The Tale of Despereaux

Work has begun on yet another animated film from Sylvain Chomet's stable. I understand that Chomet himself is directing The Illusionist, so it's not clear who is charged with steering The Tale of Despereaux to the screen.

The film, funded by Universal, has now entered its visual development phase up at Chomet's studio, Django Films in Edinburgh, while Framestore will eventually be handling the animation.

The Tale of Despereaux is adapted from Kate DiCamillo's charming book, winner of the Newbury Medal in 2004. Despereaux Tilling, the lead character, is a mouse - pitching this film quite squarley against Pixar's Ratatouille and Aardman's Flushed Away. Of course, Pixar's film has been in production the longest, even though Aardman's is going to be first out of the gate. Beside's Chomet's involvement, another clear tick in Despereaux's column is the presence of Gary Ross as one of the film's producers.

May the best mouse win.