Mark Burton, writer of Paddington in Peru, Madagascar and the latest Wallace & Gromit comes to the Chiswick In Film festival

Images: Paddington in Peru and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl; IMDb

Meet the unsung hero – the writer

Is it bad that two of the films I am most looking forward to this autumn are Paddington in Peru and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl? Not because I have children I want to entertain, but for my own enjoyment.

The third of the Paddington franchise is one of the big blockbusters for the autumn, out on Saturday 9 November in the UK, and the latest Aardman animation will be shown on BBC1 on Christmas Day.

We are privileged to have script writer Mark Burton, who co-wrote both, coming to this year’s Chiswick In Film Festival.

Mark Burton

Mark, who has worked on most of the well-known Wallace & Gromit series, (Shaun the Sheep, Curse of the Were-Rabbit),  co-wrote Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl with Aardman Animation creator Nick Park and is credited as one of the three main writers of Paddington in Peru.

He is coming to the Chiswick In Film Festival to talk about another of his projects, Madagascar (2005), which we are screening for children at Chiswick Cinema on the morning of Saturday 16 November. He spoke to The Chiswick Calendar about his work.

How an animation comes together is all a bit of a mystery to me. I have just watched a documentary about another of the film festival’s guests this year, James Ivory. The film scripts for Merchant Ivory were nearly all written by one writer – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Today’s big budget, ‘high concept’ films (ie. you can explain the story in a few words – Paddington in Peru for example) work entirely differently, Mark told me.

“I started working on Paddington in Peru before Covid. I met the director Dougal Wilson on Zoom, working with other writers helping to write the basic outline.

“Parts of the process – laying out the foundation – are almost like engineering. You are doing virtual building and that’s better done collaboratively so you can get everyone’s ideas. Then you work on your own section and then you work on each-others’.”

Image: The Brown family arrives in Peru; IMDb

This is the famous ‘Writers’ Room’ concept which emerged from the writing of TV comedy shows, which is also Mark’s background (Alas Smith & Jones, Spitting Image, Never Mind the Buzzcocks) before he started working for Aardman Animations on films such as Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and their various spin-offs.

When not confined to Zoom meetings, Mark has been to the DreamWorks and Pixar campuses where the creative team is able to design their own work space, so one person had built his own castle out of foam bricks and there are facilities such as football pitches and swimming pools to help the creative process along, and a stage with all the equipment for a band if they fancy a jam session at the end of the day.

He has also been sacked after doing the initial work on a script, an occupational hazard “which hurts, but is entirely normal and you just have to get used to it.”

Images: Paddington in Peru posters featuring Paddington’s Aunt Lucy, Hugh Bonneville as Mr Brown and Julie Walters as Mrs Bird; IMDb

The three Paddington films are all new stories, developed from Michael Bond’s original characters. The first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in 1958, to be followed by 28 more books by Michael Bond, the TV series, the toys, and eventually tea with the Queen for the Olympic opening ceremony, recognition of the character’s status as a national treasure.

The first feature film, Paddington, came out in 2014, quickly followed by Paddington 2 in 2017.

“Michael Bond was still alive when the first film was made, and he gave it his blessing.”

Paddington In Peru stars Hugh Bonneville, Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris as the Browns, with Emily Mortimer replacing Sally Hawkins as Mary Brown.

Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent return as Mrs Bird and Mr Gruber; Olivia Coleman and Antonio Banderas are introduced as new characters – Olivia Coleman as The Reverend Mother and Antonio Banderas as Hunter Cabot. Ben Whishaw Imelda Staunton return as the voices of Paddington and Aunt Lucy.

Paddington and the Brown family go to visit Aunt Lucy in the Home for Retired Bears, but they get sidetracked by an adventure which sends them to the Amazon rainforest and up Peruvian mountains.

Image: Paddington in Peru; IMDb

Mark explained how the animation process works. While the writers are doing their thing, there is a parallel process developing on the art side. They create an ‘animatic’, which is the entire story shown visually in single line drawings, from which the artists develop what the characters and the scenes look like.

Mark will be demonstrating an animatic and bringing a storyboard from Madagascar with him to show at the festival. He and co-writer Billy Frolick developed the idea of Madagascar from the original concept, creating the characters and the world they inhabit.

Image: Madagascar; IMDb

“We thought it very funny that here were these New York hipsters who had no idea how to survive in the wild”

The story is about a group of animals from the zoo in New York’s Central Park, who escape in search of adventure only to find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar, where they have to fend for themselves.

“We thought it very funny that here were these New York hipsters who had no idea how to survive in the wild.”

They had in mind adventure / survival films such as Lord of the Flies and City Slickers. Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller) begins to look at his best mate Marty the zebra (voiced by Chris Rock) differently once he starts feeling hungry. Fortunately, the penguins turn up and introduce him to the idea of sushi.

Image: Madagascar; IMDb

The penguins are a case in point of how working collaboratively on a film like this brings the best results, Mark said, a trifle ruefully. Their bit is the part of the film that everyone remembers best, but they were not in the original script at all, nor were they introduced by writers, but by one of the artists, Tom McGrath, who drew them, developed the characters and voiced them himself.

They now have their own spin-off – The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.

Finally, the actors bring their personalities and talents to the finished product, and you end up with a thoroughly entertaining, timeless winner.

Image: Madagascar; IMDb

Mark will be at the Chiswick In Film festival on Saturday 16 November. We didn’t talk much about Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, because when we spoke it was still hush hush, but by then he will be able to tell us all about it. The first reviews sound promising:

‘Feathers McGraw is back and implacably frightening as ever’ – The Guardian

‘The detail of the hand-crafted animation remains eternally delightful’ – Empire magazine

Image: Madagascar; IMDb

Tickets for Madagascar available from Chiswick Cinema’s website. Adults need to be accompanied by a child. (Anyone got any spare children?)

Book tickets: Madagascar + Q+A with Mark Burton and Rob Sprackling

See all the films in this year’s Chiswick In Film Festival here:

READ ALSO: Full line-up announced for Chiswick In Film Festival 2024

Our sponsors

The Chiswick In Film Festival is a collaboration between The Chiswick Calendar and Chiswick Cinema, with film industry professionals Andrea Carnevali and Rob Sprackling. We would not be able to bring you this cinematic feast in this way without the support of our sponsor.

Chiswick in Film Festival 2024 is kindly sponsored by The London Bath Co. whose shop is on Chiswick High Road and who offer superior, fully fitted bathrooms and kitchens from design to installation.

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