Rats! They’re everywhere … In the breadbins, dancing across the tabletops, stealing pies from under the cook’s noses. So, what does every town need? A good piper to lure them away. That’s where Maurice, a streetwise tomcat with the perfect money-making scam, comes in.
Everyone has heard of the stories about the pied piper and the town full of rodents. So, Maurice has found his very own pied piper and a plague of rats to trick gullible townsfolk into giving him lots of cash.

Directed by: Toby Genkel

Written by: Terry Rossio

Produced by: Emely Christians, Andrew Baker, Robert Chandler

Cinematography: Faraz Hameed

Editing: Friedolin Dreesen

Production Design: Heiko Hentschel

Sound: Matt Baird, Michal Maletz

Original Score: Tom Howe

Visual Effects: Andre Correia

Casting Director: Debbie McWilliams, Jemima McWilliams

Original Title: THE AMAZING MAURICE

Film Production Country: Germany

Website: https://amazingmauricefilm.com/

Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/TheAmazingMaurice
https://www.instagram.com/theamazingmaurice/
https://twitter.com/MauriceFilm
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDWQ5WkYYgWDaI305lZ5yPg
Statement of the Director/s
What a great honour to have the opportunity to film a Terry Pratchett book. After reading THE AMAZING MAURICE, I was even more thrilled to bring this fantastic novel to the big screen.

My enthusiasm for this book notwithstanding, a story as extraordinary as this begs the question: how to make it family-friendly? This question has been answered skillfully by scriptwriter, Terry Rossio. He has succeeded in capturing, distilling, and bringing to the page the original, effortlessly cool and subtle humour of Pratchett. For the production, it was by using Pratchett’s atypical sense-of-humour and then carefully editing the visual elements to moderate the darker aspects of the story that we could ensure the film lands as family entertainment without losing the notorious Terry Pratchett edge.

Visually, this was achieved by using from the get-go bright colours and upbeat music – for example, the opening scene of the village and the appearance of the rats is comic and fast paced. The sheer joy that the rats take in their work – tap dancing in the butter and blowing raspberries at the villagers – will immediately allow our audience to appreciate the fun and mischief behind their scam. Where we head into darker elements of the story, we do not shy away from these, but Pratchett’s comic twist is apparent, ensuring the audience appreciates our hero’s jeopardy while laughing at the bumbling antics of the henchmen rat catchers and dogs, who, while enthusiastic, manage to convey their ineptitude rather than menace.

The international audience is expecting a lot from a Terry Pratchett movie and we will not disappoint. We created a piece that delivers on the promise of the novel in its visual and narrative vigour. I’m always impressed with how Pratchett manages to be casual and light-hearted yet, at the same time, unyielding, critical and edgy. This is exactly the spirit we brought to our film.

The visual and audio levels work in absolute harmony. I am overjoyed to have found the perfect partners in Terry Rossio’s scriptwriting alongside Carter Goodrich’s initial character designs harnessed to Production & Character Designer and Art Director Heiko Hentschel’s brilliant visual sense. These partners are just as passionate about understanding the spirit of Pratchett as I am and delivering at the same level.

We placed equally high demands on sound, with voice casting and voice directing playing a particularly important role. Such brilliantly written characters demand actors that stand up to this high level of quality and our cast sure does! In the score, too, we found a composer, Tom Howe, who understands the world of the film as vividly as we do.

To say I am excited about this production is an under-statement. I feel as if I have been preparing for a film like this my whole life. I am ready to introduce a whole new generation of people to Terry Pratchett’s enthralling imagination.

Biography of the Director/s
Toby began his career as a storyboard artist and designer in 1991 and has over 20 years’ experience as an animation director. He has worked with Ulysses Films on their most recent animated movies including the award-winning Ooops! Noah is gone… (2015) and Richard the Stork (2017). Toby’s films were nominated for the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale and for the Golden Goblet at the Shanghai International Filmfestival for ‘Best Animation Feature Film’, they won the Bavarian Film Prize, the Lux Filmfest and numerous national and international awards. In Ooops! The Adventure Continues Toby created, together with his team, a sequel that surpassed the original. For the Terry Pratchett adaptation The Amazing Maurice, Toby corralled a world-class cast, including Hugh Laurie, David Thewlis, David Tennant and Emilia Clarke, and directed the acclaimed movie in two animation studios based in Germany and the UK, showing the splendour, depth and adventure of Pratchett’s Discworld and its characters in a way that has never been seen before.

Filmography of the Director/s
2022 - THE AMAZING MAURICE, Animation
2021 - THE OGGLIES, Animation
2020 - OOOPS! THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES, Animation
2020 - YAKARI, Animation
2017 - RICHARD THE STORK, Animation
2015 - OOOPS! NOAH IS GONE, Animation
2011 - LEGENDS OF VALHALLA: THOR, Animation
2007 - DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN, Animation
2004 - DIETER DER FILM, Animation
2003 - WERNER 4, Animation

Production Company:
Ulysses Filmproduktion
Emely Christians
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +4940339889810
Website: www.ulyssesfilms.de

World Sales:
Global Screen
Klaus Rasmussen
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +49892441295561
Website: www.globalscreen.de
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