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Film Rights Optioned for Bryan Talbot’s “The Tale of One Bad Rat”

By John Freeman on June 30, 2021

The rights to a film version of graphic novelist Bryan Talbot’s powerful story of an abuse survivor, The Tale of One Bad Rat, partly set in the Lake District, have been optioned by Grasp the Nettle Films, a company based in Devon and London.

The multi-award winning The Tale of One Bad Rat, first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994, has never been out of print and seen many different editions, including around 15 foreign reprints.

The story follows a runaway teenager, Helen Potter, an abuse survivor and visionary who, in the company of her pet rat, follows in the footsteps of Beatrix Potter from London to the English Lake District, there to discover her inner strength.

Grasp the Nettle Films is run by producer Rebecca Wolff and writer/director Dean Puckett, and the company are currently working on a slate of features including Magpie, a folk-horror backed by Bankside Films, one of the 2018 iFeatures projects developed with assistance from BBC Films and BFI and is now in active late-stage development; and Seagull, which they are developing in collaboration with Early Day Films.

• Buy The Tale of One Bad Rat (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)

• Bryan Talbot is online at www.bryan-talbot.com

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.