Production starting soon on “Nanny McPhee” sequel
Emma Thompson in “Nanny McPhee”
Oscar-winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson will reprise her role as the magical Nanny McPhee in the sequel “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang.”
Universal Pictures and Working Title Films – in association with Three Strange Angels Productions – announced Tuesday that principal photography begins early next month on the follow-up.
Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility”) returns to the role of the powerful nanny who appears when she’s wanted the least and needed the most in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world.
I’m among the enchanted ones. I gave “Nanny McPhee” four stars when it opened in 2005 and took my husband, son, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece to see it the weekend it opened. So, I’m thrilled to hear that Thompson is working on the sequel.
In addition to starring in and writing the script, Thompson will executive produce, along with Working Title’s Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin. (Thompson also is penning an adaptation of “My Fair Lady.”)
The family comedy will be directed by BAFTA winner Susanna White (television’s “Bleak House,” “Generation Kill,” “Jane Eyre”). Kirk Jones of “Waking Ned” directed the first one.
Also returning to the series are BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated producers Lindsay Doran (“Stranger Than Fiction,” “Sense and Sensibility”) – in her fifth collaboration with Thompson – and Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
In the latest installment, Nanny McPhee jumps forward in time and appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny McPhee discovers that Mrs. Green’s children are fighting a war of their own against two nasty, snobby cousins who have just moved in and refuse to leave.
From flying motorcycles and statues that come to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant that turns up in the oddest places, Nanny McPhee uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.
Joining Thompson in “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang” for the project are Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Dark Knight”) as Mrs. Green, Rhys Ifans (“Notting Hill”) as Mrs. Green’s villainous brother-in-law, Phil; Asa Butterfield (“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”) as Mrs. Green’s eldest son, Norman; and Oscar-winning Dame Maggie Smith (“Harry Potter” series) as the somewhat befuddled Mrs. Docherty. Ralph Fiennes (“Harry Potter” series) will have a cameo in the film.
“Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang,” based on characters created by “Nurse Matilda” author Christianna Brand.
-BAM
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