One of the most enduring series of YA books is coming to a streamer. Netflix and Penguin Random House Children’s UK have announced that they have partnered to adapt Brian Jacques’ Redwall series into both an animated film and an “event series.” The film will focus on the first book of the series, Redwall, most likely featuring the mouse hero Mathias. The limited series will tell the prequel tale to the film of Martin the Warrior.
Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio) has been tapped to pen the screenplay for the untitled film, but there is no word on who will be working on the series. Netflix did share some concept art for the series by Pierre Breton (see header image), which looks much in line with the artwork of the original novels’ covers and the world conjured up by Brian Jacques’ prose.
“We couldn’t be more delighted to announce this deal,” said Ben Horslen, Fiction Publisher, Penguin Random House Children’s. “These perennially popular stories have been etched onto the hearts of millions of readers, and we are thrilled to partner with Netflix to bring those beloved characters on screen for families worldwide to enjoy.”
The books already had an animated series that aired in the U.S. on PBS from 1999 – 2002, but this one looks to be a far bigger production with Netflix clearly hoping to dive deep into the plethora of books and characters found throughout the Redwall series, which spans multiple generations of animals living in Redwall. The other major difference here is that this is the first time that the film rights for the entire book series have been under the control of one company, meaning Netflix can easily pull from any of the series and create a generations-long interconnected story.
There’s no official plot released for either the movie or show, but hopefully they will involve both extremely long shots and descriptions of the different kinds of foods the animals are eating and surprisingly violent battles with badgers going into bloodwraths and literally dismembering their enemies during massive, bloody battles.
