Tim Minchin to write new Chitty Chitty Bang Bang songs

Reuniting with his Matilda collaborator Matthew Warchus

Tim Minchin is writing the songs for a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang remake.

The Australian comedian is reuniting with Matilda: The Musical director Matthew Warchus for the upcoming film from Amazon MGM Studios.

Confirming that the feature will once again be a musical, the film's writer, Disco Pigs creator Enda Walsh, revealed Minchin's involvement to the Irish Examiner, adding that the production is 'dark, but it feels really fun’.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is part of Amazon MGM Studios partnership with James Bond production company Eon Productions to adapt Bond creator Ian Fleming's works.

Ostensibly a whimsical tale about a flying car, it once again requires Minchin to contend with the darker undertones of Roald Dahl's storytelling, as he did creating Matilda's songbook.

Conceived by Fleming as a bedtime story for his son Caspar, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang novel was published in 1964, before being turned into a film three years later with a script by Dahl and director Ken Hughes.

Starring Dick Van Dyke and Sally Anne Howes, with Benny Hill playing the benevolent Toymaker, the story is a family adventure following inventor Caractacus Potts (Van Dyke), his two children and Truly Scrumptious (Howes), daughter of the sweet factory owner Lord Scrumptious, who restore an old car that turns out to have magical abilities, including flight and water navigation.

Embarking on a fantastical journey to the fictional country of Vulgaria, they have to rescue kidnapped children from the tyrannical Baron and Baroness Bomburst and the creepy Child Catcher, played with menace by Australian ballet dancer Robert Helpmann in the original.

Although a box office flop initially, the film was critically hailed, with the title song nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe. The film also earned a second Globe nomination for best original score.

After the Olivier and Tony Award-winning Matilda, Minchin reunited with Warchus to compose Groundhog Day The Musical, based on the Bill Murray film.

Minchin has been in the UK this month and appeared on Saturday Kitchen Live at the weekend, talking about how he approaches songwriting for musicals, including a ‘new project’ which could well be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He said: 'I guess I have an instinct for storytelling songs. It's why you never hear me on the radio and it's why I became a comedian because my songs are not like pop songs. They they do a bunch of stuff, whether it's to get a laugh or to to be satirical or critical or political.

'I just love – and I've been doing it this week for a new project – I love looking at a story and going, oh, what if that character there is in that emotional state... what's the character going through? What do we want to put the audience through? How do we place the audience in the emotional place the character's in, whether it's funny or heartbreaking or whatever.

'But it's like a puzzle to me, and I think I'm a bit different from some musicians for whom it's like, "oh, my feelings". I'm like, "no, it's a puzzle and we're going to fix this." It's broken and we're going to make it all work...'

Minchin has also been watching stage performances of Matilda in the UK and promoting the paperback anthology of his speeches for students, You Don't Have To Have A Dream.

And he has repeatedly teased his development of further musicals.

Last year he told Chortle: 'There's two or three stage musicals I'm working on.'

And he added: 'In the UK, I'm still seen as a comedian. But globally, those musicals I wrote, they weren't just a comedian having a crack. They're pretty serious shit. I am a songwriter and a composer.'

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has previously spawned a stage musical featuring the songs from the original film. Opening in 2002 and repeatedly revived across the world, the 2016-2017 UK tour featured Jason Manford as Caractacus and Phill Jupitus as Baron Bomburst.

This will not be Minchin's first time writing a song about a car, with Mitsubishi Colt a beat poem from his So Fucking Rock (Live) album satirising ostentatious displays of wealth.