Paul McCartney's 'High In The Clouds' Children's Novel Becoming An Animated Movie At Netflix

Paul McCartney may be best known for his historic career in music, but he's about to take a dip into the filmmaking business for his next creative endeavor.

Netflix and Gaumont Animation, who previously collaborated on Bill Burr's animated series F is for Family, are teaming up for an animated feature adaptation of High in the Clouds, a children's adventure novel written by Paul McCartney, Geoff Dunbar, and Philip Ardag. And McCartney won't just be sitting back and watching this movie get made. 

The High in the Clouds movie hails from Oscar-nominated director Timothy Reckart (Head Over Heels, The Star), and has a script by Jon Croker, who wrote the crowd-pleasing and critically acclaimed Paddington and Paddington 2. On top of that, Paul McCartney will be writing original songs and music for the movie, as well as producing it.

If you haven't heard of High in the Clouds before, here's the official logline from Netflix:

An imaginative teenage squirrel named Wirral finds himself pulled into a ramshackle gang of teenage rebels who live high in the clouds after he accidentally antagonizes Gretsch the owl, the tyrannical leader (and fabulous singer!), who steals the voice of anyone who upstages her.

Is it just me, or does that sound like some kind of fantastical animal version of the formation of The Beatles, who many have argued were torn apart when Yoko Ono, John Lennon's second wife, came into the picture? Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but McCartney and Ono had an adversarial relationship when the latter started inserting herself into the creative collaborations between all four members of The Beatles. McCartney resented Ono for the longest time, though in recent years has publicly said that he no longer has any feelings of ill will towards her. Even so, this book, published in 2005, feels like it may have hidden meanings.

It would seem an adaptation of this book has been in the works for awhile, because the late Michael Lynne, the former co-chairman at New Line Cinema, will be credited as a producer on the project. Lynne worked closely with Lord of the Rings trilogy produce Bob Shaye, the other co-chairman at New Line, who is also producing the film. Sidonie Dumas, Christophe Riandee, Nicolas Atlan, and Terry Kalagian at Gaumont are also counted as producers.

Gregg Taylor, Netflix Director of Original Animated Films, had this to say about the High in the Clouds movie:

"Bringing the world a new animated film from the heart and mind of the brilliant Paul McCartney is undoubtedly one of the greatest thrills we've experienced at Netflix.  We're beyond grateful to be partnering with Nicolas and the Gaumont team on High in the Clouds and with Tim at the helm, this whimsical story celebrating individuality and the unifying power of music is in great hands."

We're not sure when Netflix intends to release High in the Clouds, but we'll keep you posted.