I don’t know if you were aware of this, but the David Heyman produced adaptation of the beloved children’s book series PADDINGTON was pushed from a Christmas Day release to January 16, 2015. Could it be due to Colin Firth dropping out as the voice of the lead character at the last minute to be replaced by SKYFALL’s Ben Whishaw? Or maybe it is because the movie looks awful?
Probably neither. It looks most likely that the movie is, well, too British for American audiences and so it will debut in the less crowded January after the holidays. In England, PADDINGTON has a prime release on November 28th as this new international trailer shows. We also get our first look at DOCTOR WHO’s Peter Capaldi as a nosy neighbor and Nicole Kidman as the villain of the film. Kidman last played a villain in THE GOLDEN COMPASS, another British film that did not fare well Stateside.
PADDINGTON doesn’t look nearly as creepy in this full trailer as he did in the promotional materials and the teaser, but the movie doesn’t look much better either. This looks very much like a British version of GARFIELD or THE SMURFS, abominations that belittle our childhood memories. Despite that, I am sure kids will still get a kick out of it.
PADDINGTON debuts in North America on January 16, 2015.
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