The trailer for the new Paddington film has been released – setting the countdown for our reunion with everybody’s favourite marmalade-loving bear.
The trailer, which dropped at 1pm today, teases Paddington’s trip to his homeland of Peru on a quest to find his Aunt Lucy. Along the way he crosses paths with Olivia Colman as a singing nun, Antonio Banderas as an adventurer.
“We went with great trepidation about making a third film,” said producer Rosie Alison. “We thought hard about doing it and we were never going to do it unless we felt there was a real reason for it to be. We dug deep to try and find the right story.”
The first two Paddington films (based on the 1950 book series by Michael Bond) have been major critical and commercial successes, raking in millions at the box office and making the bear a household name once more.
This film is also the first that Paul King won’t be directing – instead, the reins have been taken by Dougal Wilson. He has specialised in directing ads and music videos (he’s directed John Lewis adverts, and the Grammy-nominated music video for Coldplay’s Music in Technicolour II) but this is his first time directing a film.
“it was a strange mixture that my first reaction was obviously shock and excitement, and I felt very flattered and I was very honoured,” he said in a Q&A before the trailer.
“But that soon gave way to terror and the pathological trepidation and that's where the fun ended really. Because obviously the first few films, they are somewhat of high bar to follow.”
The latest instalment of the series will seek to dig into Paddington’s own past. “The first film gives us a bit of information about where he came from and how he found his home in London, and then the second story he almost loses that home but in doing so consolidates his community in London,” said Wilson.
“So, there's a lot of missing information about what happened before that. In the third film it was very appropriate to return to Peru but this time take his London friends and community with him and have an adventure there and in doing so fill in some of the missing pieces.”
The film will also feature appearances from old favourites: Jim Broadbent as Mr Gruber, Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington and Hugh Bonneville as Mr Brown – though Sally Hawkins won’t be returning as Mrs Brown. Instead, Emily Mortimer will fill the role.
In terms of other new faces, Banderas will appear as a swashbuckling Amazonian adventurer whose boat the Browns travel on.
Even more excitingly, Colman will make her Paddington debut as a nun who also happens to run the home for retired bears where Paddington’s beloved Aunt Lucy lives.
“It's actually the first time that Julie Walters and Olivia Colman have acted together,” said Alison. “And they are fabulous together.”
The film will hit theatres on November 8.
