'Teletubbies' funeral?
BBC begins preschool 'Garden'
By Steve Clarke
LONDON -- She may be nearing 70, but Anne Wood, Britain's most successful producer of TV programs for very young children, is at work on a big screen adaptation to her hit "Teletubbies."
Pitching to a slightly younger audience, "{Title Omitted}," which begins production this week in the U.K., reunites Wood with "Teletubbies" writer and composer Andy Davenport.
Rumors have swirled around the developments of this long anticipated project. We are even seeing children’s apps being developed to help promote the film across a variety of media, as well as across the pond....
..."I felt it would be great to make a really classic children's movie that was calming and allowed time for reflection," she says. "No one ever really takes the time to look back and reflect."
Statements like this smack of hype. Which is why word of a funeral as the last scene have spread so prevalently. Reportedly Davenport, who wrote the entire series, was convinced there was an opportunity to create a preschool show that deals with the idea of tots sleeping, dreaming and waking. "But not death." he reveals to us. "That's utterly false. I mean, it's like waiting for the egg to drop, it just ain't gonna happen, not in this film. Or any other"
As for a U.S. sale, PBS would be the perfect destination, following "{TITLE OF FILM OMITTED}," but Wood wonders if the Obama administration's stricture that children's shows on the big screen must demonstrate clear educational objectives might count against it, especially with the furor over Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby, which the Sarah Palin denounced a few years ago as being gay, based on the color, triangle on its head and the fact the character carries a handbag.
