We’ve all heard of Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Neverland from J.M. Barrie’s novel, but movie director Joe Wright has decided it’s time to completely reframe the story, and explore the origins of Peter and his companions.
The result is Pan, which begins in a bleak orphanage, where Peter has lived his whole life. One night, he and his pals are whisked off to the fantastical world of Neverland, a place of pirates, warriors and fairies, and where he also meets a certain man by the name of James Hook.
Eventually, it falls to Peter to defeat Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman), the self-appointed dictator of Neverland, and become the boy who never grows up.
Here, Wright, Jackman and his co-stars Garrett Hedlund and Levi Miller, discuss their epic adventure…
ODE TO THE UNCOOL
Joe Wright, the director behind Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina, couldn’t be happier that a critic has called Pan ‘joyously uncool’.
“I love that, because I set out to make an uncool film and I made that quite vocal,” says the London-born 43-year-old. “I wanted to make a film from the point of an 11-year-old, before the onset of teenage angst.”
He recalls having a clear idea of what he wanted to do, combined with “a fear of not knowing how to achieve it”.
“Together, those two create an energy that propels me through the production,” adds the film-maker, who makes no secret of the fact that he’s “always winging it”.
“You start every film having to re-learn how to make a film, I guess, because everyone is different, like children.”
Wright has two young sons – Zubin, four, and baby Mohan – and says he wanted to make a film for them, but also for “the child in me who’s being rediscovered through parenthood, and those two elements informed every decision I made”.
The movie might be called Pan, but there was never any doubt as to who the main star was going to be – Blackbeard – and Wright immediately looked to Hugh Jackman, “who could bring that theatrical scale to the performance”, to take on the role.
PIRATE WITH PANACHE
A man with one of the most recognisable faces in the world, Jackman relished the opportunity to shed himself of his handsome looks to play Blackbeard, the pirate all other pirates fear. With his shaven head and goatee beard, he even managed to take his daughter to Walt Disney World without being hounded.
“When I first met with Joe, we discussed why these stories exist in the first place, the role they play in kids’ lives, and adults’ lives,” says Jackman, 47.
“Peter Pan is one of those seminal stories that is known by all ages in all countries. It’s universal, and in creating an origin for Peter, I think Jason (Fuchs, who wrote the screenplay) and Joe hooked into the inner child within all of us.”
Often described as “the nicest man in Hollywood”, Jackman jokes that he’s never played anyone “quite this bad” before.
“Not only is he dastardly, but he loves to hear himself talk, to make speeches and use big words,” says the Australia-born actor.
“He thinks he’s very important and he is scary, but he’s having a good time, and that made him a fun character to play.”
And Blackbeard knows how to make an entrance, encouraging his prisoners – who are aiding his search for eternal youth by digging for fairy dust – to sing Nirvana and Ramones songs. “I told Joe, ‘I’ll never get to do this again, play a pirate that sees himself almost as a rock star, and actually get to sing a rock song as a pirate’. It was quite spectacular.
HOW’S IT HANGIN’, HOOK?
In this telling, