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Altitude Film Entertainment and Citrus Films have announced the launch on 26 July 2019 of a major new feature film, based on global publisher Scholastic’s best-selling and award-winning children’s historical comedy book series Horrible Histories.
Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans will include members of the cast that have made the television version of the books a massive hit on CBBC, as well as an extraordinary array of comedy and acting talent, including rising stars Sebastian Croft and Emilia Jones, Nick Frost, Kim Cattrall, Rupert Graves, Alexander Armstrong, Lee Mack, Warwick Davis – and Sir Derek Jacobi, reprising his iconic role as Claudius.
The film will transport audiences back to Roman times as it follows the misadventures of Roman teenager Atti, an unwilling army recruit sent to miserable, cold, wet Britain. He starts badly by befriending a rebellious Celt and nearly dying in a bog. After that things go even further downhill…
With the confirmation of the launch date of this eagerly awaited film, independent licensing company Rocket Licensing, appointed by Altitude to manage the UK licensing for Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans, is expecting to boost the already strong licensing campaign in place for Scholastic’s classic brand, as it continues to enjoy success across TV, stage and published platforms.
As an established licensed brand, Horrible Histories has to date enjoyed support from partners including Danilo, Winning Moves, Paul Lamond Games, Ancestors and Smiffys. The continuing success of Horrible Histories across a number of media, the recent 25th anniversary of the property, and now its arrival on the big screen offer numerous opportunities to extend the licensing portfolio of this unique and enormously popular British brand into a number of categories, including apparel, accessories, stationery and homewares.
Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans is being produced by Citrus Films’ Caroline Norris and Altitude’s Will Clarke with Giles Pilbrow as co-producer and in association with Scholastic and Lion Television. It is being financed by BBC Films, CBBC, Ingenious Media, Silver Reel and enjoys the support of Amazon Studios. Dominic Brigstocke will direct the film, which has been written by Olivier award-winning playwright Jessica Swale, together with Pilbrow and Norris.
Written by Terry Deary and illustrated by Martin Brown, Horrible Histories books first appeared in 1993. Since then, their unique approach to historical facts with hilarious illustrations has delivered sales of over 32 million copies of over 100 titles in more than 37 languages. Across page, stage and screen, Horrible Histories has a massive following.
Charlie Donaldson, Joint Managing Director of Rocket Licensing, says: “As this iconic, enduring and uniquely British brand continues to attract TV viewers and readers – and soon filmgoers too – we’re looking forward to working with Altitude on this exciting new release and continuing to build a strong campaign for Horrible Histories across multiple categories.” |
