Do the names Moonface, Silky and Saucepan Man mean anything you?
If the answer is yes, you’ll be excited to hear that the team behind the wonderful Paddington films are adapting Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree books for the big screen.
They tell the tale of a group three children called Jo, Bessie and Fanny, who move into a house beside an enchanted forest. Here they find a gigantic tree that grows so tall that the branches reach into the clouds and so wide that little houses are carved into the trunk.
They make friends with the quirky residents of this tree and climb to the top to explore exciting (but sometimes scary) dreamlike worlds like the Land of Birthdays, Land of Do-as-you-please and Land of Dame Slap.
Blyton wrote four books in total, between 1939 and 1951: The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Folk of the Faraway Tree and Up the Faraway Tree. For me, they are her absolute best work, better than the Secret Seven, Famous Five and Mallory Towers.
All of them have been optioned for the movie version, which will be a live action version.
StudioCanal is taking on the task with Sam Mendes’ Neal Street Productions. The Oscar-winning director was behind the lovely musical version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which moved from the West End to Broadway earlier this year, so we feel confident the stories are in safe hands.
Simon Farnaby, who will write the adaptation and was also behind the Paddington 2 screenplay, said: “The Magic Faraway Tree books are a firework display of the imagination.
“The pages are lit up with wonderful characters, humour, peril and adventure. Most homes have a well-worn jam-fingerprinted volume somewhere on their shelves.
“I’m very much looking forward to bringing the likes of the Old Saucepan Man and Dame Washalot to the big screen for fans both old and new.”
There’s no word yet on who will star or lend their voices to the characters, but we expect a star cast and a Christmas smash in future years.
I can’t wait to introduce Baby Bookworm to one of my childhood favourites.
Books with Baby 
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