Tibor Jones agent Laura Macdougall is representing Broadbent in his first foray into books, a collaboration with the Welsh illustrator Dix on the graphic novel DULL MARGARET.
Broadbent, who won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 2002 playing John Bayley in Iris, is known for a variety of roles including the club owner in Moulin Rouge, Professor Slughorn in the Harry Potter series and father to the titular character in the three Bridget Jones films.
The actor was inspired to write DULL MARGARET after seeing Bruegel’s painting, Dulle Griet, which features “a strong, intense woman striding determinedly across the landscape”.
Broadbent said: “I come from Lincolnshire and have long been fixated on the flat coastal marshes, and I wanted to bring those two elements together in a film script. The story began to unfold from there, incorporating images from more of my favourite artists: Goya’s witches, Daumier’s pictures of Travelling Players, Rembrandt’s flat, low country landscapes.”
Broadbent first wrote DULL MARGARET as a film script but said: “Having garnered a lot of interest in the idea of making a film, it was impossible to find anyone to put up the quite large sum of money required”. He then contacted Dix—perhaps best known for his Roll Up! Roll Up comics in the Guardian—and the two began collaborating.
Laura Macdougall said: “Working with Jim and Dix on their first collaboration is incredibly exciting, especially at a time when the graphic novel market is really taking off. DULL MARGARET is not only a brilliant combination of author and illustrator, it’s also a dark and interesting tale of greed, friendship and loneliness.”
You can read more about this exciting news and see some exclusive images in The Guardian.