Tom MacRae
I’ve been sitting on secrets for a while. Over the past 12 months the Beetle Boy tv series has been growing in scale, ambition & budget. I'm excited to finally announce Tom MacRae and Framestore have joined Team Beetle and Buccaneer Media have climbed aboard to steer the ship.
Tom is known for the amazing stage play, and the movie of, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and he’s an experienced writer for tv. Fun fact, he wrote one of my favourite Dr Who episodes.
Framestore are the biggest and best CGI production company in the business. They do all the big movies from Harry Potter to Marvel’s Avengers, and they did the daemons in the current His Dark Materials series. They will be creating the beetles in the show.
This is the official PRESS RELEASE:
Buccaneer and Nevision announce co-production agreement for ‘Beetle Boy’
Tom MacRae to write screenplay for M. G. Leonard book trilogy adaptation
Buccaneer Media, the London-headquartered production company and independent production company Nevision today announced a co-production agreement to develop M. G. Leonard’s ‘Beetle Boy’ book trilogy as a live action/ CGI drama series in partnership with Oscar-winning creative studio Framestore (‘His Dark Materials’, ‘Mulan’, ‘Lovecraft Country’).
‘Beetle Boy’ will be written for the screen by Tom MacRae, playwright and creator of ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’, the award-winning West End musical and forthcoming movie.
Currently in development as a returnable multi-episode series set in the UK, ‘Beetle Boy’ is based on the award-winning book trilogy - Beetle Boy, Beetle Queen and Battle of the Beetles - which were optioned by Nevision. Featuring 15 year old Darkus Cuttle as the main protagonist, the books are published by Chicken House in the UK and Scholastic in the US, Canada and Australia, as well as more than thirty other territories including France, Germany, Italy, China and Russia.
When Darkus’ father disappears from a locked beetle room in the Natural History Museum, Darkus finds himself an orphan, sent to live in an out of the way home for abandoned children. Stripped of everything he ever cared about, he becomes the boy with nothing left to lose.
That is, until Darkus meets Baxter, an incredible, intelligent, superstar beetle. Their quest to find Darkus’ dad brings them claw to claw with globally renowned fashion designer, Lucretia Cutter. A former geneticist, Lucretia is driven by the belief that the human race is no longer capable of caring for our planet, and has created a vast army of super-beetles to become the dominant species on earth. Those humans deemed worthy of survival will be genetically modified, becoming a human-beetle hybrid - a species of which Lucretia herself will be queen.
Darkus, his three friends, and Baxter are all that stand between the human race and oblivion.
Executive Producers are Maya Leonard, Richard Tulk-Hart and Tony Wood for Buccaneer Media and Nigel Pickard and James Cabourne for Nevision.
Writer Tom MacRae said: “Until I read M. G. Leonard’s brilliant books, I thought beetles were scary and a little bit gross, but Darkus’ story has taught me to love them. Now, the rest of the two-legged world will get to fall in love with these incredible creatures too.”
M. G. Leonard, author of the ‘Beetle Boy’ book trilogy added: “I am thrilled that Tom MacRae has fallen for the charms of beetles and will be bringing Darkus and his friends to tv screens, with Framestore’s incredible CGI insects, and the production experience of Bucchaneer and Nevision. The talent, passion and ability in this team, to bring viewers something utterly fresh and unique, is beyond exciting.”
Tony Wood/ Richard Tulk-Hart, joint CEOs of Buccaneer Media said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with such a talented team to bring Maya’s ‘Beetle Boy’ to life. It’s such a unique trilogy and Tom’s brilliant interpretation together with Framestore’s world leading CGI will make an exciting creative realisation of a rich and engaging family adventure”
Nigel Pickard, Creative Director at Nevision added: “Buccaneer is the perfect partner to help steer the creative development on ‘Beetle Boy’, which has the potential to reach a wide global audience. Tom MacRae’s track record is second-to-none and we are thrilled to have someone of his calibre writing the screenplay bringing his versatility and unique style to the project.”
Michelle Martin, Head of Television at Framestore said: “As episodic projects continue to grow in scope, it's always our aim to partner directly with content producers. That way we're able to provide our expertise and become a key part of bringing stunning visuals to the screen.”
Working with Framestore to build a CGI Baxter; my rhinoceros beetle, was one of the most surreal, delightful and magical moments of my career so far. They are magicians, and yet they are also responsible for Paddington Bear!