Mister Benn the movie...again, and some thoughts

Thanks to Richard for prompting me to do some research via Google on the history of Mister Benn, or as most sites add NOT Mister Bean. John Hannah was to play the title role and was, along with his associate and film producer, Jevon O'Neill, attempting to raise 4 million pounds required to take the film to pre-production. This was over ten years ago, the script and screenplay had already been finalised four years previously when, in 2001 the project was shelved due to a lack of interest from the British film industry in general.

As mentioned, John Hannah was to play the lead role with Ben Kingsley as the creepy shopkeeper and Jane Horrocks as the love interest and driving force for the plot. From the odd snippets of information available on the inter web it appears that Mister Benn tragically loses his true love Monica McBride and uses the wiles of the shopkeeper to win her back through various time travelling adventures.

 The love interest aspect completely contravenes anything in the original animated series and is obviously added as a sop to the US audience where any film without a strong female lead and love interest is a big no-no. I have another idea about this as I do regarding the 'time-travel' aspect.

The project was shelved more than ten years ago and things have moved on a great deal since then. Social media has given the public a collective voice, one which media outlets ignore at their peril. I honestly believe that with an up to date script and the right amount of pressure this film can be made starting with a Facebook page to support this idea. The other driving force behind getting this idea moving is that Ricky Gervais has expressed interest in the idea:

http://www.showbizspy.com/article/225833/ricky-gervais-to-bring-back-mr-ben.html

Well, that was back in February 2011, so we can only hope that he has lost interest by now.