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A feature film based on Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories children’s book series (Scholastic) will be released in the UK and Ireland in July next year.
‘Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans’ is about Roman teenager called Atti who is forced to join the Roman army after falling fouls of Emperor Nero. Atti is sent to cold, wet Britain where he is captured by Orla, a feisty teenage Celt who is desperate to prove herself as a warrior. Meanwhile, Nero is determined to crush the rebellion led by Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, and Atti and Orla eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield.
Atti and Orla are played by Sebastian Croft and Emilia Jones, whilst Nick Front is playing Orla’s father Arghus, Craig Roberts is Emperor Nero and Kim Cattrall is Nero’s mother Agrippina. Other cast members include Kate Nash as Boudicca, Sir Derek Jacobi as Claudius and Rupert Graves as Governor General Paulinus.
The script was written by Jessica Swale and the director is Dominic Brigstocke, who has directed TV shows such as ‘I’m Alan Patridge’ and ‘Green Wing’, and the film is being produced by Altitude Films Entertainment and Citrus Films, in association with Scholastic and Lion Television. CBBC, Ingenious Media, Silver Reel and Amazon Studios are financing the project.
Scholastic said Deary was a “vital” partner throughout the development process and will work with production company Altitude on cross-promotional activity around the release.
“I am delighted to be so involved in bringing my books to life for the big screen” said Deary. “This could be the most horrible movie you will see in 2019. Fans old and new, young and aged will love the horribly hilarious action.”
According to Scholastic, Horrible Histories is the world’s best-selling children’s history series and has sold more than 32 million copies in 31 countries since 1993.
Will Clarke, chairman and c.e.o. of Altitude Film Entertainment, said: “We’re delighted to start production with our friends at Citrus. Horrible Histories is a hugely popular franchise with parents and children alike and we can’t wait to bring it to the big screen.”
The executive producers are Lion Television’s Richard Bradley, Altitude’s Andy Mayson, Mike Runagall and Bradley Quirk, Julian Bird of Lorton Entertainment, Iole Lucchese of Scholastic Entertainment, Joe Oppenheimer, BBC Films’ Rose Garnett, Geraldine Atlee, CBBC’s Cheryl Taylor, Melissa Hardinge and Lucy Beckett, Ingenious Media’s Simon Williams and Vaishali Mistry, Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber and Jesus Munoz.
The film will be on general release on the 26th July 2019.