It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an animated special!
Oscar- and Golden Globe–winning actor Olivia Colman and Doctor Who’s Matt Smith will lend their voice-acting talents to an upcoming BBC cartoon version of Julia Donaldson’s Kirkus-starred 2014 picture book, Superworm, according to Deadline. Colman will serve as the story’s narrator, and Smith will voice the title role. Magic Light Pictures, which previously produced an Oscar-nominated 2009 BBC animated adaptation of Donaldson’s 1999 picture book, The Gruffalo, will produce the Superworm special. No prospective release date was announced.
Like The Gruffalo, the Superworm book features illustrations by Axel Scheffler. In it, the titular character regularly keeps his fellow garden creatures from harm, using his great length and superstrength; for example, he makes himself into a lasso to rescue a baby toad from the middle of a road, and retrieves a beetle who’s tumbled down a well. When Superworm is abducted by the villainous Wizard Lizard, the hero’s pals team up to save him: “Action! Quickly! At the double! / Superworm’s in frightful trouble!” Kirkus’ 2014 review predicted that “the unlikely superhero with his googly eyes and winning smile will be [a] hit, and the rhythmic rhyme will have audiences chanting along by the end of the story.”
Colman is best known for her award-winning turns in the acclaimed 2018 film The Favourite and the Netflix series The Crown (in which Smith has also starred), but she’s no stranger to book-to-screen adaptations. She memorably co-starred in the 2016 BBC/AMC miniseries The Night Manager, based on John le Carré’s 1993 thriller, and lent her voice to the 2018 Netflix miniseries version of Richard Adams’ 1974 classic, Watership Down. She’s also set to star in upcoming film adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s 2008 novel, The Lost Daughter, and Graham Swift’s Kirkus-starred 2016 novel, Mothering Sunday.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
