Colin Firth And Julie Walters Starring In The Secret Garden

Back in 2013, it looked like Guillermo del Toro would be shepherding a new film adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett novel The Secret Garden to our screens, switching up the setting from the UK to the American south. Not much has been heard of that version since then, but the Paddington team of StudioCanal and David Heyman's Heyday Films are taking on the challenge instead, with Colin Firth and Julie Walters leading the cast.

Jack Thorne has written the script for this one, which maintains the UK-based locale but shifts the time period to post-World War II 1947. The heroine is Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx), a rude, spoiled 10-year-old girl who grows up in India the daughter of wealthy parents. But after everyone in her household dies of cholera, she’s sent to Yorkshire to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven (Firth). When she discovers a key to the garden that has been left locked and unattended since her uncle’s wife died in an accident, she ventures inside with the friends she’s made, and everyone’s life changes for the better.

Edan Hayhurst is on to play Mary's cousin Colin, while Walters is housekeeper Mrs. Medlock. Amir Wilson and Isis Davis are also aboard.

Director Marc Munden, a veteran of TV series such as Utopia and National Treasure, is about to start rolling the cameras this week.