With the series finale of House, M.D. almost upon us, Hugh Laurie is poised to move away from the small screen and back into theaters. He has Andrew Adamson‘s Mister Pip scheduled for release some time this year and now, reports surface that he and Stephen Fry, are going to finally reunite after 13 years for the CGI animated film The Canterville Ghost. [Fry’s Twitter via Empire]
An adaptation of Oscar Wilde‘s classic short story, the film will feature Fry as Sir Simon de Canterville, a 300-year-old ghost, and Laurie as a lowly gardener who is actually Death in disguise. For those unfamiliar with it, Canterville Ghost is the story of Canterville who, for hundreds of years has been haunting Canterville Chase. Everything changes when an American family – the Otises from Boston – buys Canterville Chase and moves in.
Though the story has been adapted many times in the past, this will be the first attempt at a CGI film. The project will be directed by Kim Burdon and produced by Gina Carter and Robert Chandler as a Melmoth Films production, along with Fry’s own Sprout Pictures and Hibbert Ralph. The film will tentatively be released worldwide Christmas 2014.
As a big fan of Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder, I can’t even describe how excited I am for this film. Though they have found great success on both sides of the ocean, their work together has always been the best combination of witty, sarcastic and charming. Wilde’s sardonic sense of humor seems like a perfect match for these two actors and though I would love an eventual live action reunion between the two, this seems like a great project in the meantime.
What do you think? Are you excited for a bit of Fry and Laurie?