Not only is it an adaptation of an adorable Roald Dahl short story, it’s also just acquired two adorable lead actors, Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench.
We’ve had more than enough reason to love Dustin Hoffman lately, and Judi Dench will have a place in our hearts forever not least because of her inappropriate embroidery hobby or how she played Dungeons & Dragons with Vin Diesel on the set of Riddick. But they’ll be playing the leads in a new adaptation of Esio Trot, which ratchets up the adorableness considerably.
“Esio Trot” is one of Roald Dahl’s short stories, concerning Mr. Hoppy (Hoffman), the man who lives above Ms. Silver (Dench). Mr. Hoppy is in love with Ms. Silver but can never gather the courage to confess his feelings whenever they chat from their separate balconies, and to be fair, she mostly just dotes on her tortoise, Alfie. This changes when Ms. Silver confesses that she’s disappointed in the growth of her pet, and Mr. Hoppy conceives of a plan to make her happy and increase their interaction. He tells her a series of “magic” words that will help Alfie grow, and, after rigging a lift mechanism that allows him to pluck Alfie from her balcony when she is away at work, starts replacing her tortoise with successively larger ones.
And I don’t want to give away the ending, but I did say it was adorable. The BBC’s 90 minute Esio Trot will begin filming next spring, produced by Dearbhla Walsh.
(via Deadline.)
