{"id":346022,"date":"2026-03-24T22:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346022\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:45:18","slug":"live-action-movie-version-of-childrens-tv-series-mr-benn-in-the-works-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346022\/","title":{"rendered":"Live-action movie version of children\u2019s TV series Mr Benn in the works | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

A live-action film based on the cult British kids\u2019 cartoon Mr Benn is to go into production with I Swear <\/a>director Kirk Jones at the helm.<\/p>\n

Mr Benn first appeared on TV on the BBC in 1971, in a series created by David McKee, who died in 2022<\/a>. The series followed the adventures of \u201ca very ordinary man who could do extraordinary things\u201d when he visited a magical fancy dress shop, which acted as a portal to different worlds. Only 13 episodes were made before the series ended in March 1972, though a one-off episode was broadcast in 2005 on the kids\u2019 channel Nick Jr.<\/p>\n

Jones, who previously directed Nanny McPhee and Waking Ned, said: \u201cI adored Mr Benn as a child and immediately saw the importance of introducing him to a new generation \u2026 Mr Benn finds a unique way to travel through time and space, visiting historical and futuristic worlds to solve apparently monumental problems, with kindness, compassion and common sense \u2026 If all goes to plan, Mr Benn might even save the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017 McKee told the Guardian<\/a>: \u201cI wanted to write a story about Mr Everybody. Everyone is trapped in a situation \u2026 we all have that routine and the adventures were an escape from routine.\u201d Several attempts to make a film have been mounted over the years, including one with John Hannah as Mr Benn and Ben Kingsley as the shopkeeper, but none got off the ground.<\/p>\n

Casting for the film is expected to get under way later this year, with shooting to begin in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A live-action film based on the cult British kids\u2019 cartoon Mr Benn is to go into production with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-346022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}