Nicola Coughlan Joins 'The Magic Faraway Tree' Cast

As we noted during the Cannes Film Festival, the Cannes Market, which is the secondary event happening just out of public view during the annual event, is where many of the deals to make independent productions get off the ground. However, it's never easy to pick out which projects that are announced with great fanfare are really just "pie-in-the-sky" hopefuls looking to snag a backer, and which are really happening no matter what goes down with buyers. The Magic Faraway Tree was one that looked like a decently sure thing: A production schedule that would start in June 2024, with A-listers Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield signed on to star and Call The Midwife's Neal Street Productions leading production. But when no distributor was announced as signing on, it became a producer's choice situation: Move forward with the planned schedule or hold until someone agreed to buy it. 

Neal Street and its main backer, Ashland Hill Media Finance, are sticking to the original plan, with the confidence that once there is footage, a distributor will jump in. The project certainly feels like one that shouldn't have a problem finding someone to put it in theaters. Based on the beloved British children's series The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton, published between 1939 and 1951, the stories feature three siblings who move near an enchanted wood in which they find the gigantic magical Faraway Tree, with branches that reach the clouds and a trunk large enough to function as an apartment building. Four novels cover the adventures they have exploring it.

Garfield (We Live In Time) and Foy (The Crown) signed on to play the family patriarch and matriarch, Polly and Tim, with the three main roles of children Beth, Joe, and Fran still to be cast. With the project now confirmed to be moving ahead, the characters they meet during their time exploring the tree have been cast, leaving only the children to be announced.

Here's the film's synopsis:

Based on The Faraway Tree series of children's novels, The Magic Faraway Tree follows Polly and Tim Thompson and their children, Beth, Joe, and Fran, who find themselves forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. There, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric occupants. 

Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) has joined the cast as the woodland fairy Silky, Nonso Anozie (Ted Lasso) takes on the self-appointed group leader Moonface, and Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer) will play Dame Washalot. The cast is rounded out by Dustin Demri-Burns (Slow Horses) as the Saucepan Man, Mark Heap (The School for Good & Evil) as Mr. Oom Boom Boom, Oliver Chris (Trying) as Mr. Watzisname, and Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, and Simon Russell Beale are the trio of mystical wise men from the Land of Know-Alls. 

Ben Gregor (Britannia) is directing the feature, with Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) adapting the novel for the big screen. The film is produced by Pippa Harris and Nicolas Brown of Neal Street Productions, along with Danny Perkins of Elysian Film Group, and Jane Hooks. Executive Producers include Ashland Hill Media Finance’s Simon Williams, Joe Simpson, Jonathan Bross, and Palisades Park Pictures’ Tamara Birkemoe.

Filming for The Magic Faraway Tree is expected to start later in June 2024, with an aimed 2025 release date in theaters.