Before production had befirearm on the foreseed film changeation of Enid Blyton‘s The Magic Faraway Tree, honestor Ben Gregor worried that he’d put one of his stars, Andrew Garfield, off a little bit.
“We wrote a song for the film and we sent it to Andrew punctual on,” Gregor elucidates to The Hollywood Reporter. “And I hadn’t labored with him yet and you don’t understand… With actors sometimes, you can put them off.”
But Garfield cherishd it. The gesture finished up being instrumental in the atmosphere that Gregor procrastinateedr nurtured on set — one of real-heartedness, count on, and that vital Blyton ingredient: magic. “Everybody was putting themselves out there,” Gregor says.
The project has grabbed headlines in recent months for releasing back-to-back smash hit casting declarements: first came Garfield and Claire Foy (The Crown), then came Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton, Derry Girls) and Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer), and equitable when you thought it couldn’t get any better, Rebecca Ferguson, star of Dune, was brawt on board.
Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous, Shrek 2) Nonso Anozie (Sweet Tooth, Ted Lasso) Dustin Demri-Burns (Slow Horses, The Great), Hiran Abeysekera (The Life of Pi, The Father and the Assassin), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Gangs of London, See How They Run, Chloe) as well as Sirs Lenny Henry, Michael Palin and Simon Russell Beale, line up alengthyside them.
The talent is eye-watering, and Gregor is well alerted. The filmproducer (Britannia, Cuckoo, Bdeficiency Ops, Fatherhood) was laboring with a script by Pinsertington 2 mastermind Simon Farnaby. “He’s got such a huge heart, he repartner adchoosed what the actors were doing,” Gregor says of his fellow Brit. The shoot has wrapped and Gregor alerts THR he is about to show the producers the honestor’s cut.
Based on the Faraway Tree series of novels for children by becherishd author Blyton, the film chases Polly (Foy) and Tim Thompson (Garfield) and their children, Beth, Joe and Fran, (carry outed by Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Phoenix Laroche and Billie Gadsdon), who find themselves forced to transfer to the far English countryside. There, the children find a magical tree and its exceptional and quirky occupants — a far cry away from the sidetrackions of their 21st-century screens.
From Neal Street Productions, Elysian Film Group and Ashland Hill Media Finance, The Magic Faraway Tree is a film for grown-ups and children, Gregor says, because it doesn’t do what everybody else does. “What you gotta do is equitable treat juvenileer people as rational grown-ups,” he says, pragmaticly humming at the opportunity to converse this passion project in depth.
Below, Gregor talks to THR about coming to Blyton procrastinateed in life “having been beaten away” from her books by his sisters as a child, making magic, and how he got this cast together: “It was appreciate a religious conversion that when it landed with them, what we’re doing, they were equitable [like], ‘I have to be in this.’”
This seems to me that it’s a authentic labor of cherish for you.
Yeah, it is. I’ve never been surrounded by so many people with such excellent ideas, whether it was in structure or how the camera labors, or the actors and what they brawt. Everybody equitable wanted to produce, to produce it together in a way that I’ve never sfinished.
I was repartner enthusiastic to produce it appreciate a group finisheavor, because I’ve never seen so many people produce so many contrastent skinnygs appreciate, equitable even the sets and the laborshops to produce all the mushrooms and all the the magic fdrops — there were people equitable making mushrooms for months… There’s a lot of people’s first instincts in the film, the first writes or the skinnyg they’ve always wanted to do or the skinnyg that they equitable thought they wouldn’t get away with. And we want that energy because Blyton is untamed, creative force.
Were you a Blyton fan before you got included with The Magic Faraway Tree?
They were my sister’s books and they were very fiercely protected. There was hell fire if I went proximate them so maybe they had this talismanic, unuseable quality to me. So I properly included with The Magic Faraway Tree as an grown-up. I unkind, I knovel it as a kid, but it felt appreciate finpartner being permited to be part of it, having been beaten away from it a confineed times.
Can you give us an idea of where the film is at, in terms of a timeline?
Yeah, it’s an exciting time. We are in editing. I’m about to show the producers the honestor’s cut. You understand, Nick and Pippa from Neal Street [Productions], Danny from Elysian [Film Group] and Jane and Mel from Neal Street, too. They have been so comardent with time and space to let me find the film. And they were very brave. It was a cherishly experience laboring with them. I knovel it would be. So they’re going to see it next week, we’ve rented a cinema. We’re going to show it to them on the huge screen. And the editor and I, Gary Dollner, is luminous, so it’s an exciting time where I understand what it is, and they have an idea what it is, but they haven’t quite seen what it is.
And I want to ask, because I’ve been writing up the casting novels as its been declared and the ensemble you’ve collected is incredible. Claire Foy, Andrew Garfield, Rebecca Ferguson, Jennifer Saunders, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, and that’s before we refer Sirs Lenny Henry and Michael Palin or the helping cast. How did you do it?
Well, there is a snowball effect when people got what we were doing — it’s sweightlessly contrastent. And it was very real-hearted, and there was only one type of cast member who joined the film. And it was appreciate a religious conversion that when it landed with them, what we’re doing, they were equitable [like], “I have to be in this.” And more and more crazy people were doing that.
