The world needs Paddington now more than ever, and thankfully StudioCanal have confirmed that a third installment of the delightful franchise is officially in the works. "We can confirm Studiocanal is working very hard on film 3 with the utmost craft and care — as with film 1 and 2," StudioCanal representatives told Variety. Yes please!
Paddington star Hugh Bonneville teased as much last week, when he spoke on BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show to say that there was "forward momentum" on Paddington 3, and that it was "somewhere on the horizon." While there are no details on what sort of marmalade-filled misadventure Paddington will be getting into this time, it's likely that director Paul King will not be returning. King told Empire last year that although the two Paddington movies had been "one of the great treats of my life, at some point you just have to stop. It might be a time for somebody else to do a twist on it. I'm trying not to do a third bear movie, which is a huge, huge mistake." That said, he will still be involved with the franchise as an executive producer. As the bar has certainly been set quite high by the first two movies, I don't envy the person stepping in for King for this third outing.
Although Paul King may not be directing Paddington 3, his next project is shaping up to be equally whimsical as he's slated to direct a Willy Wonka origin story that will focus on "a young Willy Wonka and his adventures prior to opening the world's most famous chocolate factory." In 2018, producer David Heyman said that the project was "challenging because you don’t have Dahl, you don’t have a Dahl book, and yet you have a Dahl character, but I think there’s a lot in his character that suggests who he is and also where he might come from or what his childhood or his middle age might have been like. So we’re exploring that. We’re discussing it. We’re in the very early stages and very excited about what lies ahead." Warner Bros. have slated Wonka for a March 17, 2023 release.
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