Dark Horizons was invited to visit the set of one of New Line Cinema's current projects, "Inkheart". Based on a best selling novel by Cornelia Funke, Inkheart stars a wealth of talented actors including Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, Brendan Fraser, a gloriously devilish Andy Serkis and Eliza Bennett as the young female protagonist of the story, Meggie Folchart. Director Iain Softley is at the helm.
Filming in London, Inkheart's production is set up at Shepperton Studios, a member of the Pinewood Studios Group in the UK.
Back in 2003, author Cornelia Funke wrote the New York Times Best Seller with Brendan Fraser in mind for the lead part of Mo. She has since published the follow up novel, Inkspell, in 2005 and the final chapter in the trilogy, Inkdawn, set to release in Spring of 2008.
For those who do not have a 12 year old girl at home, or those who have not read the book, Inkheart tells the story of twelve year old Meggia Folchart (Eliza Bennett) and her father Mortimer (Brendan Fraser), better known as Mo, and their shared passion for books. What they also share, although Meggie doesn't know it yet, is a gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud.
On one of their trips to an second-hand book shop, Mo hears voices he hasn't heard for years, and when he locates the book they are coming from, it sends a shiver up his spine, it's "Inkheart", a book filled with illustrations of medieval castles, fairs and strange creatures, a book he's been searching for since Meggie was three years old when her mother, Resa, disappeared.
Andy Serkis joins the cast as Capricorn, a medieval villain from the fictional Inkheart world "read" into reality by Mo. Capricorn prefers reality and has no intentions of returning to his fictional state. His only desire is to kidnap Meggie and have her release The Shadow, a cruel and murderous creature owned by Capricorn, from the boundaries of Inkheart.
After recuperating from the 10-hour non-stop flight from Los Angeles, a couple of us journalists piled into a traditional black London cab and headed to The Park Lane Hotel. We met up with Joe, Clare and Nicole who would guide us through our next couple of days. The next morning, we trekked about 40 minutes outside of London to the infamous Shepperton Studios. Inkheart and New Line's other big property, The Golden Compass, are both shooting at the historical studio.
First stop, studio C. As we entered the stage, a large medieval concrete church appears before you, two stories in height with a large staircase. This is Capricorn's Church, where he burns copies of Inkheart so he may never been "read" back into that fictional world. Although not fully dressed, the set is impressive. Massive amounts of rich red fabrics are on their way to Shepperton to be draped around the structure.
Executive producer, Diana Pokorny, met with us to help us understand the world of Inkheart and where the production found it's inspiration.
She introduced us to Verity Hawkes, costume designer for the film. Hawkes explained the medieval but also modern approach she took to create the look for each character. "A mixture of period painting and modern fashion with medieval reference," is Hawkes main inspiration.
Next up was John Beard, production designer. He showed up everything from concept art, finished scene stills, location stills, the family van and Meggie's book box that her father made. The first three weeks of filming were shot in Italy doing mostly exterior shots. The production then migrated north to London where the interiors are currently being filmed. Beard says that although Inkheart is a bit short on architecture and design information, they went to book 2, Inkspell, for further inspiration.
Last, but certainly not least, we met with the animal trainers on the set. They have 12 ferrets and 3 dogs being used in this production. The ferret in the film is named Gwin, he belongs to Dustfinger, one of Capricorn's henchmen who has also been brought into reality. In the story, Gwin is a horned marten, which posed a problem for the trainers. How would they get horns to stick on a ferrets head for every shot? This was solved with a little beard glue from the makeup department and some tiny horns made for the ferrets specifically.
Now there isn't just one ferret on this film, there are 12. One for shoulder sitting, one for retrieving, one for the "go with" shots, and one for leaping. Of course, each ferret has two understudies should anything happen to the reigning lead. These animals were adorable and very bright. It was commented how lovingly Paul Bettany, who portrays Dustfinger, has treated the little animals.
