Monday 03 November 2014
Paddington designs by David Beckham, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman, Emma Watson, and Benedict Cumberbatch were unveiled today for the first time ahead of the launch of The Paddington Trail tomorrow
3 NOVEMBER 2014 – LONDON. Today VisitLondon.com, the NSPCC and STUDIOCANAL revealed 15 of the much anticipated statues for The Paddington Trail, sponsored by Barclaycard. The stunning statues were accompanied by some of the celebrities and artists who designed the unique artworks that will go on display across London from tomorrow (Tuesday 4 November).
Bears revealed included David Beckham’s ‘Golden Paws’, Emma Watson’s ‘Flutterby’, Benedict Cumberbatch’s ‘Sherlock Bear’, Peter Capaldi’s ‘Paddington Who?’, Stephen Fry’s ‘Paddington is GREAT’, Nicole Kidman’s ‘Blush’ and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s ‘The Bear of London’: from Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral to Tower Bridge – this Paddington wears his love for London on his sleeve.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said, “London has a fine tradition of welcoming visitors from overseas and Paddington Bear is no exception. I hope Londoners and visitors to our great capital will follow the trail and perhaps offer him a Marmalade sandwich or two wherever they find him.”
Visitors will be able to follow in the furry footsteps of the world’s favourite Peruvian explorer visiting locations across the capital from as far west as Heathrow through to the O2 in the east, taking in some of London’s key cultural and landmark hotspots such as The Royal Opera House, Museum of London, Horse Guards Parade, the Museum of Childhood, Selfridges and, of course, Paddington Station.
Visitlondon.com has a dedicated section of their website which details a full list of designers and their designs and will enable visitors to London to find out more about the trail and download the trail map, share their pictures and discover the stories behind each statue and location. VisitLondon.com/Paddington.
The final four statue designers were also revealed as: celebrated artist Marc Quinn, world renowned architect Zaha Hadid, supermodel Kate Moss whose ‘Goldiebear’ is currently in the Christmas themed window of Selfridges and Hollywood superstar Sandra Bullock who has created a GRAVITY inspired design of Paddington in an astronaut’s outfit which will be hung from the ceiling at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
This morning Hugh Bonneville, who plays Mr Brown in the forthcoming PADDINGTON film released in UK cinemas on 28 November 2014, joined fashion designer, Lulu Guinness and others to reveal their designs ahead of the overnight installation of all 50 bear statues in time for fans and visitors to London to see them in all their glory, up close and personal from Tuesday 4 November.
London based design company 3DEye has helped to create the three foot six inch tall statues, which will be auctioned online by Christie’s from 10 December to raise vital funds for the NSPCC and its ChildLine service, helping to ensure that children and young people have someone to turn to in times of need in the same way as Mr and Mrs Brown were there for Paddington.
Peter Wanless, CEO of the NSPCC said: “It’s so exciting to see the capital being taken over by this famous duffle coat wearing bear, and I hope that Londoners and visitors to the capital alike will enjoy exploring The Paddington Trail over the coming weeks. In the Paddington stories, Aunt Lucy implored Londoners to ‘please look after this bear’ and we’ll be giving people the chance to do just that when the statues are auctioned off later in the year in support of our ChildLine service.”
David Chan, CEO of Barclaycard Europe said: “We’re proud to be supporting The Paddington Trail in aid of the NSPCC and its ChildLine service, and we hope it will raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to protect children from abuse and help give them a better future. Barclaycard has been part of everyday life for nearly as long as Paddington bear, and during that time we’ve launched some of the biggest innovations in payments – most recently introducing contactless payments across the whole London transport network. With thousands of people expected to explore The Paddington Trail, we’re encouraging everyone to go contactless when using the tube or bus in order to make it even easier to visit the 50 fantastic Paddington statues located across the capital.”
The list of adventurous designers also includes other stars of the Paddington film Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters and Ben Whishaw, Hollywood actor Michael Sheen, director Guy Ritchie, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, globally renowned photographer Rankin, leading fashion designer Matthew Williamson, painter and street artist Inkie, illustrator Hannah Warren, presenters Davina McCall, Ant McPartlin Declan Donnelly and Jonathan Ross, explorer and survival expert Bear Grylls, and both Chelsea football team and the England rugby union team.
Paddington’s origins date back almost sixty years to when his creator, Michael Bond, bought a small bear from Selfridges on Christmas Eve 1956, as a present for his wife, and named him after the nearest railway station to which they lived.
Selfridges is the Trail’s retail partner and will be selling a selection of statue miniatures from a dedicated Paddington concept store showcasing a variety of Paddington related products and artifacts. The Paddington Curiosity Shop has been created especially to celebrate the historic link between the store and the famous bear as well as raising funds for the NSPCC and its ChildLine service.
In Michael Bond’s original tales, the young bear finds himself alone in a big and unfamiliar city. Taken in by the Brown family, he finds a warm welcome and a safe place to stay and sets out to discover more about his adopted city.
Due for release in UK cinemas on 28 November 2014, the big screen debut of PADDINGTON will showcase many of the trail locations in the capital, including his first port of entry – Paddington station. The film from Heyday Films and STUDIOCANAL is written and directed by Paul King (Bunny and the Bull, The Mighty Boosh) produced by David Heyman (Gravity, Harry Potter) and boasts an all-star cast including Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman with Ben Whishaw as the voice of PADDINGTON.
