Dreamworks makes Larrikins

Tim Minchin is working on a new animation set in the Australian outback.

The comic is writing the score and lyrics for Larrikins, about a bilby marsupial who leaves his family for adventures in the desert.

The film is being made by DreamWorks, the studio behind Shrek and Madagascar, whose chief creative officerBill Damaschke said: ‘We've been looking to work with the immensely talented Tim Minchin on something for a while, and there is no doubt that this project is a perfect fit.’

Minchin said: ‘I was lucky enough to grow-up in Western Australia and know that the Australian outback is vast and spell-binding and heart-stoppingly beautiful, and the characters that inhabit it are unique and hilarious and tough and cheeky. It's going to be bloody good fun.’

The script has been written by Harry Cripps, who also created the 2005/6 BBC Two series Supernova, in which Rob Brydon played a British astronomer working in a remote Australian observatory.

Meanwhile, Minchin will tonight learn if he has won a Tony Award for the Broadway production of Matilda The Musical. The show, for which he wrote the music, is up for 12 accolades.

Published: 9 Jun 2013