Paddington Bear has found a new pair of writers to come up with his next big screen adventure and looks to have secured a director as well.
Variety can exclusively confirm that Armando Iannucci, the Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated Scotsman best known for creating hit satirical shows “Veep” and “The Thick of It,” is set to turn his pen to London’s most beloved four-pawed Peruvian expat and will write the upcoming fourth film in Studiocanal‘s hit “Paddington” franchise. Iannucci will be joined on screenplay duties by his long-standing and fellow Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated co-writer Simon Blackwell, who served as a key writer on both “Veep” and “The Thick of It.”
Meanwhile, Variety hears that Dougal Wilson, the award-winning commercials and music videos director who made his feature debut with the third film, “Paddington in Peru,” is in talks to return.
“Paddington 4,” follows 2014’s “Paddington,” 2017’s “Paddington 2” and 2024’s “Paddington in Peru,” and a combined global box office in excess of $800 million. Paul King directed the first two instalments (he wrote the first and co-wrote the second with Simon Farnaby), with Wilson taking over directing duties on the third (which was written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont).
