A childhood story that features grief, darkness and Liam Nesson as a hulking tree, A Monstor Calls is not your average family film. Total Film ventures on set of the fantasy tearjerker...
It starts, as all things must, with an ending. In 2007, British children’s author Siobhan Dowd died of breast cancer, leaving behind an outline for her next book, A Monster Calls. “She had characters, premise, a beginning but not time,” wrote Patrick Ness in the introduction. But “stories don’t end with writers”. With permission from Dowd’s estate, Ness finished the book for her in 2011, with award-winning results.
Heart-rendingly sad, and hauntingly illustrated by Jim McKay, it tells of Conor O’Malley, a schoolboy whose mother is dying of cancer, and who, every night at 12.07, is visited by a monster: the ancient yew tree from the churchyard behind his house, brought to roaring, rustling life. The Monster has three stories for Conor, to carry him through the darkness, stories that “chase and bite and hunt”. One thing’s for sure, awash with grief and gothic realism, A Monster Calls is a tale that sinks its teeth in.
Having proved himself a master of maternal anguish with The Orphanage (2007) and The Impossible (2012), Spanish director J.A. Bayona would seem the perfect choice to translate Ness’ script to the screen. Working with him is super-producer (and “spare battery”) Belén Atienza, who oversaw Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), The Orphanage… basically every decent Spanish-language fantasy of the past decade, and the award-winning team behind The Impossible (who call their boss “Bayona” or simply “Jota”, pronounced “Hayotter”). Even with material this tricksy – and when was the last time you saw a family film about cancer and talking trees? – you wouldn’t bet against them. “It’s not a comedy,” confirms Bayona when we catch up with him on set in Terrassa, just outside Barcelona. Good job we cleared that up.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 2017 من Total Film.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 2017 من Total Film.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Back With a Vengeance - Sir Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to the greatest historical epic of this century. Total Film meets the director and cast to discover how Maximus' legacy is echoing in eternity.
Ridley Scott is not a filmmaker to repeat himself. It's a trait that's all the more remarkable when you consider how prolific he's been over the nearly five decades since his feature debut, 1977's The Duellists. Alien prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are the only times he's gone back to the same world, and those films are radical departures from the original.
Bad Romance - Timestalker Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...
Her antidote to that? Timestalker a dark not-quite-romcom set over the course of centuries. Her protagonist Agnes finds herself attracted to the same man, Alex (Dunkirk's Aneurin Barnard), in every lifetime as she's reincarnated in the 1680s, 1790s, 1980s and the 22nd century. As romantic as that may sound, there's a bit of a catch: 'He's sort of a dickhead. On the surface he's appealing, but under, he's not.'
McQueen & Country
A moment of national pride and terror comes to the screen with World War Two historical drama Blitz. Total Film speaks to writer/director Steve McQueen and his stars Saoirse Ronan and Stephen Graham about uncovering the truth and celebrating the triumph of a defining moment in modern British history.
'I WAS, AND AM STILL, SURPRISED BY EVERY OPPORTUNITY. I'VE BEEN CONTINUOUS AND FEEL AT THE TOP OF MY FORM' JEFF GOLDBLUM
Seth Brundle. Dr. Ian Malcolm. Grandmaster. Jeff Goldblum has played some titanic characters over his 50-year career, and is celebrating a half-century on our screens by going bigger than ever. First he played Zeus in Netflix show Kaos, and now he's the Wizard of Oz in Wicked. Total Film meets the man behind the curtain...
STICKY SITUATION
Seven years on from his last big-screen appearance, marmalade's biggest fan returns for Paddington in Peru. Total Film talks to director Dougal Wilson, actor Hugh Bonneville and the visual-effects wizards who make the magic happen...
BORN TO BE WILD
BROTHERS IS THE MOST SURPRISING ACTION COMEDY OF THE YEAR, AND NOT JUST BECAUSE JOSH BROLIN AND PETER DINKLAGE PLAY CRIMINAL TWINS. TOTAL FILM ROUNDS UP THE STARS TO TALK ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, THE 'HARD AS NAILS' COMEDIES THEY GREW UP WITH, AND MASTURBATING MONKEYS...
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Payal Kapadia's film shows the Mumbai you've never seen...
HUMPH DAY BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES
Behind every great man is a great woman. Or in Humphrey Bogart's case, four great women...
CALLING THE SHOTS
NEVER LOOK AWAY Lucy Lawless directs a bio-doc about a trailblazing camerawoman...
A FAMILY HEIRLOOM
THE PIANO LESSON Malcolm Washington's feature debut is all about family...