Finding Neverland (film)

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Finding Neverland
Findingneverlandposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Marc Forster
Screenplay by David Magee
Based onThe Man Who Was Peter Pan
by Allan Knee
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Roberto Schaefer
Edited by Matt Chesse
Music by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
Production
company
Distributed by
Release dates
  • September 4, 2004 (2004-09-04)(VFF)
  • October 29, 2004 (2004-10-29)(United Kingdom)
  • November 12, 2004 (2004-11-12)(United States)
Running time
101 minutes
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million
Box office$116.8 million [2]

Finding Neverland is a 2004 biographical film directed by Marc Forster and written by David Magee, based on the 1998 play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee. The film stars Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Mitchell, and Dustin Hoffman, with Freddie Highmore in a supporting role.

Contents

Finding Neverland was released on October 29, 2004. It was a box office success, grossing $116.8 million worldwide. The film earned seven nominations at the 77th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Depp, and won for Best Original Score. The film was the inspiration for the stage musical of the same name in 2012.

Premise

The film is about playwright J. M. Barrie and his relationship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan .

Plot

In 1903, following the dismal reception of his latest play, Little Mary, Sir James Matthew Barrie meets the widowed Sylvia and her four young sons (George, Jack, Peter and Michael) in Kensington Gardens. A strong friendship develops among them. Barrie proves to be a great playmate and surrogate father figure for the boys, and their imaginative antics give him ideas that he incorporates into a play about boys who do not want to grow up, in particular one named after troubled young Peter Llewelyn Davies. Although Barrie sees this family as wonderful and inspirational, others question his relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family. Barrie's wife Mary divorces and Sylvia's mother Emma du Maurier objects to the time that he spends with the Llewelyn Davies family. Emma also seeks to control her daughter and grandsons, especially as Sylvia weakens from an unidentified illness.

Producer Charles Frohman agrees to mount Peter Pan, despite his belief that it holds no appeal for upper class theatergoers. Barrie peppers the opening night audience with children from a nearby orphanage, and the adults react to their delight with an appreciation of their own. The play proves to be a huge success. Barrie is all set for his play, but when Peter arrives alone to the play, he goes to Sylvia's house to check up on her, and misses the show. Peter attends the play and realizes it is really about his brothers and Barrie.

Barrie arranges to have an abridged production of it performed in the Llewelyn Davies house. At the end of the play, Peter Pan points to the back doors and implies that Sylvia should go off to Neverland. She takes the hands of her boys and slowly walks out.

The following scene takes place at Sylvia's funeral. Barrie discovers that her will says that he and her mother should look after the boys, an arrangement agreeable to both parties. The film ends with J. M. Barrie comforting Peter on the bench in the park where they had first met.

Cast

Production

Finding Neverland was originally scheduled to be released in autumn 2003. Universal Pictures, which owned the film rights to Barrie's original play and was adapting it for cinema release the same year, refused to allow Miramax Films to use scenes from the play in Finding Neverland if it were released the same year. Miramax Films agreed to delay the release, in exchange for the rights to reproduce in the film scenes from the stage production. [3] Finding Neverland opened in 2004, 100 years after Barrie's play opened.

Richmond Theatre in Richmond upon Thames doubled as the Duke of York's Theatre , the venue in which Peter Pan was first presented. Exterior scenes were filmed in Hyde Park, Brompton Cemetery and Kensington Gardens. According to commentary on the DVD release, the structure used as Barrie's summer cottage was located near Kent. Interiors were filmed in the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and the Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

Filming occurred in various places in the United Kingdom. Production shot a short fantasy sequence at the Laredo Wild West Town in Kent. The town is featured in multiple fantasy-playing sessions set in the Wild West, when Barrie (Johnny Depp) plays with the Llewellyn Davies boys. [4]

Dustin Hoffman had previously appeared in the title role of Hook (1991), the Peter Pan sequel film by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay for Finding Neverland had originally included a scene in which his character, the play's sceptical producer, was to put on the Captain Hook costume and read some of his lines to point out how silly he found it. Hoffman objected to this, so the scene was rewritten for him to simply read aloud and ridicule character names from the play.

