Charlie Mackesy: Last News

For the animation of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, creator Charlie Mackesy was excited to bring his book to life and allow the story to affect people in a more “stimulating” way. The short follows a boy looking for a home. Along the way, he meets animals who are also looking for a place to belong. Though the film is based on his book, Mackesy says he didn’t even plan on making a book when he started. He was just concerned with making art to represent struggles within everyone.

EXCLUSIVE: The murder mystery TV series resurgence continues. In a competitive situation, Amazon MGM Studios has landed for development Murdle, a scripted adaptation of G. T. Karber’s multi-volume collection of murder mystery puzzles, from Legendary Television.

Kate Middleton has arrived at her Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey as she continues her gradual return to public duties following her cancer treatment.

Katie Price has continued to fuel rumours that a big wedding is on the cards, as she dropped hints at an engagement on Instagram.Taking to her official podcast Instagram page, The Katie Price Show, the star posted a video that addressed an engagement. The post was a clip from the old children's TV show, Tots TV, alongside the caption: "When someone proposes to Katie Price." The clip shows character Tom saying: "I'll just have one more go, alright? And this time, I think I'm going to be able to do it.

For editorial inquiries, please contact Peter Caranicas at peter.caranicas@variety.com. SVP, AnimationBad Robot(Film & TV) Agbaje, 36, helped to bring Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” to life, earning Academy Award and BAFTA wins for animated short film, as well as four Annie Awards. Bad Robot is working on diverse animation projects across film and TV, including a two-season order for Bruce Timm’s “Batman: Caped Crusader” at Amazon, and an adaptation of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” for Warner Bros.Enduring power of animation: “I’ve seen such a resurgence and celebration of animation in different forms,” says Agbaje.

Charlie Mackesy won even more hearts with his Instagram message on a napkin to his 1.8million followers from the Oscars – more specifically, from inside the toilet where he was hiding prior to his category being announced. 

Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has changed his Instagram bio to share a message about “kindness” following his affair scandal on Friday. Phillip, 61, who earlier today released a statement in response to claims of a toxic atmosphere on This Morning, has written the quote “Nothing beats kindness, it sits quietly beyond all things” in his Instagram bio.The quote is from the book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by author Charlie Mackesy.

Olly Murs and Louise Redknapp will lead the stars playing at Flackstock festival 2023 in tribute to their late friend Caroline Flack.  Caroline tragically took her own life on February 15, 2020, aged 40. The festival is back for a second year with a host of celebrities joining forces to raise money to four charities which were close to Caroline's heart.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K.’s Embankment Films has made four key hires to lead its unscripted division. Nick Taussig and Malcolm Neaum both join as producer, unscripted; Sophie Harmer as head of production, unscripted; and Henry Farrington as head researcher. BAFTA and Grierson nominated feature documentary producer Taussig (“McQueen,” “Audrey,” “Killing Escobar”) teams with factual television series veteran Neaum (“I Shouldn’t Be Alive,” “Savile Row”) to produce varied unscripted series formats. Harmer and Taussig produced “Call Me Kate” and “Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me,” celebrating the work of this year’s Oscar-winning director and writer.

UK sales and production firm Embankment Films (The Father, The Wife) has set a wholesale rejig of its nonfiction arm with four new senior hires.

London-based PR maven Matthew Freud, joined by fellow Brit and collaborator Charlie Mackesy, offered his apologies for winning the Oscar for Short Film (Animated) for The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Apple took home its first animated short Oscar for “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” a magical fable featuring a star-studded voice cast and luxurious hand-drawn animation. The film won at the 95th Academy Awards over the category’s other nominees: Pamela Ribon and Sara Gunnarsdóttir’s buzzy “My Year of Dicks”; “The Flying Sailor” from Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby; “Ice Merchants” from João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano; and Lachlan Pendragon’s “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It.” “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” is based on the book of the same name by British artist and author Charlie Mackesy. Apple Original Films acquired the film last year and it debuted on Apple TV+ on Christmas Day 2022. The film was presented in partnership with the BBC, which made it available on broadcast and streaming in the U.K.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When writer Charlie Mackesy was searching for someone to score the music for the adaptation of his beloved book 2019 book “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” he thought of Isobel Waller-Bridge. The story about four characters who are lost and need connection is about vulnerability, and for Waller-Bridge and Mackesy, the idea of needing connectiion was best relayed through a musical palette using the piano and a cello. Here, Waller-Bridge discusses navigating the score and the most important music cues. My brother gave me the book for Christmas in 2019. I remember opening it and seeing these beautiful illustrations and these poetic words, and I just fell in love with it. When Charlie asked me to write the music for the film, it was an incredibly profound thing because this book was so precious to me and because of the impact that it has had on people through the pandemic. I felt a huge responsibility to do justice to Charlie’s vision and its existence.