In another portion of the story, Meggie bring Toto from The Wizard of Oz novel to life by "reading" him out of the book. Toto becomes instrumental in helping Meggie on her adventure through Capricorn's world of darkness and torture. Toto is portrayed mainly by Pepper, a white Westie, she has her hair colored black in order to look more like Toto from the original novel. A very bright dog, Pepper is able to make her marks like a true professional. She too has "stand ins" when needed, Tobey and Topper.
The group was then treated to watching the production in action. Andy Serkis, Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett, Paul Bettany and Helen Mirren were all in attendance.
The scene was inside Capricorn's castle. Capricorn's henchmen have Meggie, Mo and Aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren) captured and Capricorn has taken Mo's copy of Inkheart from him. Andy Serkis in all black and sporting a shaven head is the epitome of evil and looks the part. He taunts Mo who demands the book back and say he cannot return Capricorn to the book. Capricorn contends that Mo misunderstands. He does not want to return to the Inkheart world, he much prefers the comforts and inventions of the present day such as, "..guns and, what's that sticky stuff called?" A henchman off camera answers, "duct tape." Serkis replies, "duct tape, ah well, duct tape..." It's a funny yet creepy exchange due to Capricorn's true intentions. He throws the last copy of Inkheart in the fire and Dustfinger (Bettany) cries out, "No!" As he dives, putting his hands into the fire to save the precious novel. Homesick Dustfinger just wants to go home to the fictional world of Inkheart, which is what Capricorn promised him. Capricorn admits that he lied.
Everyone is taken away, most likely to a dungeon and the scene cuts.
Director Iain Softley wants to go again and the scene is reset.
It was great to see the actors shoot a scene. The footage looked great and after two takes we headed to lunch.
We were soon joined by some cast members to get their take on the production. Although we spent very limited time with the cast, they seemed genuinely proud to share their experiences with us.
Paul Bettany and Brendan Fraser were up first.
Question: Did either of you know about the Inkheart book before you took this project on?
Paul Bettany: Weirdly, I was reading the book, you [gestures to Brendan] knew about it because you had already read the one, well not a book book but the audio book, I knew about it because I was reading it with my 9-year old son.
Question: Did he like it?
Paul Bettany: No, he hated it [laughter]. No, he loved it. He loved it and, weirdly, I loved it too and I'm not a big fan of fantasy usually and it was one that I got on with because it was set in the real world.
Question: Did the script come to you or did you go after it?
Paul Bettany: The script came to me. It was just an odd coincidence and lovely coincidence.
Question: Could you both tell us a bit about your characters?
Brendan Fraser: Yeah, I'm Meggie's dad. He's a bookbinder by trade. He has an unusual ability to realize elements of a piece of fiction from a novel he reads aloud. He doesn't necessarily consider it a gift, more often a curse, his wife's disappeared and he's trying to reunite his family. He goes on a odyssey with his daughter and encounter this shadowy guy called Dustfinger, and Dustfinger's familiar Gwin. Gwin the ferret. And it has real horns on it too. You know what I'm talking about? And Mo is a pretty layered character, something that has a potential for a long journey, and these two, Dustfinger and Mo...sort of a yin and yang. They are blood brothers by the third story. Which is yet to be published by the way. But it is written and I hear it's pretty cool. I'm not supposed to just say that, I actually hear it's good.
Question: Are you guys signed up for the next two already?
Brendan Fraser: I heard they put down money for the second screenplay that David Lindsay-Abaire is writing.
Paul Bettany: Yes I am, and Dustfinger who is in his own world of fire, he's sort of a performer, he gets ran out into, actually weirdly replacing his [Mo's] wife. So I'm stuck in this world trying to go home. And he has, sort of, a very single objective which is to try and, he finds himself in a weird world and he's trying to get home and be with his family which is oddly how I usually feel when making films, anyway, so its really fun to play because those two objectives, his objective and my objective, clash and of course that's conflict.
Question: Brendan were you a little concerned because the author said she had your voice in mind for Mo all along and she was very adamant about you playing Mo, I was just wondering for you, obviously it's flattering I am sure, but is there a little added pressure when an author hears your voice coming out of a character, is there some sort of commitment you feel to that?
