‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ Is A Whimsical BO Hit – Global Breakouts

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.

This week we visit Ben Gregor’s The Magic Faraway Tree, starring Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy and Nicola Coughlan, and adapted by Wonka and Paddington 2 co-writer Simon Farnaby from Enid Blyton’s classic children’s book series. Released in the UK in April, the film is skirting $20M at the box office at home and has also struck a chord in Australia, where it has grossed more than $7.2MM to date.

Name: The Magic Faraway Tree
Country: UK
Producer: Neal Street, Elysian Film Group
Distributor: Entertainment Film Distribution (UK)
Sales: Palisades Park Pictures
For fans of:  Paddington

Literary adaptations in cinema are all the rage right now with pictures such as The Housemaid, Project Hail Mary and Wuthering Heights among the recent box office hits drawn from a book.

Their lure for producers is hardly surprising given a recent study by the UK’s Publishers Association published in March that showed book adaptations had 57% higher box office revenue than non-adaptations for the 50 top grossing titles in the UK from 2020 to 2024.

Producers Pippa Harris and Danny Perkin’s journey to adapting Enid Blyton’s classic The Magic Faraway Tree Series was at the forefront of this trend.

“I first tried to get the rights for about 20 years ago. We’ve been running Neal Street for over 25 years, and it was quite an early project for us, but the rights situation was very complicated, and it took a long time to unpick,” says Harris, who is currently bathing in the success of Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet and drama Call the Midwife.

After securing the rights, one of the first people that Harris called was Perkins, who was CEO of Studiocanal UK at the time. “Studiocanal was an obvious first port of call,” says Harris, noting this pre-dated the release of the Paris-based pan-European studio’s first Paddington film in 2014. Perkins recalls how he and Harris were having conversations about various UK properties with strong potential for adaptation and updating on the big screen.

Published over a decade from 1939, the original The Magic Faraway Tree books follow the adventures of three siblings displaced to the countryside by family misfortune where they connect with an enchanted tree and its eccentric residents including Angry Pixie, Silky, Mr Watzisname, Dame Washalot, Moon-Face and Mr Saucepan. Together with their new friends, the children visit a series of lands that dock at the tree in rotation such as the Land of Goodies, the Land of Dame Slap and the Land of Spells.

Blyton’s books have a strong intergenerational fanbase in the UK and many other English-language speaking territories, while her work has been translated into more than 90 languages worldwide.

British comedy stalwart Simon Farnaby also came on board early on to write the script – prior to working on Paddington 2 and Wonka. “He was so passionate about the material,” says Harris. “He had such a strong take on it and what he wanted to keep from the original Blyton, and what he felt was impossible to keep and needed updating, and how you would turn a story set decades ago into a story that feels relevant not just for a contemporary audience, but for an audience worldwide.”

“That was always in the back of our minds. When you look at all the British movies that have really broken out, a huge number of them are based on British kids IP, and that is something that travels, whether it’s Harry Potter, Peter Rabbit or Paddington. You know that those stories and those characters and that mixture of warmth and width that you get in those kids’ books works across the world.”

Farnaby’s final screenplay boldly sets the adaptation in modern Britain, with a storyline tapping into contemporary concerns about screentime and the impact of social media on young minds. The family dynamics have also been updated. Claire Foy co-stars as science whizz mother and main breadwinner, who loses her job, opposite Andrew Garfield as an idealistic stay-at-home dad who suggests they move to the countryside to set up a pasta sauce business.

“Simon understood that there was something within the story of the 1940s children leaving the city and going to the countryside that we could update and make relevant to resonate with modern audiences,” says Perkins.

Further cast include Bridgerton breakout Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie, Jessica Gunning, Dustin Demri-Burns, Mark Heap, Oliver Chris, Rebecca Ferguson, Jennifer Saunders, Lenny Henry, Michael Palin and Simon Russell Beale.

The film released in the UK in early April, to coincide with the Easter holidays, where it has grossed close to $20M to date, as well as in Australia, where it has grossed more than $7M.

