New role for Durrell's Superman?

Thursday 28 August 2014

Durrell could be a step closer to seeing their founder immortalised on the silver screen and believe their new ambassador Henry Cavill would be a “superman” to play him.

The trust say they have been in talks this summer with a Hollywood director who has been in the Island with his script for Gerald Durrell’s "A Zoo in my Luggage" - a book his wife would love to see made into a film.

Speaking in an interview posted on an unofficial Henry Cavill website Lee Durrell said: “Having met Henry and spent some time with him at the Park, I can really see him playing Gerald Durrell himself! He looks not unlike Gerry as a young man, although he would have to change his hair colour to dark blonde.

“The book I feel would make a great movie is A Zoo in my Luggage, with a little bit of Menagerie Manor used at the end. It would be both an action film and a period piece – an 'Indiana Jones meets Dr Doolittle’. But I would really like to see a feature film made of Gerry’s life, and Henry would be perfect for that.”

A Zoo in my Luggage, which was first published in 1960, tells the story of Durrell’s animal collecting trip to British Cameroon in the late 50’s – how he went to catch a python and had an encounter with a hippo.

Gerald Durrell wrote dozens of books including My Family and other Animals, The Aye-Aye and I, Catch me a Colobus and The Stationary Ark but always insisted he only wrote them to fund his work with animals.

Durrell’s Communications Officer Rick Jones who has been driving their campaign on social media to get a film made says the script is fantastic and the director has now gone back stateside to try to get some producers on board.