As the animation team came together to adapt Charlie Mackesy’s 2019 book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, the challenge for art director Mick McCain was to recreate Mackesy’s artistic style in motion. The animated short follows a boy searching for a home. Along the way, he meets three animals who are also looking for a place to belong and begin to develop a bond. While McCain hadn’t had much experience with ink lines and watercolors at the start of the project, he had Mackesy helping to guide the animation to capture his “fluid and gestural” style. By the end of the project, McCain and the animators created hundreds of backgrounds for the animation.

Terry Flores “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has picked up another award on its march to the Oscars, nabbing the feature prize at the 50th Annie Awards, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, on Saturday evening. In addition to being named the top film by the animation industry, “Pinocchio” led the winners’ list with five trophies overall, including the award for best direction for del Toro and fellow director Mark Gustafson. The stop-motion movie also picked up wins for music (Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, del Toro and Patrick McHale), production design (Curt Enderle and Guy Davis) and character design (Tucker Barrie). Del Toro, who came directly from the PGA Awards where he received the trophy for producing ‘Pinocchio,’ was thrilled to win the Annie for direction alongside Gustafson. “Can I say this? I wanted the fucking Annie so much. It’s the most gorgeous thing in the world!” He noted that the Annies ceremony was the one place that he didn’t have to point out that animation is a medium and not a genre. “What I can say is about ‘Pinocchio’ is that it was done by artists, and the animators were treated like cast and not technicians.”

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor This article first appeared as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter – to subscribe for early content and weekly updates on all things acting, visit the Acting Up signup page. Charlie Mackesy always thought Tom Hollander would make a great mole.  More specifically, the artist who wrote and illustrated the bestselling 2019 book “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” felt the British actor was a wonderful match to voice one of his characters in the short film adaptation he co-directed with Peter Baynton. The film, now streaming on Apple TV + has charmed audiences worldwide and is nominated for an Academy Award for animated short film. 

“I used to lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling and see snowfall and imagine the characters in the book moving. It was a dream of mine to take them further than the static book drawings,” said writer-director Charlie Mackesy during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees to discuss The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

The title that saw Riz Ahmed stifle laughter, the press room crack up and Allison Williams murmur “no comment” at Oscar nominations last month hits theaters today as ShortsTV presents Oscar Nominated Short Films at circa 380 locations in 75 markets.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Apple Original Films has acquired the animated short film “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.” After becoming the first streaming service to win the Academy Award for best picture for “CODA,” the streaming platform has its eyes set on animated shorts. Based on the internationally bestselling book of the same name by celebrated author Charlie Mackesy, the film will be coming to Apple TV+ on Dec. 25. Tom Hollander, Idris Elba, Gabriel Byrne and Jude Coward Nicoll comprise the voice cast. The story follows the unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole (Hollander), a fox (Elba) and a horse (Bryne) traveling together in the boy’s search for home.

J.J. Abrams Behind BBC Christmas Adaptation; Idris Elba, Tom Hollander Aboard

Artist Charlie Mackesy wrote “Awwww” alongside a love heart emoji.While Matt’s former The One Show presenter added: “Yes boss xx.”Television presenter Nicki Chapman also waded in saying: “Followed!!”Nicola shared her first post on Instagram earlier today as she shared a snap of her, Matt and their dogs.She wrote: “Hello.Thanks for all the lovely feedback we’ve had with Our Farm in the Dales.“This was a photo shoot we did just before the first episode went out when I had no idea how much you’d all enjoy it.