Lupus Films to adapt Benji Davies’ ‘Storm Whale’ trilogy

The Storm Whale

UK prodco Lupus Films is adapting Benji Davies’ Storm Whale children’s books as a trio of animated specials.

Announced during this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, The Storm Whale Trilogy will comprise three half-hour specials written and directed by Robin Shaw, who also directed Lupus’ Films 2019 adaptation of The Tiger Who Came To Tea.

The three books, The Storm Whale, The Storm Whale In Winter and Grandma Bird, follow the adventures of Noi, a young boy who lives on a slip of land surrounded by sea.

His hardworking, single parent fisherman dad goes out to sea every day in his boat, leaving Noi to spend most of the day outdoors, regardless of the weather, where the island becomes his playground. He has only six sleepy cats and shy sea creatures for company and finds it hard to communicate with his dad. So when he finds a baby whale washed up on the beach after a storm, Noi is excited and takes it home to care for it.

The arrival of the whale is a catalyst that changes Noi’s life, and his relationship with his dad, for the better. Across the course of the three films, Noi begins to find his place in the world, and friendship in unexpected places.

Director Robin Shaw and producers Ruth Fielding and Camilla Deakin of Lupus Films are the same team behind the hand-drawn animated TV specials The Tiger Who Came To Tea, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt and The Snowman And The Snowdog.

Shaw said that Davies’ books will “translate perfectly into wonderful family viewing with real global appeal. As well as being visually stunning, they are tremendously engaging as we follow Noi’s journey from a shy, quiet soul to a happy and self-assured boy.”

Ruth Fielding, producer and joint-MD at Lupus Films added that the books “perfectly suit Lupus’s trademark hand-drawn animation style, which really captures their essence.”