Arguably StudioCanal's game-changer, Paddington was the standout performer of 2014, becoming the biggest independent U.K. film of the year and – with box-office revenue of $265 million worldwide (from a $50 million budget) – the biggest non-studio family outing of all time.
"It was just the pinnacle of what we'd done," says Perkins. "I am a stuck record, but it was an amazing bunch of people. The team around the bear and also [director] Paul King, to see how he could realize the story and tell it on screen."
With Paddington, StudioCanal now has a major international franchise and production has already started on the follow-up, due out Christmas 2017.
"The values of Paddington - kindness to strangers, welcoming people into your home and looking after them... it was great to be involved in something so good but with such positive themes. To have such success with such a positive story, you can't ask for anything else," adds Perkins. "The only thing you can really ask is, can you do it again? And the good thing is, we are!"
TWC-Dimension/Photofest
Michael Bond, the author of the books about much-adored children’s character Paddington Bear, has died. He was 91.
The news was announced Wednesday by his publisher Harper Collins: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Michael Bond, CBE, the creator of one Britain’s best-loved children’s characters, Paddington, died at home yesterday at 91 following a short illness.”
A Bear Called Paddington, Bond’s first book featuring the marmalade-loving, duffel coat-wearing Peruvian bear was published in 1958. His latest, Paddington’s Finest Hour, was published in April this year. So far, his books have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles, with more than 30 million sold worldwide.
Paddington was featured in a BBC TV series in the 1970s and later in 1989 by Hanna-Barbera. But it wasn’t until 2014 that he got his first big-screen outing. The film, produced by Studiocanal and with Ben Whishaw voicing the bear, would become the highest-grossing non-studio family film, making more than $256 million. A sequel, starring Hugh Grant alongside returnees Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins, is in production and due for release in November.
Bond had a cameo role in the first Paddington, playing a character listed only as the “Kindly Gentleman.”
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