Brendan Fraser: I'm not sure if you asked a question or you just want me to comment [laughing] um, that's ok, I think I know what you are trying to get at and the only way I can respond is to agree, it is something flattering. I never anticipated it, least of all learning about it through an article that she had given an interview for. What inspired the character...in her case she said the novel writes itself so, it may sound a bit odd, but just that she was able to work backwards. From being in a place, on holiday...and saw something that I had done and it inspired her I guess. But the point is, it's not the voice itself but whoever played Mo would have these attributes.
Question: Part of his characteristic is that he reads so beautifully bringing the characters to life, how did you develop that reading style to make it sound so beautiful?
Brendan Fraser: I just make sure I say all the words I read on the page. [laughter] It's just a matter of reading, I sound the way I sound, I don't know.
Question: Last question, update on Mummy 3, you will be in it?
Brendan Fraser: It's down to decisions made in offices somewhere called Los Angeles. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Andy Serkis and Eliza Bennett were up next.
Question: This villain looks so delicious to play, it looks like you are really enjoying it.
Andy Serkis: Yeah, I am slightly worried, I'm enjoying it too much actually. It's really, really fun to play. I mean, Iain...always wanted to root this is a sense of reality and I think he's always seen Capricorn as a drool and dry character so he's led me down that way which I've really enjoyed doing.
Question: Do you enjoy playing the villain?
Andy Serkis: I, kind of, I do like playing complicated characters who are, you don't whether there's any possibility of redemption, but there's a little chink, like a miniscule chink that doesn't turn you off from them completely. So, I have played a lot of wacked out characters.
Question: Eliza, is this the biggest thing you've done with this many actors?
Andy Serkis: Ah, she's an old hand.
Eliza Bennett: Not quite. [laughing] This is the biggest thing I've ever done character wise. And obviously this is the biggest thing with this many well known actors, but I think, there's so much, I find it really, really easy to learn from them. I mean, they don't teach you lessons but just watching them. They all have their different techniques and its just amazing watching them, Andy and Paul and Brendan, you're learning off of them all the time because they are very experienced.
Question: [To Andy] Did you have a certain attachment to your hair and what was it like getting it all shaved off?
Andy Serkis: I actually had it cut short for a film I was doing so it didn't take too much to go the extra inch.
Question: Do you like it?
Andy Serkis: Not this time of year [laughing]
Question: Eliza, how's your relationship with Brendan, you play father and daughter on screen, do you have a way you bonded?
Eliza Bennett: Yeah, we do. I knew that I would be working really, really closely with him and when I first met him, it was like a week before rehearsal, I met him and he immediately came over and gave me a big hug and he was really, really warm. Which is such a relief when you know someone you're going to be working closely with is nice and he's really, really supportive and like a father figure in a way which is great because it's so much easier to be able to relate to him.
Last but certainly not least, recent Academy Award nominee Helen Mirren.
Question: How did you picture this character? Who was she in your mind?
Helen Mirren: I knew that the role, in the book, is wonderful, a very strong character, but, it wasn't a character I could see myself playing, I just couldn't get my head into it. So, I spoke to Iain and said I would love to do the film but I would like to give you some ideas about the character and if you like them we can go ahead and if you say no, I absolutely understand, because, it's above all, the directors vision, any film. So, he responded well to the thoughts that I was having and gave me the door to walk through. My inspiration for the character was Edith Sitwell, I was trying to think who is this woman? It was one of those four o'clock in the morning moments, sitting there thinking, who is this woman? [Snapping] Edith Sitwell! I suddenly had this image in my head of a lady with a turban and the hands...I started reading about her and researching her and she lived totally in a world of literature. She said my hobbies are reading, silence and music...so I thought, that's exactly the character, someone whose head is so in the clouds that she really doesn't see what's in front of her face. And through the journey of the film, she is made to look at the real world.
Inkheart is being shot as a PG rated film and will most likely be released by New Line Cinema around Spring 2008. Which will coincidentally coincide with the release of the final book in the trilogy, Inkdawn.
