The Famous Five filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has compared the classic novels to Scooby-Doo.
During an interview with Deadline, the filmmaker revealed that when he first came to the U.S. he watched a lot of classic cartoons, and that may have inspired his upcoming modern Enid Blyton adaptation.
“I didn’t read until I was 13 so TV was a big thing for me as an eight-year-old coming to the States,” he explained. “Scooby-Doo had something that just magically transported me into this adventure land, so this feels like a very full circle that’s coming to completion. And I’m finally making something that my kids would actually watch.”
Winding Refn is perhaps best known for Drive, Only God Forgives, and The Neon Demon — not exactly family-friendly movies. However, he revealed that from an early age, he was “visually and literally very much indoctrinated by a Famous Five iconography” thanks to Scooby-Doo.
“I’ve always liked the concept of not really wanting to be an adult; staying in ‘adventure land’ forever,” said Winding Refn. “The Famous Five feels like one of the very few things that you literally hand down the generations.”
The Famous Five is based on Enid Blyton’s classic children’s books, which offer a quaint view of British life including picnics and bike rides against a rural backdrop.
“To bring these stories to the screen and make them relevant for a modern audience, I was very aware you needed someone with real vision,” said co-creator Matthew Read, who also wrote the show’s first episode.
“I knew from my friendship with Nicolas that there was an opportunity to do something in this space and create something for a broad audience that retains the ‘fantastique,’ the adventure, the uniqueness of the vision that’s in his work. It was always in the back of my mind, but I didn’t want to talk about it until we had the rights.”
Want to read more about Nicolas Winding Refn? Find out more about his Death Stranding character as well as what we thought of The Neon Demon.
Image Credit: BBC.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
