26/04/2011

It appears to be Snark season in the film world. After two adaptations in 1987 and 1989 and a further one in 2009, 2012 will see two more versions of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark.

Michael McNeff’s live action version has the venerable Christopher Lee as narrator. However, Saranne Bensusan’s stop-motion adaptation updates Carroll’s 1874-penned tale for modern times. Bensusan scripted, is directing and producing along with 3rd Story Productions and Lawrence Mallinson Productions.

Bensusan and fellow animator Mallinson decided to play up the comic aspects of the story and add extra scenes and characters, thereby extending the short poem to feature length. The contemporary version will feature, amongst many other flourishes, the Snark-hunting crew being guided by a satellite navigation system, the kind used in cars.

Voice talent includes Jøerg Stadler (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Nigel Osner (The Drummond Will) and Maia Krall Fry (File 25).

Bensusan said, “I chose The Hunting of the Snark because it was very off the wall and allowed me to be creative and just as nonsensical as Lewis Carroll himself. I think that had this not been a Lewis Carroll story, some of the ideas I had would have just been crazy!”

The animation shoot begins in August 2011.