For the first
time, a boy – Jeremy
Sumpter (Frailty) – stars in the title role, opposite
Jason Isaacs (The Patriot, Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets) as Captain James Hook. The fairies will twinkle
and Neverland will fill you with wonder, but don’t
drop your guard. The battle between Hook and Pan has never
been fought by enemies so evenly matched.
The story begins
on a chilly night in buttoned-up Edwardian London as Wendy
Darling (Rachel
Hurd-Wood) mesmerizes her younger brothers with tales of
swordplay, swashbuckling and Captain Hook, the legendary
pirate who fears nothing but a ticking clock. But a clock
is ticking for Wendy, too. Her father has decreed that
it’s time for her to grow up. After tonight, no more
stories. She’s to be groomed for womanhood and marriage
by strict Aunt Millicent (Lynn Redgrave).
Unknown to the Darlings,
Peter Pan loves Wendy’s stories,
too, and travels a great distance to hear them. His appearance
in their nursery that night, along with a jealous little fairy
called Tinker Bell (Ludivine Sagnier), triggers an awfully
big adventure for Wendy and her brothers. Following him out
the window like a small flock of birds, the children swoop
over London’s moonlit rooftops, through a galaxy of radiant
planets and stars, to the magical Neverland, where they begin
an exhilarating new life free of grown-up rules with Peter
and the Lost Boys in their secret underground home. Confronting
depraved pirates, malicious mermaids, a monstrous crocodile
and, worst of all, the vicious steel claw dangling from Hook’s
right arm, Wendy and her brothers find out what they’re
made of. And the ongoing battle between Peter and Hook escalates
to a thrilling climax, played out against the fantastical backdrop
of the enchanted world of Neverland.
The Peter Pan cast
contrasts veteran character actors at the peak of their craft
with remarkable
break-out talent and a
number of brand-new discoveries. In addition to Sumpter and
Isaacs, the film stars Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense, Rushmore)
as the elegant and empathetic Mrs. Darling, Academy Award® nominee
Lynn Redgrave (Gods and Monsters) as socially-minded Aunt Millicent,
Richard Briers (The Good Life) as Hook’s sly sidekick
Smee and French sensation Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool)
as the mischievous fairy Tinker Bell. Rachel Hurd-Wood, discovered
at an open casting call in London, makes an assured and impressive
screen debut as Wendy.
P. J. Hogan co-wrote
Peter Pan with Michael Goldenberg (Contact) and was intent
on remaining
true to the spirit of Barrie’s
original work. The film’s producers shared this passion.
Lucy Fisher had been trying to make Peter Pan for 20 years
and has now made a dream come true with her husband and partner,
producer Douglas Wick, their Red Wagon Entertainment, and producer
Patrick McCormick.
Filming in his native
Australia, Hogan collaborated with world-renowned behind-the-scenes
artists
including cinematographer Donald
McAlpine (an Academy Award® nominee for Moulin Rouge),
production designer Roger Ford (an Academy Award® nominee
for Babe), costume designer Janet Patterson (a three-time Academy
Award® nominee for The Piano, Portrait of a Lady and Oscar
and Lucinda) and composer James Newton Howard (Oscar®-nominated
for five films including My Best Friend’s Wedding). Garth
Craven (Legally Blonde, Restoration) and long-time Steven Spielberg
collaborator Michael Kahn (a six-time Oscar® nominee and
winner for Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List and
Raiders of the Lost Ark) edited Peter Pan. Industrial Light
+ Magic’s Scott Farrar (an Oscar® winner for Cocoon
and a nominee for A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Backdraft)
headed the visual effects team. Mark Forker headed Digital
Domain’s team, which also contributed key visual effects,
and Clay Pinney was special effects supervisor. Mohamed Al
Fayed, Gail Lyon and Jocelyn Moorhouse are the film’s
executive producers. Charles Newirth is co-executive producer.
About the Production …
“ … for children and for those who were once children …”
The story of Peter
and Wendy’s trip through the night
skies is rooted in the collective consciousness like a recurring
dream – intoxicating, fantastical, irresistible. Much
more than romantic nostalgia or a simple bedtime story, Peter
Pan represents our most primal hopes and fears. Its powerful
emotional truth springs from a fantasy of flight and adventure
that is both universal and timeless.
Technologically, the
time has never been better to tell this story on screen.
Philosophically,
the world’s need to
dream, imagine and believe, as Peter Pan urges us to do, is
greater than ever.
Nevertheless, it was a long time coming. The partnership that
finally brought Peter Pan to the screen convenes players who
have been loyal to the project for many years. Lucy Fisher
first procured the film rights 20 years ago and has nurtured
the project through development with producing partner Douglas
Wick. Sharing a passion for the story, Revolution's Joe Roth
and Todd Garner and Columbia's Amy Pascal alchemized the project
with P. J. Hogan on-board as director and co-writer. Universal's
Stacey Snider, Mary Parent and Scott Stuber completed a team
whose energetic and muscular collaboration realized this version
of Peter Pan for audiences everywhere.
