“Thomas & Friends” chug onto big screen
Parents of preschoolers should get their tickets punched now: Thomas the Tank Engine is heading to the big screen.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, HiT Entertainment has hired screenwriter Josh Klausner to pen a script for a feature based on the train world of “Thomas & Friends,” based on the 1940s books by the Rev. W.V. Awdry.
HiT Entertainment has launched a new unit called HiT Movies to produce the Thomas feature. HiT Entertainment also handles the “Barney” and “Bob the Builder” properties.
HiT Entertainment is planning a new computer-animated TV series for next year, which will be Thomas’ 65th birthday. For the first time, the series will give voices for Thomas, Percy, James, Toby and the rest of the “really useful engines” on the mythical Island of Sodor; in past incarnations, a narrator has handled all the voices for each episode. (For parents like me who have seen dozens of episodes of the old “Thomas & Friends,” the new CGI series is going to take some getting used to, I’m sure.)
The new film project, which will mix live action and CGI, is set for spring 2011 release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It will be Thomas’ first big-screen outing in more than a decade: In 2000, the feature “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” spun off from the 1990s U.S. series “Shining Time Station.” (That’s what the series was originally called in the U.K. and America before becoming “Thomas & Friends.)
The trade publication reports that Thomas is the world’s most popular preschool property, with more than 100 million books and wooden train accessories sold globally.
As I reported earlier here on the blog, the “Day Out With Thomas 2009: The Hero of the Rails Tour” is in Oklahoma City this weekend.
The approximately 25-minute train rides with Thomas the Tank Engine will depart every 50 minutes, rain or shine, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Oklahoma Railway Museum, 3400 NE Grand Blvd.
Families to take a ride with a 15-ton replica of Thomas and enjoy Thomas-themed activities at the Imagination Station, including stamps, temporary tattoos and hands-on arts and crafts. They also can meet Sir Topham Hatt, controller of the Island of Sodor’s railway.
Tickets for the “Day Out With Thomas 2009: The Heroes of the Rail Tour” are $18 plus tax for riders ages 2 and older.
For more information, go to www.oklahomarailwaymuseum.org.
-BAM
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