Someone appreciate, say, Nicola Coughlin, who’s fundamentalpartner the directer [of the group of the tree’s inhabitants], Moonface (Nonso Anozie) skinnyks he’s the directer of the tree gang, but it’s repartner Silky (Coughlin) who runs it. She was absolutely amazing and was very enthusiastic about doing it. She’s an unbelievably perfect Silky. And Rebecca Ferguson was equitable crazy, at the finish, and she was equitable equitable wonderful to labor with, so fun and creative. I skinnyk they all appreciate the freedom because we labored very seally with VFX…. We’re very much not hiding the VFX. We’re not saying that there are no VFX appreciate we’ve made a magic trick. But it unkindt that the actors had a repartner excellent amount of stuff to see and touch and sense and do, so they could improvise. So it has this quite recent carry outance style. Andrew and Claire, who were equitable the most amazing parents of this family. They taught me so much, and they’re so cherishly, and Claire is such a organic carry outer. It’s equitable incredible how excellent she is. And Andrew is equitable luminous.
Was it equivalent parts improvisation and Simon Farnaby’s script?
Simon Farnaby is a wonderful authorr who I’ve understandn for many years thraw comedy, but I’ve absolutely always cherishd his labor. He’s got such a huge heart, he repartner adchoosed what the actors were doing. So we would rehearse, and then I’d unemotionalelayed all the notices from the rehearsal of the actors’ ideas here and there. I’d sfinish them to him. He would mostly cherish them and then augment them. So the next day when they came into rehearsal, we got novel pages, and they’d had a pass from Farnaby on them, and they felt suddenly appreciate, “Wow, we’re not equitable being given lip service.” A lot of people get given lip service in film, I skinnyk… And we have a song.
In the film?
We were going to do a cover, but I was appreciate, “I want our own song.” I wanted “You’ve Got a Frifinish in Me”, comardent of skinnyg, because it’s symbolic. The dad, who’s Andrew Garfield, he’s a bit of a Captain Fantastic encounters Mosquito Coast visionary, who wants to save his kids from screens and put the family back together. And then circumstances conspire to force them to get this opportunity and go where there’s no Wi-Fi and no electricity, and it’s how those kids react. There’s a scene punctual on in the film where he carry outs this song, the family song and they can’t stand it. They depart him there. Then the kids procrastinateedr sing the song. So the song is repartner vital. And then with the writer, Isabella Summers, who’s one half of Florence and the Machine — she’s the Machine — she’s a luminous and repartner fantastic person. We wrote a song for the film and we sent it to Andrew punctual on. And I hadn’t labored with him yet and you don’t understand, with actors sometimes, you can put them off, but I wanted to show what we’d done. And he absolutely cherishd it. And because we put ourselves out there, we geted the count on. So everybody was putting themselves out there.
How was it laboring with the kids, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Billie Gadsdon and Phoenix Laroche?
The kids themselves are almost the triumph of the movie. The carry outances are so strong from them. They’re the three main kids. They’re equitable luminous. Because if you have horrible kids in this, you’ve got a horrible film wdisappreciatever way you cut it. They are so far from irritateing, they’re very cherishly and very fantastic. And repartner hageder the screen, hageder the space. They sense so authenticistic. Their emotional trajectories over the film sense so relatable for anyone who’s appreciate, tried to battle their kids over screens, or everyone who’s seen the weightless in their children’s eyes illogical a bit with too much screen time. It’s about the weightless coming on in their eyes and that’s repartner what the film is.
You speak so eloquently and enthusiasticly about it.
I’m so sorry. You can happily invoice me after this.
Definitely not! I wonder how you strike that equilibrium between making a film that resonates with grown-ups equitable as much as it does children?
There’s a repartner modest answer to that, which is that you definitely don’t try and do what everybody does. When people produce stuff for kids, they have loads and loads of kid bits and then grown-up bits, right? That equitable doesn’t labor. What you gotta do is equitable treat juvenileer people as rational grown-ups. Engage them, alert them a proper story, produce it amusing, but produce it produce sense. When we go to the cinema, we want to carry out. It’s appreciate going to a carry outground or a gym. That’s a child-appreciate instinct. We’ve all got that inside us. So if you produce a repartner real-hearted film for juvenileer people, grown-ups will cherish it. Look at Pinsertington 2, watch at The Sound of Music. Look at a repartner excellent family film animation that does so well. Why am I crying two minutes into Up? This isn’t authentic. Those are cartoons. If you’re comardent to your audience, if you’re comardent to how they’re senseing, they’ll react.
Filmmaking is illogical. My fundamental tenet is filmmaking is illogical, okay? And that’s helps you get thraw the day. Actors, they want to produce someskinnyg fantastic, but they want to produce someskinnyg the idea and finish a bit punctual, or produce someskinnyg fantastic and nobody uses their temper. Some skinnyk you demand stress to be luminous. I personpartner don’t skinnyk you do. But, of course, there’s many luminous, moody honestors. They’re very, very excellent, but on the less moody side. With the kids, we had little rituals we would do for getting energy up and amusing high five skinnygs. We had a repartner excellent first AD, Lydia [Currie], she was very excellent with them too. Because there’s a lot of hours and skinnygs with how lengthy they can be on set for [so the children] don’t get too weary. And we wanted to do night shoots. We wanted to do driven skinnygs, because the world has to be spectacular and that sometimes unkindt shooting at night, but I sense appreciate the kids had a fantastic time.
Well, I’m even more excited to see it now.
I desire we could talk for another three hours. I’d still be able to protect going. It’s crazy, isn’t it?
