MGM has picked up the feature film rights to adapt the Where’s Waldo? children’s books for the big screen. The books are a publishing phenomenon with more than 55 million being sold worldwide. UK illustrator Martin Handford crated the character of Wally in 1987. The name of the character changes according to territory the book is sold. In the Great Britain and Australia he’s Wally, in Estonia he’s Volli, in France he’s Charlie and in Canada and the USA he’s Waldo.
If you’ve never experienced the magic of Wally/Waldo, he’s a tall bespectacled man wearing a red and white striped jersey and beanie. He usually appears somewhere in an intricately drawn crowd scene. The reader’s mission is to locate him on the page.
It is too early to tell how this will translate into a live-action family adventure film, however it seems likely that other characters from Waldo’s world will be involved: we look forward to seeing Wilma, Wendy, Woof the dog, and Waldo’s arch-nemesis, Odlaw.
