In a completely unexpected pairing, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive,” “Only God Forgives,” “The Neon Demon”) is set to bring his skills to a new adaptation of Enid Blyton’s classic children’s adventure book series “The Famous Five”.
Blyton wrote twenty-one books about four children – Julian, Dick, Anne and George, along with their dog Timmy. Published from 1942-1962, the stories were an immense commercial success and have remained one of the best-selling series for children ever written, with sales totalling over a hundred million copies.
The stories mostly take place during school holidays each time the kids reunite. They get caught up in adventures that usually involve criminals, lost treasure, secret passages and more. The property has been adapted for film and TV multiple times.
Refn will act as creator and executive producer on a new limited series adaptation that has already begun filming across the southwest of the United Kingdom. Refn’s NWR Originals production company is teaming up with Moonage Pictures on the project for the BBC and German public broadcaster ZDF.
Tim Kirkby (“The Pentaverate”) has been tapped to helm the three 90-minute episodes being produced with the tone dubbed a “modern, timely and irreverent action series with adventure at its heart,” according to Moonage Pictures’ Will Gould.
As Refn is mostly known for his violent, dark and over-the-top neo-noir thrillers – how he handles such a family-friendly project is going to be interesting. Refn says in a statement:
“All my life, I’ve fought vigorously to remain a child with a lust for adventure. By reimagining The Famous Five, I am preserving that notion by bringing these iconic stories to life for a progressive new audience, instilling the undefinable allure and enchantment of childhood for current and future generations to come.”
Matthew Read, Priya K Dosanjh and Matthew Bouch co-wrote the series.
Source: THR
