(Photo: Getty Images)

Hugh Laurie and Emilia Clarke are to lead the voice cast in The Amazing Maurice, an animated movie based on a comic fantasy novel by the late Sir Terry Pratchett.

David Thewlis, Gemma Arterton, Hugh Bonneville, and Himesh Patel have also been cast in the movie, which is being directed by Toby Genkel (Yakari, a Spectacular Journey).

Published in 2001, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents was the 28th novel in Pratchett's enormously popular Discworld series, but the first specifically targeted at a young-adult audience. Laurie will provide the voice of the title character, a cunning feline who befriends a group of talking rats and a boy who can play the pipe. Together, they concoct a lucrative scheme to infest a town with rats, then lead them away... but it doesn't quite go as planned.

The movie is being made by the U.K.'s Sky Cinema with the full backing of the Pratchett estate. Sky's Sarah Wright told Variety: “The Amazing Maurice is a fantastic story from a legendary author, and I couldn’t think of a better tale to bring to life as an animated film for all the family. I’m excited to work with Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media to bring this exclusive new movie to Sky Cinema audiences in 2022."

In the meantime, you can whet your appetite with BBC America's upcoming original series The Watch, also based on Pratchett's Discworld series and scheduled to premiere in January of 2021.

Are you a fan of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series?