilii came up with the script which seems to add a very Fantastic element to the story by way of a “sinister plot that threatens to destroy the uneasy truce between the peaceful animals of the Willow and what remains of Mankind.” The animals must, of course, pool their resources and talent to undo said plot. This all sounds like a pretty grand quest for such a meandering story about fucking about in boats and cars, but they’ve got to Hollywood it up a little I suppose.
Grigg’s production is an independent one, made up of funds he raised through private investors, but it wasn’t all that long ago that Disney had their eye on the property and were looking into an interesting director to handle it for them- Guillermo Del Toro. It didn’t work out, however…
“It was a beautiful book, and then I went to meet with the executives and they said, ‘Could you give Toad a skateboard and make him say, ‘radical dude’ things,’ and that’s when I said, ‘It’s been a pleasure…'”
Radical dude things. That comes from a Rotten Tomatoes conversation with Guillermo from 2008.
The 2010 The Wind in the Willows looks to shoot in the fall.