Eileen Essell, 82 years old at the time, made one of her first feature film appearances. She also followed Depp to a role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .

Freddie Highmore's performance in Finding Neverland led Depp to suggest him to Tim Burton for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , in which he played Charlie Bucket and Depp played Willy Wonka. [5]

Music

Release

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It was shown at the Telluride Film Festival, the Haifa Film Festival, the Athens Panorama European Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival, before opening in the U.K. 29 October 2004.

It had a limited release in the United States 12 November 2004, and opened more widely 24 November 2004. [6]

Reception

Box office

The film was budgeted at $25 million. It grossed $51,676,606 in the U.S., and $63 million in other markets, for a total worldwide box-office tally of $115,036,108. [7]

Critical reception

Johnny Depp (July 2009) 2.jpg
KateWinsletByAndreaRaffin2011.jpg
The performances of Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet garnered critical acclaim, earning them BAFTA nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively.

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Finding Neverland has an approval rating of 83%, based on 206 reviews, with an average rating of 7.47/10. The website's consensus states: "It won't pass muster for those looking for historical accuracy, but Finding Neverland is a warm, heartfelt drama with a charm all its own — and Johnny Depp gives a graceful performance as Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie." [8] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A" on a scale of A+ to F. [10]

In her review in The Times , Wendy Ide called the film "charming but rather idiosyncratic", and added, "A mixture of domestic drama, tragedy and exuberant fantasy, the film blends moist-eyed nostalgia with the cruel disappointments of a marriage break-up; a childlike playfulness and unpredictability with a portrait of a treacherously unforgiving and rigid Edwardian society. It could appeal to everyone from preteens to pensioners, or it could appeal to no one at all. Ultimately this unconventionality is probably one of the film's main strengths. And if the tone veers a little haphazardly between fantasy and cold, hard reality, well, perhaps that is the most effective way of taking us into the mind of the film's mercurial protagonist." [11]

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said it "is the kind of film where even the smallest crack has been sealed. Instead of real quirks, strange habits, moments of everyday gas, gurgle and grunting, movies like this give us sumptuous production design, meticulous costumes and stories meant to leave us dewy-eyed and thoughtful, if never actually disturbed... The problem isn't the liberties the filmmakers take with reality, but that this isn't an engaging bowdlerization... Johnny Depp neither soars nor crashes, but moseys forward with vague purpose and actorly restraint... [he] and Ms. Winslet are pleasant to watch, as are the actors who play the Davies boys, but they haven't been pushed to their limits." [12]

In the San Francisco Chronicle , Mick LaSalle observed that the film "ends so beautifully, so poignantly and so aptly that there's a big temptation to forget that most of what precedes the ending is tiresome drivel, that Johnny Depp's performance... is precious and uninsightful, and that almost all the movie's magic derives directly from scenes lifted from Barrie's play. Winslet's no-nonsense strength is especially appreciated... Another actress would have followed Depp into the quicksand of faux-poetic self-indulgence. But Winslet is direct, grounded and heartfelt in a recognizably human way. Dustin Hoffman, as Barrie's producer, also steers clear of Depp's rhythms, though he has trouble deciding whether the producer is British or American." [13]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film 3½ stars out of 4, and called it "glorious entertainment... magical, not mush". About Depp, he said, "It's too early to speculate on how [he] will grow as an actor. Based on Finding Neverland, it's not too early to call him a great one." [14]

In the St. Petersburg Times , Steve Persall gave the film a "B" grade, and commented, "A first viewing of Finding Neverland was tear-inducing and completely satisfying. Seeing it again was a mistake, less of my own than Forster's, who didn't make a movie that can sustain its magic beyond first impressions. Problems with David Magee's screenplay that initially could be shrugged off—occasionally slow pacing, melodramatic plot twists—became glaring. With familiarity, the fantasy simply wasn't as fanciful. It felt like growing up, and it was disappointing. On the other hand, many of the film's qualities are too strong to falter, starting with another fascinating man-child performance by Johnny Depp as Barrie." [15]

Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "gently seductive, genuinely tender and often moving without being maudlin", and added, "Depp and Winslet share a rare combination of airiness, earthiness and sharp, wry intelligence." [16]

Accolades

AwardCategoryNomineeResult
77th Academy Awards Best Picture Richard N. Gladstein and
Nellie Bellflower
Nominated
Best Actor Johnny Depp Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay David Magee Nominated
Best Art Direction Art Direction: Gemma Jackson; Set Decoration:
Trisha Edwards
Nominated
Best Costume Design Alexandra Byrne Nominated
Best Film Editing Matt Chesse Nominated
Best Original Score Jan A. P. Kaczmarek Won
58th British Academy Film Awards Best Film Richard N. Gladstein
Nellie Bellflower
Nominated
Best Direction Marc Forster Nominated
Best Actor in a Leading Role Johnny DeppNominated
Best Actress in a Leading Role Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Julie Christie Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay David MageeNominated
Best Cinematography Roberto Schaefer Nominated
Best Film Music Jan A.P. KaczmarekNominated
Best Production Design Gemma JacksonNominated
Best Makeup Christine Blundell Nominated
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2004 Top 10 FilmsFinding NeverlandWon
Best Film Nominated
Best Director Marc ForsterNominated
Best Actor Johnny DeppNominated
Best Supporting Actress Kate WinsletNominated
Best Young Performer Freddie Highmore Won
Best Writer David MageeNominated
62nd Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama Finding NeverlandNominated
Best Director Marc ForsterNominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Johnny DeppNominated
Best Screenplay David MageeNominated
Best Original Score Jan A.P. KaczmarekNominated
London Film Critics Circle Awards 2004 Best British FilmFinding NeverlandNominated
Best ActorJohnny DeppNominated
Best ScreenwriterDavid MageeNominated
Best British NewcomerFreddie HighmoreNominated
11th Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Johnny DeppNominated
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Freddie HighmoreNominated
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Julie Christie
Johnny Depp
Freddie Highmore
Dustin Hoffman
Radha Mitchell
Joe Prospero
Nick Roud
Luke Spill
Kate Winslet
Nominated
National Board of Review Awards 2004 Top Ten Films Finding NeverlandWon
Best Film Won
Outstanding Film Music CompositionJan A.P. KaczmarekWon

In other media

Theatre

On 6 February 2011, La Jolla Playhouse, California, announced that it would produce a new stage musical based on the film, with the book by Allan Knee, score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, and directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford. [17] A planned production at La Jolla Playhouse was not held. [18] A developmental reading was held in New York 31 March 2011 with Julian Ovenden, Kelli O'Hara, Tony Roberts, Mary Beth Peil, Michael Cumpsty and Meredith Patterson, directed by Ashford. [19] The adaptation had its world premiere 22 September 2012 at Curve in Leicester. Directed by Rob Ashford, it stars Julian Ovenden as J. M. Barrie, and West End actress Rosalie Craig as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.

On 14 August 2014, it was announced that the show would transfer to Broadway in March 2015. [20] The show played at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. [21] On 10 November 2014, it was announced that Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominee Matthew Morrison would take Jordan's place in the portrayal of J. M. Barrie in the production's 2015 move to Broadway. [22] Kelsey Grammer starred as Charles Frohman, and Laura Michelle Kelly reprised her role of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Captain Hook</span> Fictional character

Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the brig Jolly Roger. His two principal fears are the sight of his own blood and the crocodile who pursues him after having previously eaten Captain Hook's hand cut off by Pan. An iron hook that replaced his severed hand has given the pirate his name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. M. Barrie</span> British novelist and playwright (1860–1937)

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens, then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freddie Highmore</span> English actor (born 1992)

