Altitude Television (part of Altitude Media Group) is working on an update on the classic British stop-motion series The Wombles, which is it introducing at MIPCOM this week. The project is being co-produced with The Wombles prodco and written by Will Davies (How to Train Your Dragon, Flushed Away, Johnny English film series).
The Wombles were introduced in the children’s books by Elisabeth Beresford, which began in 1968. The furry, point-nosed creatures live communally in a burrow beneath Wimbledon Common in London, where they make use of bits of trash left in the green by humans.
A short-form stop-motion Wombles series featuring the voice of Bernard Cribbins launched on BBC1 in 1973 and ran through 1975. Two half-hour specials were produced for CITV in the early 1990s, leading into the refreshed series produced by CINAR films, which introduced new characters and cast members.
In 2013, Channel 5’s Milkshake! announced it would be debuting a CG-animated Wombles from 2015, with Wombles songwriter/producer Mike Batt’s Dramatico Production, but the 52 x 11′ series was not completed. More recently, digital content studio Little Dot launched new CG social content for the brand.
Altitude also announced the hiring of former Working Title executive Chris Clark (The Guard, Johnny English Reborn) as Managing Director & Chief Creative Officer and Gabby Kardar, who worked with Clark on the Rowan Atkinson series Man vs. Bee (created by screenwriter Davies), as Development Executive.
[Source: Deadline]
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