Mr Men heading to the big screen

mr men

Colourful. Often Smarties-shaped. Named after verbs and adjectives. The Mr Men have been popular with children the world over for generations. And now they’re getting a movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter , Roger Hargreaves’ books have been snapped up by 20th Century Fox Animation, who are collaborating with Night At The Museum director Shawn Levy on a film version of the books.

Levy, who’s just signed to direct Fantastic Voyage , will act as producer only, and will help Fox find a suitable writer and director for the project.

No word yet how the studio plan on tackling the 48 Mr Men books – we’re personally hoping for a sly twist on M ad Men in which the characters all work in an ad agency and sit about smoking and drinking whiskey all day.

First published in 1971, over 100 million Mr Men books have been sold worldwide in 28 countries. An animated series, The Mr Men Show , aired on Channel 5 between 2008 and 2009.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.