“…
when the world of make-believe becomes real …”
A beguiling duality ripples through Peter Pan. Are we meant
to imagine that the Darling children actually stepped off their
window ledge and flew to Neverland one night when their father
had been especially stern? Or should we instead assume that
Wendy bid her childhood a poignant farewell with a fantastic
dream on her last night in the nursery? Either scenario offers
audiences an awfully big adventure.
With P. J. Hogan at
the helm, a calibrated balance between the magic of storytelling
and the magic of
effects was always
the mandate. Set in a world that appears “normal,” his
visually lavish film has the romantic tone of a turn-of-the-century
painting with fresh, authentic performances and a lively respect
for the original material – as well as children who fly,
a ticking crocodile the size of a double-decker bus and a fencing
duel set in the sails of a pirate ship high above the ground.
The contrast between the story’s two worlds – prim
Edwardian London and larger-than-life Neverland – is
sharply drawn. The city’s gray, cold formality melts
from the children’s memories as soon as they breathe
in Neverland’s surreal jungles.
P. J. Hogan’s openness to magic and imagination, along
with his ability to draw others into that special world, were
balanced with a scholar’s mastery of J. M. Barrie’s
work.
“The book is amazing – dense and full of great
characters and marvelous moments. You get the feeling that
J. M. Barrie put everything that ever occurred to him in it,” Hogan
observed. “And the play is so different from what I remembered – the
story is strong, filled with adventure and action, and very
funny, but also very, very moving. What drew me to making the
film was realizing it had not been done. Yes, it’s literally
been filmed, but the full story hadn’t been done. There
were wonderful things that had not been put on-screen before.”
Hogan’s intimacy with the material made the script sing – he
rewrote an earlier draft by Michael Goldenberg (Contact) after
coming on-board as director. “I think P. J. has the entire
play and the book in a sort of mental Palm Pilot that he can
draw up anytime,” said actress Olivia Williams, who plays
Mrs. Darling. “I don’t think there is a phrase
spoken that isn’t somewhere referenced back to Barrie.
To have produced something so natural and modern and filmic
from a story written 100 years ago is amazing.”
Hogan’s knowledge was also a valuable arbiter on-set,
guiding the director and his actors during the inevitable moments
when something that works on the page doesn’t hold up
in performance. “Whenever there was a creaky bit we couldn’t
quite get through, P. J. would always go back to the source
material,” said Jason Isaacs, who had also immersed himself
in writings by and about Barrie to prepare for the twin roles
of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. “What P. J. has done
is what Barrie would do today if he had a Hollywood studio
at his disposal.”
Oscar® nominee Lynn Redgrave plays the Darling family
disciplinarian, Aunt Millicent, a character Hogan invented
with Redgrave in mind. “Aunt Millicent is not in the
original, but she fits right in,” said Redgrave, who
saw the play many times as a child in England. “She’s
a desperate romantic, and a funny, full character.
“P. J. is endlessly inventive,” she continued. “If
he were a painter, he’d be inventing new colors that
had never existed before. He has been fantastically true to
J. M. Barrie while bringing in some original touches that are
so Barrie-esque that it would be hard for me to say whether
something was in the original or not.”
Producer Lucy Fisher
shared the devotion to Barrie’s
work. “It is a privilege and an honor and a burden to
do something that so many people love,” she confessed. “You
want to do it justice.
“Peter Pan is not just about kids having an adventure
and playing with fairies,” Fisher emphasized. “The
actual Barrie material, while completely accessible to children,
also has a depth and mystery to it, which is why I think it
has sustained for so long. The myths that sustain themselves
are the ones in which people face fear and come through it. ”
For Fisher, the story
has always been Wendy’s as much
as Peter’s. “The play is called Peter Pan,” she
noted, “but the book is called Peter and Wendy because
it’s really two stories. Peter is certainly the star
but the point of view was always Wendy’s – jumping
out the window and coming back in.”
The filmmakers all
agreed that what happens in between Wendy “jumping
out the window and coming back in” had to feel believable
for their Peter Pan to make its mark. “One of the great
ambitions from the very beginning was to give the audience
the pleasure of letting it seem true, letting us all really
go to Neverland, letting us inhabit a real version of a fantasy
place,” said producer Douglas Wick. “We knew that
with today’s technology we could create that kind of
strange reality in a way that’s never been possible before.
