‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ Remake Adds Director Matthew Warchus

The forthcoming remake of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” prepares to take flight with director Matthew Warchus (“Matilda the Musical,” “Pride”) boarding the production.

Tony and Olivier award winner Warchus will direct the film, based on the classic children’s story about a magical flying car, from a script by Tony winner Enda Walsh (“Small Things Like These”).

The new movie, which Eon Productions and Amazon MGM Studios announced earlier this month, is in the early stages of development. The project builds on the partnership between the studio and the “James Bond” producers amid their search for the new MI6 agent following Daniel Craig’s retirement from the role, following 2021’s “No Time to Die.”

Originally written by Bond creator Ian Fleming as a bedtime story for his son Casper, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was adapted for the big screen in 1968. Dick Van Dyke starred in the kid-friendly musical fantasy film, directed by Ken Hughes, produced by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and written by Roald Dahl, Ken Hughes and Richard Maibaum. The story followed widowed odd-ball inventor Caractacus Potts (Van Dyke) and his children, who salvage a scrapped racing car with magical abilities in pre-war England. The film’s title song was nominated for an Oscar.

English theater director and filmmaker Warchus helmed “Matilda the Musical” for both the stage and the big screen. The 2022 movie was nominated for a BAFTA for outstanding British film, his second nomination following 2015’s “Pride.” Warchus has been the artistic director of London’s The Old Vic since 2015, where under his tenure (he has announced plans to step down in 2026), the theater has given world premieres to more than two dozen works, and transferred many productions to the West End and Broadway.

Walsh is an Irish playwright and screenwriter whose acclaimed works include 2008’s “Hunger” (which he co-wrote with director Steve McQueen), “Jules in the City” (based on the life and music of Rufus Wainwright) and the books for the musicals “Once,” for which he won a Tony Award, and “Sing Street.”