Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Finding Neverland (2004) - Forster and an inspired cast strike gold with story of Peter Pan's creation

1/23/2019

Finding Neverland (2004) - Forster and an inspired cast strike gold with story of Peter Pan's creation

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best London Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Freddie Highmore

A splash of fantastic imagination and two fresh-faced major stars tempt on this poster for Marc Forster's Finding Neverland

Scottish writer James Barrie locates his inner boy again, as he connects with a London family consisting of a widow and her four sons, which enables him to invent and write the adventure of Peter Pan.

Finding Neverland is written by David Magee (Life of Pi (2012)), based on the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan (1998)) by Allan Knee (Little Women (2005)), which centers on the true story of writer J.M Barrie's creation of the Peter Pan character in the early 20th century. The film is directed by great German filmmaker Marc Forster (Machine Gun Preacher (2011)).
Finding Neverland is a heartbreaker and an extremely soothing watch. It has wonderfully adventurous parts and outstanding performances from Johnny Depp (Dark Shadows (2012)), Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road (2008)), Julie Christie (Don't Look Now (1973)) and the boy actors, particularly Freddie Highmore (I Saw You (2002, TV-series)).
Not all of the visual ideas are resolved completely satisfactorily, but the film is splendid.

Related posts:

Marc Forster: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
World War Z (2013) - Forster, Pitt and Co.'s preposterous zombie junk

Machine Gun Preacher (2011) - Butler finds faith and a Sudanese purpose in Forster's incredible true story

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 116.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.66 times its cost)
[Finding Neverland premiered 4 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy and Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place in the UK, including London, in and around June 2002. The release was halted for a year due to a rights dispute with Miramax, who were releasing a major Peter Pan (2003) film, (which became a huge flop). The film opened #26 to a 220k $ first weekend in 8 theaters in North America and peaked at #8 and in 1,411 theaters (different weeks), grossing 51.6 mil. $ (44.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 9 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Italy with 8 mil. $ (6.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal to its rating here. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning one, for Best Score (Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (Horsemen (2009))). It lost Best Picture to Million Dollar Baby, Actor (Depp) to Jamie Foxx in Ray, Adapted Screenplay to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for Sideways, Art Direction, Editing and Costume Design to The Aviator. It was also nominated for 5 Golden Globes, 11 BAFTAs, won 3 National Board of Review awards and many other honors. The film has since been turned into a successful stage musical. Forster returned with Stay (2005). Depp returned in The Libertine (2004), Winslet in Extras (2005, TV-series) and theatrically in Romance & Cigarettes (2005), Christie in The Secret Life of Words (2005)) and Dustin Hoffman (Marathon Man (1976)) in I Heart Huckabees (2004)). Finding Neverland is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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1/23/2019

Finding Neverland (2004) - Forster and an inspired cast strike gold with story of Peter Pan's creation

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