Enid Blyton ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ Director Says Adaptation Will Tap Into Children’s Post-Pandemic Anxiety; Unveils First Concept Art Image – EFM
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: UK Director Ben Gregor says his upcoming adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree will tap into children’s post-pandemic anxiety and retreat into screens as it celebrates the joy of being outdoors in nature, in a subtext that will chime with parents worldwide.
Wonka and Paddington 2 actor and writer Simon Farnaby’s screenplay transposes Blyton’s 1943 classic – about the adventures of three children who discover a magic tree in an enchanted wood – to modern Britain.
The new version will revive the tree’s ragbag collection of characters such as Moonface, Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot, Silky, Angry Pixie and Mister Watzisname as well as the lands at the top of the tree including the Land of Goodies and the Land of Birthdays.
For its contemporary reboot, the three protagonists are uprooted from their hi-tech home in an ultra-modern London Nine Elms-Battersea Power Station-style development to a ramshackle barn in the English countryside without an internet connection.
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