Yet another Roald Dahl adaptation is coming to Netflix, Deadline reports.
The streaming service will air an animated film based on Dahl’s The Twits in 2025. The children’s novel, published in the U.S. in 1981, tells the story of a hateful couple who play practical jokes on each other out of spite. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Dahl describes all this unredeemed viciousness with a spirited, malevolent glee that plays shamelessly, and no doubt successfully, to kids' malicious impulses and unmerciful sense of justice.”
The Netflix adaptation will be directed by Phil Johnston, who helmed the 2018 animated feature Ralph Breaks the Internet. Johnston wrote the screenplay with Meg Favreau (Total Eclipse); Katie Shanahan and Todd Demong will co-direct.
Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the rights to the children’s author’s copyrights, in 2021. The streamer released Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical the following year. Later this month, Netflix will air four short films directed by Wes Anderson based on Dahl’s work; an adaptation of the author’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is in the works.
In a statement, director Johnston said, “I love the Twits and their terrible tricks. I love that they lack self-awareness and personal hygiene and any inkling of human decency. And I love this movie because it reminds us that twits like the Twits, whose default emotions are anger and vengeance, can’t be allowed to win in our world.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
