Toby Genkel to direct film adaptation of Paul McCartney’s children’s book
Toby Genkel is to direct the animated film High in the Clouds, based on the 2005 children’s book by Paul McCartney and Philip Ardagh. The movie has a budget of over £24million and will feature six original songs from McCartney.
Genkel, best known for The Amazing Maurice, will be joined by a notable creative team, including Michael Giacchino, who wrote the scores for Coco, Inside Out, and The Batman, who will be working on the project as a composer.
Jon Croker (who wrote Paddington 2) will handle the screenplay, and Patrick Hanenberger (The Croods, The Lego Movie 2) will be the production designer. McCartney will also voice one of the primary characters in the film.
The story centres around a determined teenage squirrel, Wirral, residing in Gretschville – a place where music is prohibited by the power-hungry owl, Gretsch. Wirral’s quest is to overthrow this musical dictatorship with the help of legendary musicians from a hidden realm known as Harmonia.
Along the way, Wirral finds himself embroiled in an epic journey which sees him encountering a whole array of other musical animals, making new friends and enemies, and learning the terrible cost of human development and global capitalism.
As writer/producer and animator/director, respectively, McCartney and High in the Clouds illustrator Geoff Dunbar previously collaborated on the 1984 animated movie Rupert and the Frog Song. The duo spent several years scripting and sketching High in the Clouds as a subsequent film project.
Gaumont is co-producing alongside McCartney’s MPL Communications. The film is set to start production in early 2024, with an expected release in early 2026. The French studio will also be introducing High in the Clouds to potential buyers with a sizzle reel at the AFM, as well as taking on distribution responsibilities in France.
In other McCartney news, The Beatles recently announced they will release their final single ‘Now and Then’ on November 2nd. The track was written by Lennon in the Dakota Building during the late 1970s and was given to the rest of the band by Yoko Ono following her husband’s death.
Speaking about the upcoming track, McCartney said: “There is was, John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s quite an exciting thing.”
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