Kung Fu Panda Director Helming The Little Prince

Apologies for the latency of this post, but news broke earlier this week that Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne is directing an animated adaptation of the beloved, 70 year-old, children's book, The Little Prince.

The Little Prince, which remains equally as popular with adults as with children, tells the story of a pilot who has crashed in the Sahara desert, and after days of wandering he runs into a little boy, one claiming to be a prince, fallen from an asteroid. And there's some stuff about sheep.

The book, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, has been adapted a few times before (no shock given that it's the most read book in France), but never to animation. There was a 1974 live-action version directed by Singin' in the Rain's Stanley Donen, and a 2010 French TV series, for instance.

THR announced a lot of the voice cast as well, with Jeff Bridges apparently voicing the pilot. The film will also feature the voices of James Franco, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Benicio del Toro, Paul Giamatti, Paul Rudd, and Mackenzie Foy. There have been no other roles announced yet though.

Osborne co-directed Panda with John Stevenson, and directed a live-action sequence in The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, so he obviously knows his way around animated film. THR also noted that producing the film is "Onyx Films’ Aton Soumache -- who produced the stylish 2006 animated film Renaissance -- and Dimitri Rassam."

The computer-animated film is reportedly scheduled for a 2014 3D release and is rumoured to have Paramount handle distribution.

Via The Rotoscopers.