Alfred Thomas Highmore is an English actor. He is known for his starring roles beginning as a child, in the films Finding Neverland (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Arthur and the Invisibles (2006), August Rush (2007), and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008). He won two consecutive Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Young Performer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Llewelyn Davies</span> Inspiration for Peter Pan

Michael Llewelyn Davies was – along with his four brothers – the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's characters Peter Pan, the Darling brothers, and the Lost Boys. Late in life, his only surviving brother Nico described him as "the cleverest of us, the most original, the potential genius." He died in ambiguous circumstances, drowning with a close friend – and possible lover – just short of his twenty-first birthday. He was a first cousin of English writer Daphne du Maurier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Llewelyn Davies</span> British publisher, friend of J.M. Barrie (1897–1960)

Peter Llewelyn Davies was the middle of five sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, one of the Llewelyn Davies boys befriended and later informally adopted by J. M. Barrie. Barrie publicly identified him as the source of the name for the title character in his 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Llewelyn Davies</span> British Army officer

George Llewelyn Davies was the eldest son of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Along with his four younger brothers, George was the inspiration for playwright J. M. Barrie's characters of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. The character of Mr. George Darling was named after him. He was killed in action in the First World War. He was the first cousin of the English writer Daphne du Maurier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Llewelyn Davies</span> British housewife (1866–1910)

Sylvia Jocelyn Busson Llewelyn Davies was the mother of the boys who were the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. She was the daughter of cartoonist and writer George du Maurier and his wife Emma Wightwick, the elder sister to actor Gerald du Maurier, the aunt of novelists Angela and Daphne du Maurier, and a great-granddaughter of Mary Anne Clarke, royal mistress of Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Llewelyn Davies</span> Royal Navy officer

John Llewelyn Davies was the second eldest of the Llewelyn Davies boys, who were befriended by Peter Pan creator J. M. Barrie, and one of the inspirations for the boy characters in the story of Peter Pan. He served in the Royal Navy during World War I. Additionally, he was the first cousin of the English writer Daphne du Maurier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Llewelyn Davies</span> Member of the Llewelyn Davies family

Nicholas "Nico" Llewelyn Davies was the youngest of the Llewelyn Davies boys, who were the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. He was only a year old when Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up hit the stage in 1904, and as such was not a primary inspiration for the characters of Peter and the Lost Boys. However he was eight years old when the novel adaptation Peter and Wendy was published, and in later editions of the play, the character Michael Darling's middle name was changed to "Nicholas". He was the first cousin of the English writer Daphne du Maurier.

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Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

The Davies boys were the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, in which several of the characters were named after them. They were the sons of Sylvia (1866–1910) and Arthur Llewelyn Davies (1863–1907). Their mother was a daughter of French-born cartoonist and writer George du Maurier and sister of actor Gerald du Maurier, whose daughter was author Daphne du Maurier. Their father was a son of preacher John Llewelyn Davies, and brother of suffragist Margaret Llewelyn Davies.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Llewelyn Davies</span> English barrister

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The Lost Boys is a 1978 three-part docudrama miniseries produced by the BBC, written by Andrew Birkin, and directed by Rodney Bennett. It is about the relationship between Peter Pan creator J. M. Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies boys.

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Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, often known simply as Peter Pan, is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel titled Peter and Wendy, often extended as Peter Pan and Wendy. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans, and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family.

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Finding Neverland is a musical with music and lyrics by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy and a book by James Graham adapted from the 1998 play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee and its 2004 film version Finding Neverland. An early version of the musical made its world premiere at the Curve Theatre in Leicester in 2012 with a book by Allan Knee, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie. A reworked version with the current writing team made its world premiere in 2014 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Following completion of its Cambridge run, the production transferred to Broadway in March 2015.

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Ela Queenie May was a child actress of the Edwardian era. She is probably best remembered as Liza, the Darling family servant, in the original production of Peter Pan and later played Wendy Darling in the touring companies of Peter Pan (1906–08). Before that, she played roles at several West End theatres from 1900, including the title role in Ib and Little Christina in 1901 and again in 1904.

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