Roger Allam has been attached to play the lead in comedy pic “Hippopotamus ,” the feature adaptation of the bestselling novel by Stephen Fry. Highland Film Group is pre-selling the project in Cannes.
The pic, produced by the Electric Shadow Co., will shoot in the U.K. in August. Celestia Fox (“The Pianist”) is casting.
Allam plays disgraced poet Ted Wallace, who is summoned to his friend’s country manor to investigate a series of unexplained miracles.
Allam, whose film credits include “V for Vendetta,” and Stephen Frears’ “The Queen” and “Tamara Drewe,” has won the Olivier Award for actor three times.
Electric Shadow is a U.K.-based film production and finance company set up by John Jencks, Jay Taylor and Alexa Seligman in 2008. It made its debut with “The Fold,” directed by Jencks.
