Netflix has unveiled the full cast of its upcoming animated adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s The Twits.
Joining the previously announced Johnny Vegas, Margo Martindale, Emilia Clarke and Natalie Portman are Never Have I Ever star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Beesha, Ryan Lopez as Busby, Timothy Simons as Marty Muggle-Wump, Nicole Byer as Beverly Onion, and Jason Mantzoukas as Mayor Wayne John John-John.
Also starring in the Jellyfish Pictures feature is Alan Tudyk as Sweet Toed Toad, Mark Proksch as Horvis Dingle, Rebecca Wisocky as Dee Dumdie-Dungle and Charlie Berens as Gorb Klurb.
Phil Johnston’s film, landing on the platform Oct. 17, will also feature three original songs from Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, performed by the cast and titled, “We’re Not Like Ev’ryone Else,” “Lullaby,” and “The Problem Is You.” Byrne teams up with Paramore’s Hayley Williams on the end title song, “Open the Door.”
The Twits, co-directed by Katie Shanahan and Todd Demong, marks the first screen adaptation inspired by the characters from book by Dahl, of the same name, which has been translated into 41 languages and sold 16 million copies worldwide.
Byrne said: “Phil was wonderfully clear what each song needed to express and what the character was feeling at that moment. I reached out to Hayley Williams to collaborate on the end credits song and we both agreed that it should serve to remind us that there is heart and connection in the story after all the unpleasantness depicted by Mr. and Mrs. Twit. Hayley was inspired by Beesha’s story and came up with some lyric ideas, and I set them to tune and boom.”
Williams added: “Being a part of this movie is like one pinch-me moment after another. My favorite Roald Dahl book growing up was The Twits. I’m drawn to learning about twisted characters like Mr. and Mrs. Twit and The Wormwoods from Matilda. The way Phil and Daisy adapted the original story was really exciting to me, as was the animation style. It feels like a cautionary tale — and also a really lovely depiction of chosen family and community, which is one of my favorite topics. I owe David Byrne for pulling me into the music for this. It was so fun and so surreal starting a song from scratch with him.”
A plot synopsis reads: “The Twits tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Twit, the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world who also happen to own and operate the most disgusting, most dangerous, most idiotic amusement park in the world, Twitlandia.”
“But when the Twits rise to power in their town, two brave children and a family of magical Muggle-Wumps, are forced to become as tricky as the Twits in order to save the city.”
Oscar nominee Johnston (best known for Wreck-It Ralph) said he “still can’t quite believe” he’s spent the last few years collaborating with Byrne, a childhood music hero of his. “From the first demo he sent me, on which the featured instrument was a 100-year-old banjolele, I knew I was going to love the songs he wrote. Throughout the process, my collaboration with David has been incredibly fun and surprisingly easy, probably because I’ve been stealing from him for so long.”
He continued: “When David and I started talking about an end credit song, the first potential collaborator David brought up was Hayley Williams. The first word I said was ‘yes.’ Followed by ‘please.’ I still can’t quite believe that two of my favorite songwriters wrote a song together for The Twits. The saying, ‘never meet your heroes’ simply does not apply here. [I] met two of them, and boy howdy, it’s been a dream come true.”