Recently revived on TV with Alexander Armstrong, Kevin Eldon and Stephen Fry among the voice cast, Danger Mouse** is also set to storm the big screen. Sony Pictures Animation and StudioCanal have hatched a plan for a movie, with producers Neal Moritz and Toby Ascher overseeing the diminutive super-spy shenanigans.
Starting life as an animated series from Cosgrove Hall in the early '80s, Danger Mouse was a secret agent, channelling James Bond and Danger Man, and getting involved in a lot of very silly nonsense on a weekly basis.
He lived underneath a pillar box on Baker Street and drove a flying car; his sidekick was the blundering hamster Penfold; his "M" was Colonel K. (a chinchilla); and his arch enemy was the wheezy toad Baron Greenback, who had a crow henchman called Stiletto and was always up to dastardly schemes like trying to melt the North Pole. Occasional secondary villains included Count Duckula, who went on to his own solo spin-off.
David Jason and Terry Scott headed the voice cast in those days, and the current Armstrong iteration, while updated, retains much of the same vibe: terrible puns being the order of the day.
Quite what Moritz, producer of the Fast & Furious and Jump Street movies, has in store for our intrepid rodent hero is unclear at this point: there are no plot details. But while Moritz is best known for massive action, it's worth noting that he's just been behind the Goosebumps movie and has a Sonic The Hedgehog project in development. Danger Mouse isn't quite so inconcruous in that company.
Will our hero be Americanised, or will he remain a very British blockbuster like Paddington? Can our heroes survive the perilous journey to the multiplex? Who will direct, and when will the film be released? Will Penfold get the Worst Dressed Hamster award again this year? Tune in next time...