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Mr. Bean returns to big screen
(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2007-03-27 10:58

Mr. Bean [Xinhua/Reuters]

Serial blunderer Mr. Bean is back on the big screen after a 10-year absence in a new film about a mishap-strewn journey from Britain to the Cannes Film Festival in France.

"We always felt that there was another movie to be made with Mr. Bean, but it would be a very different film from the first one," said Rowan Atkinson, Bean’s creator and the star of the new blockbuster, "Mr. Bean’s Holiday."

"If we were going to make a sequel, it would have been logical to make it eight or nine years ago rather than now, but it just took time to get round to thinking about it."

The disaster-prone anti-hero, who rarely speaks and communicates largely through burbles and facial expressions, has proved hugely popular worldwide.

His first film, 1997's "Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie," netted US$260 million, which made it one of the most successful British films at the time.

But Bean first became a hit thanks to 14 half-hour television shows first aired in Britain in 1990, and which were subsequently sold to 245 countries around the world.

Bean is a more human character in his film appearances than on television: less egotistical, concerned about the mayhem which he leaves in his wake and even able to speak a few words.

"Mr. Bean's Holiday" is released across Europe this week.