Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

The original Nanny McPhee got a raw deal out of the gate. It was, I felt, dumped quickly and then pulled from theaters due to lack of public interest (perhaps), so-so reviews (I seem to recall), and virtually no awards attention at all. A shame. The film has since developed a following much the same way Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe has. Little by little, bit by bit.

What threw people about Nanny McPhee certainly wasn’t the story, written by Emma Thompson, and it certainly wasn’t the ensemble: Emma Thompson, Angela Lansbury, Imelda Staunton, Colin Firth, Kelly MacDonald, and all of those kids. It was probably the colors. No, I’m going to guess that what threw people was the art and costume design. And that is such an insignifigant annoyance it has definitely faded with time, perhaps even disappeared altogether.

Rope of Silicon‘s Brad Brevet alerts us to the Variety story which gives some details of the Nanny McPhee sequel. Emma Thompson is back as screenwriter, actress and executive producer. The film will take place, according to RoS, 100 years after the first film and will follow a group of kids who are moved out of the city and into the country. It also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans and will be directed by first-timer Susannah White.

I will be curious to see what the look of the sequel will be. Will they keep the gumball colored theme from the first film or will they fade it out to give it a less absurd look. I say this, though, being someone who really loved the film and who didn’t have any problem with how it looked.