Hugh Jackman Starring in ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’

(Left) Hugh Jackman attends ‘The Adam Project’ World Premiere at Alice Tully Hall on February 28, 2022 in New York City. Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Netflix. (Center Left) Emma Thompson in Prime Video’s ‘Late Night.’ (Center Right) Hong Chau attends the ‘The Night Agent’ Los Angeles special screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on March 20, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Netflix. (Right) Nicholas Braun on season 4 of HBO’s ‘Succession.’ Photograph by Macall B. Polay/HBO.

Preview:

Hugh Jackson will play a farmer in ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’
Emma Thompson, Nicholas Braun and more are also in the cast.
Animation veteran Kyle Balda is directing the live-action mystery comedy.

Here’s an unusual project, which almost sounds more like a project for Britain’s Aardman Animation (given their success with ‘Shaun the Sheep’) but is in fact a new live-action comedy.

Hugh Jackman is on board to lead the cast for new movie ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’ (we just checked the date to be sure, and it’s not April 1st), which will follow some ovine crime solvers raised on murder mysteries who have to figure out who killed their shepherd.

What’s the story of ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’?

Aardman Animations’ ‘Shaun the Sheep’. Photo: Netflix.

The film follows George Hardy (Jackman), a shepherd who loves his sheep and raises them only for their wool. Every night he reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand, never suspecting that not only can they understand but they argue for hours afterwards about whodunnit.

When George is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the sheep realize at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it. The local cop Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), on the other hand, has never solved a serious crime in his life, so the sheep conclude they will have to solve it themselves, even if it means leaving their meadow for the first time and facing the fact that the human world isn’t as simple as it appears in books.

Who will be in the cast for ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’?

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios’ ‘Deadpool and Wolverine. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.

Alongside Jackman and Braun, the cast is an eclectic mix of big names and rising actors including Emma Thompson, Nicholas Galitzine (‘The Idea of You’), Molly Gordon (‘Theater Camp’), Hong Chau (‘The Whale’), Tosin Cole (‘Bob Marley: One Love’), Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (‘Wonka’), Conleth Hill (‘Game of Thrones’) and Mandeep Dhillon (‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’).

Who is making ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’?

2017’s ‘Despicable Me 3.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.

Behind the camera for this one is Kyla Balda, who has largely spent his career in animation, and has directed the likes of ‘Minions’ and ‘Despicable Me 3’.

The script comes from Craig Mazin, who these days is more known as the executive producer behind dark dramas ‘Chernobyl’ and ‘The Last of Us’, but before that wrote the comedic likes of the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise and ‘The Hangover’ movies.

He’s adapting Leonie Swann’s novel, which was published in Germany in 2005 under its original title ‘Glennkill’. The book became an instant hit, leading the German bestseller charts for months and winning Swann the prestigious Glauser Prize for crime fiction in the debut category, as well as a PETA Award.

When will ‘Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie’ be in theaters?

Amazon MGM is backing the new movie, and has penciled in a February 20th, 2026 theatrical release for the new movie. If that changes, we will keep ewe… sorry, you, informed.