The cameras are already rolling on his latest, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, but that isn’t stopping Tim Burton from boosting the cast’s numbers. He has Allison Janney set for a role in the movie.
Based on Ransom Riggs’ novel, which Chernin Entertainment bought for 20th Century Fox back in 2011, the story follows 16-year-old Jacob (Asa Butterfield), who has grown up hearing tales of the titular orphanage’s odd residents from his grandfather. They included a girl who always floated slightly above the ground, another who could safely hold fire in her hands and twins who had a psychic connection.
When his granddad suddenly dies, leaving behind a message for his grandson, Jacob makes the trip to the ancestral home on a strange island off the coast of Wales. There he also finds the remains of Miss Peregrine’s place and discovers that some of those who lived there might not have left. Not only does the orphanage still exist – after a fashion – but also its strange inhabitants are under threat from dark forces.
Eva Green is playing Miss Peregrine, with Ella Purnell as Emma, a young woman who can control fire. There is also Samuel L. Jackson as the mysterious Barron, while Janney is aboard to play Jacob’s psychiatrist. Burton is set to deliver the film on March 4 both here and in the US.
Janney will next be seen in Paul Feig’s Spy, due here on June 5, and she’s voicing a character in Despicable Me spin-off Minions, which wanders in on June 26.