‘Harry Potter' Producer David Heyman to Adapt 'Paddington Bear'

LONDON -- Harry Potter producer David Heyman is sticking to beloved British children's literary characters with plans to bring Paddington Bear to the big screen.

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Heyman is partnering with France's StudioCanal to produce Paddington, about the iconic brown bear from Peru who is found at Paddington Station by the Brown family, as a CGI/live-action adaptation.

The film, directed by Paul King, aims to be a modern take on Michael Bond’s books, which have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and been translated into 40 languages since 1958.

StudioCanal is financing and will distribute the film in U.K., France and Germany and also will handle international sales.

Heyman said, "Paddington Bear is a universally loved character, treasured for his optimism, his sense of fair play and his perfect manners – and of course for his unintentional talent for comic chaos."

Said StudioCanal chairman and CEO Olivier Courson, "Mr. Bond’s Paddington is beloved across generations throughout the world, and David Heyman has had tremendous success adapting great British literary works for cinema."