Amazon MGM And Eon Readying 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' Remake
Chitty, we love you, but do we want that refurbishment?
Wanna really get a kick? Amazon MGM Studios and Eon Productions are in the early stages of development on what’s being called a “reimagining” of Chitty Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They have nabbed Matthew Warchus as director on a script by Enda Walsh.
A film like this keeps everything in the family. MGM and Eon are already collaborators on the James Bond franchise, which was born from the book series authored by Ian Fleming, who wrote the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang novel published in 1964 from a bedtime story for his son Casper. It was adapted into a film in 1967 starring Dick Van Dyke and directed by Ken Hughes from a script by him, beloved author Roald Dahl and Richard Maibaum, with songs including the title track and “Me Ol’ Bamboo” written by the Sherman Brothers. Eon Productions founder Albert R. Broccoli produced the film on his own separately from Eon, which is currently run by his children, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who are the rate-determining step on the future of the Bond franchise. It is unclear if they owned the rights to all Fleming work, whatever else there may be besides Bond and Chitty.
The original whimsical family adventure follows inventor Caractacus Potts (Van Dyke), his two children and Truly Scrumptious (Sally Anne Howes), daughter of candy factory owner Lord Scrumptious, as they restore an old car, which has magical abilities including flight and water navigation. Together, they journey to the fictional Vulgaria to rescue kidnapped children from the tyrannical Baron and Baroness Bomburst.
Both BAFTA nominees, Warchus’ directing credits include Matilda: The Musical and Pride, the latter starring Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West. Walsh is best known for writibg Cillian Murphy’s Small Things Like These and for co-writing Steve McQueen’s Hunger. He also worked on the upcoming Die, My Love.
Since this is the last piece I’ll have published in all of 2024, I want to wish everyone reading, from my dear subscribers to the people that find me through DuckDuckGo, a very happy new year. There’s a lot of recent stuff that I still want to cover in these early days of 2025, but I’m very hopeful for a healthier year for the entire entertainment industry.
Source: Deadline