Disney announces ‘Prince Charming’ film from Paddington and Wonka director

If you had to choose one word to describe the films of Paddington And Wonka Director Paul King could do a lot worse than go for “charming.” Maybe that’s the idea behind his next project, a live-action film based on the character of Prince Charming. The film, which comes from Disney, will likely fill in some gaps for the character in the same way as King’s Wonka did. Finally, like Wonka, Prince Charming is generally not the main character in his story and tends to enter the plot quite maturely.

With King involved, that seems likely Prince Charming will be a little more traditional and less cross-genre than something like this Shrekwhich aimed for fairy tale motifs and established a punk rock fantasy sensibility that was reflected in other films, television series and books.

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According to Deadline, which first reported the deal, Simon Farnaby and Jon Croker (Paddington 2) are writing the script together with King. In addition to the Paddington Films, Farnaby is known for the Wonka Screenplay and writer of the British version of the hit sitcom Ghosts.

The question of whether Prince Charming is a character at all, or some kind of archetypal description of royalty who comes to sweep a heroine off her feet, was at the heart of his portrayal Fablesthe DC/Vertigo comic by author Bill Willingham.

Other projects in recent years have reduced Prince Charming to a handsome, stupid, rich guy – something that seems outside the bounds of what King wants to explore. It seems more likely that we’ll get some insight into what makes a prince so picky that he’ll follow a woman with half a pair of shoes.

It’s not uncommon for a Disney prince to be colloquially called “Prince Charming,” but they have names, and Prince Charming is, at least in theory, the man who eventually marries Cinderella. Deadline reports that this film isn’t necessarily directly related Cinderella.

Since then, King has been on the road to success Paddington; Both films received near-universal praise and became the highest-rated films of all time on Rotten Tomatoes. Wonka The film didn’t do quite as well with critics, but was still widely acclaimed and grossed over $600 million at the box office.

Previously Paddingtonthe only feature film King directed was the little remembered film Hare and the bullin which Farnaby (himself a comedian and author) played the lead role.