The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that Paul King, the man behind the camera on the hit live-action Paddington franchise, has signed on to helm the upcoming adaptation of the sci-fi novel Time’s Fool for Fox Searchlight.
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Based on the novel of the same name from Glyn Maxwell, the story follows a young man who is cursed to ride a train for all eternity, except every seven years when the train makes a stop in his hometown and he is given a few hours to try and break the curse.
“I’ve always been attracted to films which use magical ideas to explore real human emotions. And so when, one rainy afternoon, Jon poured me a cup of tea and told me the story of ‘Time’s Fool,’ I was immediately hooked. It’s a captivating tale of wonder and heartbreak which sets the pulse racing and the imagination on fire. David, Jon and I will do our best not to mess it up,” King said to the outlet.
King will be reteaming with Jon Croker, who provided additional material to the first Paddington film, to pen the script for the adaptation of Maxwell’s novel.
“When I first read Glyn’s book 12 years ago, I simply couldn’t put it down — it’s romantic yet realistic, funny yet sad, epic yet intimate, and above all, profoundly human. Paul is so good at finding cinematic ways of expressing deep feelings that this felt like the perfect fit for his unique talents,” Croker added.
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King and Croker will produce the project alongside The Wizarding World producer David Heyman, while David Greenbaum (The Shape of Water), Katie Goodson-Thomas (The Awakening) and Peter Spencer overseeing the adaptation for Fox Searchlight.
King’s Paddington franchise has been a huge success since its start in 2014, with the first film garnering almost $270 million worldwide and earning highly positive reviews from critics while the second one grossed almost $230 million worldwide and received even higher reviews from critics than its predecessor, still maintaining a 100% “Certified Fresh” rating from critics on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes. He is currently working on a live-action adaptation of Pinocchio for Disney, which is reportedly set to begin production sometime next year in England and Italy, as well as an origin story on the beloved Roald Dahl character Willy Wonka.