“The emotional reality was the other great challenge – and
finding a director who could deliver both,” Wick continued. “Our
mission was to avoid any kind of arch version of a moustache-twirling
Hook or a silly Peter. We knew P. J. would bring a tone of
emotional reality and credibility. His script was very focused
on a credible Hook, a credible Mr. Darling and a family that
interacted in a recognizable way so that it wouldn’t
seem like remote people in a remote place and time.”
“ Proud and insolent youth! ”
“Peter Pan is this kid who’s free and gets to
do anything he wants. He gets to fly, he gets to sword fight,
he gets to kill pirates – it’s what every kid wants
and Peter Pan has it.”
So says Jeremy Sumpter, who ought to know. The young American
actor chosen to perform this iconic role is the first boy ever
to portray Peter Pan in a major production.
Hogan appreciated
the opportunity to put a boy on-screen as Peter Pan. “Peter Pan has been a cartoon character, and
onstage he’s mainly been played by women,” the
director explained. “In the silent film version, he was
played by a woman, and in Hook, he was 40 years old. Now a
kid is finally getting to do the greatest role ever written
for a kid. Jeremy is Peter Pan. He is wild, confident, boisterous,
fun – all those things that were so difficult to find
in one kid. I was looking for the 12-year-old Errol Flynn,
which was very difficult because 12-year-olds usually don’t
know who they are, and are not confident. We searched a long
time. But I knew as Jeremy walked through the door that he
was it.”
Jason Isaacs, the
versatile British actor who plays Peter Pan’s nemesis, felt the impact of Sumpter’s energy
every day. “They can’t hold him still to put the
make-up on him in the morning,” Isaacs joked. “He’s
a terrible influence on me and the Lost Boys, which is why
he’s such a great Peter Pan. He never looks down, he
never looks back. He’s like a supernova – you have
to try and keep up with him.”
Sumpter relished acting
out the rivalry between Peter Pan and Hook. “My favorite shot in the whole film is when
Peter says, ‘To die would be an awfully big adventure.’ It
makes Hook so mad and then – tick tock! – Hook
looks back and there’s the crocodile!”
But Sumpter understood
that Peter Pan isn’t always crowing. “Jeremy
has the face of an angel, but also has the face of an animal,” observed
producer Lucy Fisher. “He has complete energy, a leadership
quality and unbounded personal charisma. Yet he has a tender
side, too, so there are scenes where he is hurt or sad, and
he is a breathtaking natural actor. He delivers the lines with
a naturalness that never sounds stagey. He is fearless and
yet has a lot of heartfelt emotion, too.”
For his villain, Hogan followed the tradition observed since
the very first stage production of Peter Pan nearly a century
ago by casting one actor as both Captain Hook and Mr. Darling.
It made perfect sense
to Jason Isaacs. “Hook’s
an incredibly dangerous man. He’s been played for laughs
in other versions, but Barrie wrote a book that adults and
children can enjoy, and at its center is a frightening character.
It’s no surprise that this creature, who represents the
scariest things about being grown up, looks a lot like Wendy’s
father.”
Both of these frightening
men are also very fearful themselves. “Mr.
Darling is ruled by Aunt Millicent who tells him what everyone
will think, how everyone will judge him,” Isaacs explained. “And
Hook’s scared that he’ll never fulfill his destiny.
He should be ruling the Seven Seas and have the respect of
his men, and yet this irritating little boy doesn’t seem
to be scared of him.”
Isaacs, whose recent
work includes roles in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
The Patriot
and Black Hawk Down, was
one of the first actors Hogan cast. “It’s a star
part,” the director said, “but I didn’t want
someone children would be familiar with. I want kids to be
afraid of Hook and I think they’ll be afraid of Jason’s
portrayal. His Hook is driven, psychotic, charming and capable
of anything.
“Jason is very versatile,” Hogan continued. “He
changes so much from film to film but I think Captain Hook
is the role he was born to play. He’s got a great way
of combining true menace with charm and wit and that’s
a really tough combination.”
Isaacs’ transformation into the narcissistic madman
required 90 minutes with his hair, make-up and wardrobe team.
A carefully coiffed follower of fashion, Hook wears only the
finest velvets, silks, leather and jewelry, while his dissolute
men cover themselves in stinking rags. His tangle of cascading
ringlets, sculpted from virgin Russian human hair, is styled
to resemble melting black candles. But his most important accessory
is his deadly hook – or rather, hooks, for he keeps a
variety on hand. “Our sculptor made a contraption that
goes all the way up my arm and tightens with a ratchet,” said
Isaacs. “It’s like a torture chamber instrument,
very sharp and dangerous.”
Second unit director
and veteran stunt coordinator Conrad Palmisano said the device
resembled “a can opener for
55-gallon drums of fuel. It’s quite vicious-looking when
it comes at you and I think seeing Peter Pan stand up to this
ferocious enemy with the claw in one hand and a sword in the
other will be very exciting.”
