Sony is digging in and making another run at a potential family-friendly franchise with PETER RABBIT and is in the process of securing both late-night talk host James Corden and Rose Byrne to be centerpieces in their vision under the direction of Will Gluck.
Corden would voice the title character for Sony's CG/live-action hybrid take on the popular Beatrix Potter children's stories while Byrne would play an as-yet-revealed human character that somehow factors into Peter's adversarial relationship with Mr. McGregor. That guy wants no rabbits eating his vegetables from his garden.
This isn't the first time Peter Rabbit has been adapted before, although never as a feature film. In the past, the character has been featured on HBO's STORYBOOK MUSICAL and animated for a 1992 BBC anthology series. Recently, a Nickelodeon animated series was built around him and his friends. But Sony believes that with the love family fare gets at the box office these days, PETER RABBIT could be their ticket to some nice returns; I'm inclined to believe them.
Corden seems like an outside-the-box fit that could pay great dividends for them. He offers them an avenue to constantly promote their picture, and given his time slot, he'd be reaching out to parents and reminding them to take their kids. But his charming demeanor has gotten him on the radar in a big way with the viral hit "Carpool Karaoke" going a long way to establishing him as someone worth watching. Not bad for a guy who is only beginning to scratch the surface of his stardom in the United States.