Paddington 2 Director and Star Address Film’s One Negative Review

Wonka is heading to theaters in the United States this week, and it’s a musical prequel that sees Timothée Chalamet taking on the titular role. The reviews for Wonka are pretty positive with a current critics score of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, that’s not even close to becoming director Paul King’s highest-rated movie. Paddington is up on the review site with a 97% critics score while Paddinging 2 has a 99%. Recently, King addressed the near-perfect score in an interview with Chalamet and Hugh Grant, who is in both Wonka and Paddington 2. 

Chalamet called Paddington 2 “a truly nearly perfect film” during a conversation with Entertainment Weekly.

“What was the problem?” King jokingly replied. “You were very clear with ‘nearly.’”

“The problem is the 1 percent standard deviation that I think exists on Rotten Tomatoes,” Chalamet explained.

King spoke about how Paddington 2 had a perfect 100% score on the review site “for a while.” The movie was released in 2017, but it wasn’t until Film Authority wrote a review in 2021 brought the score down to 99%.

“Somebody was so angry that they wanted to bring it down,” King said. “It’s a great human impulse to go, ‘Not you!’”

“I wrote it,” Grant joked. “Why did I do that?!”

“It’s a strange metric because it’s people who are broadly positive,” King said of Rotten Tomatoes. “Do you think Orson Welles is sad? Just going, ‘I thought I did good, and then Paddington,’” he joked in reference to Citizen Kane having the same score. 

Is Paddington 3 Happening?

Paddington 3 has been officially announced and is expected to see the return of Ben Winshaw as the voice of Paddington. According to a previous report from The Hollywood Reporter, the film is titled Paddington in Peru and has been picked up by Sony for its North American distribution.

The Paddington in Peru update came during Cannes when Sony acquired the North American rights to the threequel, which is being produced by Heyday and StudioCanal. StudioCanal will release the film in the U.K., France, Germany, Benelux, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland while Sony Pictures holds rights for the rest of the world with the exception of Russia, China, and Japan.

King will not be returning to direct the third movie. Paddington in Peru is set to be the feature directorial debut of Dougal Wilson, the award-winning commercials and music video director. 

“We have long been huge admirers of Dougal’s work, his stunning visual creativity, his storytelling, heart, emotion and humour,” Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh and EVP Global Production Ron Halpern said in a statement when production began. “We are so thrilled that Dougal will be directing the third Paddington film. We look forward to bringing Paddington back to Peru for his next big screen adventure.” 

“After ten years of working on the Paddington movies, I feel absurdly protective of the little bear, and I’m delighted that Dougal will be there to hold his paw as he embarks on his third big screen adventure,” said Paul King, who directed the first two Paddington movies. “Dougal’s work is never less than astounding: funny, beautiful, heartfelt, imaginative, and totally original. Aunt Lucy once asked us to ‘Please Look After This Bear.’ I know Dougal will do so admirably.”

Stay tuned for more updates about Paddington 3. Wonka is set to be released exclusively in theaters on December 15th.