To find out more about The Paddington Trail, go to www.visitlondon.com/paddington or follow #PaddingtonTrail
For further details on the Paddington movie, visit www.paddington.com
Notes to Editors
The lead charity partner is the NSPCC. Two of the statues – designed by Rankin and Davina McCall – will be auctioned in support of Action Medical Research for Children for whom Paddington has been the official mascot for over 35 years.
Paddington and Company own and control the worldwide rights to Paddington Bear www.paddington.com
The trail is brought to the capital by London Partners, www.facebook.com/studiocanaluk and the
NSPCC and sponsored by Barclaycard.
PADDINGTON TRAIL MAP, STATUE IMAGES AND BROADCAST QUALITY BEHIND THE SCENES AND MAKING OF THE TRAIL EPK FILM ARE AVAILABLE FOR USE:
The Paddington Trail Map, statue images, video/EPK and accompanying b-roll is available here:
The FILM is HD broadcast quality, access media worldwide, all rights cleared including music.
HD and SD Broadcast quality TV footage can also be accessed via:
Newsmarket: www.thenewsmarket.com/londonandpartners
For further details on the Paddington movie, visit www.paddington.com.
Paddington Trailer is available at:
Username: paddington.trailer@dmsukltd.com
Password: letmein
About London Partners
London Partners is the official promotional organisation for London, attracting and delivering value to business, students and visitors. We work to maintain London’s position as the best international visitor destination in the world by marketing to established and emerging markets. We work with the travel industry to promote London to individual leisure travellers and groups worldwide.
For more information on London attractions visit www.visitlondon.com
About the NSPCC
The NSPCC is the only UK wide charity solely focused on preventing cruelty to children. The charity works directly with vulnerable children in 40 locations across the UK providing therapy, support and advice to them and their families. The NSPCC helpline provides a 24 hour phone number for adults to report child abuse or seek advice. The charity also runs ChildLine which takes hundreds of thousands contacts a year from children and young people and visits primary schools throughout the country. The NSPCC also successfully campaigns for laws and policies to protect children and bring abusers to justice.
For more information visit www.nspcc.org.uk
About STUDIOCANAL
STUDIOCANAL is a subsidiary of the CANAL+ Group. It is one of Europe’s leading companies in the market for co-production, acquisition, distribution and sales of international feature films and TV series. STUDIOCANAL is the only studio operating simultaneously in three main European territories – France, the United Kingdom and Germany – as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, STUDIOCANAL owns one of the most important libraries in the world, with more than 5,000 international titles.
STUDIOCANAL’s production ambitions have included the Coen’s INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, with Justin Timberlake, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman, that was awarded the Jury’s Grand Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, NON STOP directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, with Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Michelle Dockery, Susanne Bier’s SERENA, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, THE GUNMAN produced by Joel Silver, directed by Pierre Morel with Sean Penn, Javier Bardem and Idris Elba, MACBETH starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, directed by Justin Kurtzel, Stephen Frear’s next film about Lance Armstrong’s story with Ben Foster, Guillaume Canet and Dustin Hoffman, PADDINGTON, produced by Harry Potter’s producer David Heyman, based on the famous, and hugely popular, bear in the duffle coat loved by families worldwide, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Bonneville and SHAUN THE SHEEP in partnership with Aardman Animations, bringing one of their most popular animated characters to the big screen.
STUDIOCANAL also invests locally on productions such as MAN UP written by Tess Morris and directed by Ben Palmer (The Inbetweeners) starring Simon Pegg and Lake Bell currently in post-production, in France BILLY AND BUDDY with Frank Dubosc and Marina Foïs and CHINESE PUZZLE directed by Cédric Klapisch with Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris, and the studio will soon announce local German productions.
STUDIOCANAL also produces family and animation films, notably through an exclusive deal with Belgian company nWave, a European leader in 3D production. They produced SAMMY’s adventures and the forthcoming HOUSE OF MAGIC.
Finally STUDIOCANAL is also developing into international TV series, strengthening its position as a European leader in content. In January 2012, STUDIOCANAL became a major shareholder in Tandem Communications, one of the leading European companies for international primetime event TV productions and worldwide distribution of quality television programs (CROSSING LINES, PILLARS OF THE EARTH, LABYRINTH, WORLD WITHOUT END…). And in December 2013, STUDIOCANAL took a majority stake in RED Production Company, British producers of high-standard TV series (QUEER AS FOLK, LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX awarded by 2 BAFTAS including Best Television Drama Series…)
For further information visit www.studiocanal.com
Contact
London Partners contact details:
Rebekah Clement, Media PR Manager – Leisure Tourism
Tel: +44 (0)20 7234 5861 / +44 (0) 7826 907 415
rclement@londonandpartners.com
Twitter: @London_PR
STUDIOCANAL contact details:
Suzanne Noble, Head of Publicity and Corporate Communications
0207 534 2724
suzanne.noble@studiocanal.co.uk
NSPCC contact details:
Sarah Dade, Senior Communications Officer
020 3772 9075
sarah.dade@NSPCC.org.uk
Premier contact details:
Christina Joyce, PR Director
Premier
Tel: 020 7292 8352
Christina.Joyce@premiercomms.com
Barclaycard contact details:
Helen Lacey, Head of Public Relations
020 3555 5554
helen.lacey@barclaycard.co.uk
Selfridges contact details:
Yvadney Davis
Selfridges Press Office
0207 318 3121
yvadney.davis@selfridges.co.uk
