Shawn Mendes To Voice ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ In Sony’s Adaptation Of The Classic Children’s Book

EXCLUSIVE: Sony’s highly-anticipated adaptation of the classic children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile looks to have found the musical star who will voice the lovable main character. Sources tell deadline, pop star Shawn Mendes is set to voice Lyle in Will Speck & Josh Gordon’s Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile for Sony Pictures. Javier Bardem, Constance Wu and Winslow Fegley also are on board to star. Speck & Gordon will direct, with the script being adapted by Will Davies. The film is based on the bestselling children’s book by Bernard Waber.

Published in 1965, the venerable children’s tale centers on the title reptile who lives in a house on East 88th Street in New York City. Lyle enjoys helping the Primm family with everyday chores and playing with the neighborhood kids. He’s the happiest crocodile any home ever had — until one neighbor insists that Lyle belongs in a zoo. Mr. Grumps and his cat, Loretta, don’t like crocodiles, and everything Lyle does to win them over seems to go wrong. It will take all of Lyle’s charm — and courage — to reveal the hero, and friend, behind the big crocodile smile.

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Speck & Gordon are producing alongside Hutch Parker. Dan Wilson is executive producing for Hutch Parker Entertainment and Kevin K. Vafi is executive producing for Speck & Gordon. The film’s executive producers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote original songs for the film alongside Mendes, Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick, and Joriah Kwamé. Brittany Morrissey is overseeing the project for the studio.

The film will bow on November 18, 2022.

The film would mark the first role in a major studio film for the pop-star. Mendes is a Grammy nominated, multi-platinum singer/songwriter whose 4th studio album, Wonder, debuted as #1 on the Billboard 200 Chart, marking Mendes’ fourth straight #1 album. In 2019 he was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” for “Señorita,” his single with Camila Cabello and was nominated in two categories for the 61st annual Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for In My Blood and Best Pop Vocal Album for Shawn Mendes.

Mendes is repped by Andrew Gertler (AG Artists) for management and CAA.

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