Julian Fellowes is adapting ‘The Wind in the Willows’
The creator of Downton Abbey is joining up with the creative team behind Lord of the Rings!
It’s been announced that Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes will write a new adaptation of children’s novel The Wind in the Willows.
He’ll be working with Schindler’s List producer Gerald R. Molen and The Hobbit director Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop.
Weta produced the stunning sets, costumes, creatures and miniatures for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Written by Scottish author Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows was first published in 1908.
Graham’s classic novel tells the story of Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger, who live in the Thames Valley in Edwardian England.
The new movie will be filmed at Peter Jackson’s Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, with Star Wars effects house Skywalker Sound creating the sound effects.
Producer Gerald R. Molen is recruiting “some of the finest actors to lend their creative and vocal talents” to the film.
He added: “We could not have dreamed of a better writer and creative force than Julian Fellowes … to bring to life the classic English novel’s characters, nor finer visionaries than WETA to capture the look and feel of Grahame’s world.”
Julian Fellowes has a busy schedule ahead, with the second Downton Abbey movie and his upcoming The Gilded Age series on the way.
The Wind in the Willows book is available on Amazon.