Hook’s other most prominent appendage is his sidekick
Smee, played by the venerable Richard Briers. “Smee and
Hook are like an old married couple,” said Isaacs of
the ruthless pair.
Casting Briers as
the sly old rogue was particularly satisfying for Hogan. “I grew up watching Richard Briers on television,
on The Good Life in the 1970’s,” the director recalled, “which
I think a lot of Australians did, and it was always a dream
of mine to work with him. He is one of the funniest, warmest
screen presences, and when I was working on the screenplay,
I couldn’t imagine anybody better for Smee.”
“One girl is worth twenty boys …”
The three-continent search for a young
actress to portray Wendy was ultimately the filmmakers’ biggest challenge
in casting Peter Pan. Hundreds of girls were seen at open calls
in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia before Rachel
Hurd-Wood, who had never acted before and lives in England’s
Home Counties, was found at an open call in London.
“Rachel was the last one cast,” said Hogan. “We
needed a girl who felt right for the period – a 12-year-old
girl with dignity, strength and wit. Kids are different now.”
The filmmakers were more concerned
with emotional truth than professional credits. Nevertheless,
the role of Wendy was technically
challenging. “It’s a very difficult part because
she has to change during the movie,” Fisher explained. “When
we found Peter, we thought, ‘Who is going to be able
to look good next to him?’ Then we found this girl who
has the same degree of presence as he does, and she pulls off
a very complicated part with vigor and elegance.”
According to Isaacs, who shared many
scenes with Hurd-Wood, her lack of training proved an asset. “Rachel doesn’t
have any craft to hide behind,” he noted. “It’s
got to be real for her or she can’t do it. That’s
why her performance is so truthful.”
Hurd-Wood’s trip to Neverland began one day after school
when her mother met her at the door with a tape measure. “My
grandparents heard about the part on television and told my
mum they were searching for a typically English Wendy of this
height and that sort of thing. I’d never done any acting.
Mum said I wasn’t going for the part but for the fun
of seeing what an audition for a film would be like.”
After the open call, she was called
back to audition on camera, called again to read opposite
Isaacs, called a third time to
work with an acting coach, and then flown to Australia for
a screen test. Next, she spent four days in Los Angeles to
see the producers and work with John Kirby, the acting coach
for all the children in Peter Pan. Finally, after a long spell
of waiting, she learned that she had the part. In the course
of filming, she acquired skills she’d never imagined,
from fencing to flying, and only complained about one thing.
“It’s not fun to cry,” she said. “Your
friends from the set can’t talk to you because it will
get you distracted from the scene, so it’s hard and tiring
and just not fun. One time I spent a whole day crying and the
next day I could have broken an arm and wouldn’t have
cried because I was just totally drained of all crying.”Laughing or crying, she admired her
character. “Wendy’s
a really great person,” she said. “She loves adventure,
but still has a girly side. If I had lived then, I would have
loved to be her friend.”
Kids and Animals
Although the Peter Pan cast boasts respected actors of excellent
pedigree in many key roles, the ranks of the Lost Boys and
the young members of the Darling family are filled with newcomers.
“The children are fantastic and have an amazing influence
on the set,” said Olivia Williams, “because when
something spontaneous and childlike happens, there is a wonderful
sense of celebration. P. J. has cast kids who aren’t
trained to be cute, so all those truthful moments are spontaneous
and it’s been a real education to watch them work.”
Harry Newell, who plays the Napoleon-obsessed
John Darling, explained the special challenges presented
by working with
Rebel, the St. Bernard who appears as Nana in the film. “It
can be quite hard working with a dog,” he observed. “Sometimes
you do a perfect take and the dog mucks up, not going on his
mark or something, and sometimes the dog would do a perfect
take and you wouldn’t. But it was good fun having Rebel
around.”
Neither Newell nor Freddie Popplewell,
who plays little Michael Darling, had acted before. Of the
six Lost Boys, only Harry
Eden, who plays Nibs, had previous professional experience.
Three of the Lost Boys – Theodore Chester, George Mackay
and Rupert Simonian – were discovered by a casting agent
in one location, the Harrodian School in London. The school’s
curriculum and methods encourage creative expression, but possibly
more auspicious is the fact that Harrodian’s headmaster
is named James Hook.
Director of photography Donald McAlpine,
who has shot 50 feature films, discovered that working with
the kids could result in
technical choices that surprised him. “It was a running
gag with P. J. and me,” he recalled. “I would select
a focal length which is long and takes in a smaller view. Then
he would immediately say he wanted the widest angle lens I
could get. Those lenses created some immense lighting problems
for me, but I’ve generally got to say that he was right.
The distortion these lenses create on adults goes unnoticed
on these beautiful young children. And on top of that, you
see the whole world, so you end up with an extreme close-up
and a wide shot – two for the price of one.”
Read
On...
|
