Robert Downey Jr”s big-screen take on Doctor Dolittle is deep into pre-production in the UK with principal photography due to begin next month.

Downey Jr stars as the charismatic physician who has the ability to talk to animals, whose company he generally prefers to that of humans.

Hugh Lofting created the character in a series of books published over a period of 30 years beginning in 1920 with The Story of Doctor Dolittle.

The shoot dates and studio are listed on Production Intelligence along with the names of the casting director, UPM, line producer, production designer, DoP, production co-ordinator and location manager.

Susan Downey is producing the Universal film alongside Jeff Kirschenbaum and Jeff Roth, with Stephen Gaghan directing from a screenplay he wrote with Thomas Shepherd. Jim Broadbent and Harry Collett are lined up to co-star.

Inward investment features continue to provide a huge uplift to the UK film industry – in the first nine months of 2017 they accounted for around £1.6bn of the total £1.8bn film production spend.

Disney has been a major contributor to the purple patch with the behemoth Star Wars franchise based at Pinewood and a series of live-action remakes of the studio”s animated classics – such as Aladdin and Dumbo – making their homes here.

Photo via Getty Images Ent/WireImage/Gary Gershoff.