Harris reports feedback from Australian distributor VVS Films that it has managed to extend the film’s reach beyond weekends and holiday periods, when ticket sales are driven by families, into weekdays thanks to adult spectators.

“They’re going on their own or in groups,” she says. “Some remember the books, but lots don’t and just love the the premise of the film and then get swept up by it. People are seeing it more than once, and there are lots of men who find the father’s story very moving.”

Perkins notes that the film has outperformed Pixar-produced $150M budget Disney animation Hoppers as well as Paddington 1 and 2 in Australia. “Given the marketing spend and size of Hoppers as a property Disney, it’s kind of extraordinary, and shows the film’s potential,” he says.

Harris suggests that the feature’s unapologetically positive vibe and message, is chiming with audiences in the current geopolitical climate, citing the success of Neal Street’s Hamnet as well as Call the Midwife.

“When the world’s so fractured and angry, I think audiences look to film and television for something that is the opposite of that, something that celebrates the good in humanity and the things that bring people together,” she says.

“Hamnet and The Magic Faraway Tree – and certainly Call the Midwife –n have all benefited from that. The films are the highest grossing UK independent films this year and Call the Midwife is the highest rated drama in the UK. People don’t want to see more films about death and division and men with guns.”

The success of the film at home has encouraged Harris and Perkins to step up plans for two more films based on the books. “It’s an obvious movie,” says Harris. “People have become very invested in these characters, not just the family but also the magical creatures who live up the tree, and the cast, who had such great time making it, they’re all keen to come back.

“It’s a really exciting space to be in as Paddington has shown. If you can crack that family audience with a single film, then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t keep coming back and take the IP elsewhere, as they’ve [Studiocanal] done with the stage show and other opportunities.”

Perkins says it makes sense to capitalize on the human and financial investment that went into creating the world of the tree and the look of its fantastical residents for the first film, citing the work of Karen Hartley Thomas on hair and makeup and Ann Maskrey on costume among others.

“It’s no small feat to make visual sense of all these characters and these worlds, and put them all together in one film,” adds Perkins. “We’ve done all that hard work now. Just by the very nature of the books, there are new lands to discover every time you go the tree. We’re excited to try and do more, and it’s great that the cast share that enthusiasm. It was a very happy shoot, so they all want to come back,” He notes a quote from Garfield, who said, “Wouldn’t this be great, if this was every summer.”

Sequels could be secret to sales

Tamara Birkemoe at L.A-based Palisades Pars Pictures, who has been handling the sale of the film since pre-production stage, hopes its UK box office success, combined with the commitment to making the sequels, will help close key remaining territories such as Italy, France and the Nordics.

“Everybody who read the script really liked it and everybody who saw the movie really felt like it was appealing, not only for kids, but for grown-ups,” she says. “But obviously the IP is not well known in every country, and that’s a little challenging as it means they will need to spend more on P&A.”

In the face of that challenge, she suggests having Garfield and Foy in the cast helped reel in some buyers from territories where Blyton is less known. “They’re global stars at this point. Andrew has been Spider Man. People don’t really think of him as purely British; they see him as global, so he helped a lot. And then there’s Claire, she’s brilliant. They’re also friends and love working together, and they had such a good chemistry on this.”

Another string in the film’s bow is the novelization of the film by publishing house Hachette UK, which owns the rights to the Enid Blyton estate. It was published in the UK ahead of the film’s release and will be rolled out in the U.S. this summer ahead of the film’s launch there by Vertical.

“These tools help with marketing and attracted a lot of interest,” says Birkemoe.  

She believes the commitment to the sequels will also draw in more buyers, with many signed-up distributors already stipulating a first-look option for new films in the franchise in their contracts for the original film.

“It has been an important element, the franchising of it,” she says. “Everybody wanted to have that in their contract. When you invest so much money in the P&A for the first film, it’s only logical to be able to have the second and the third.”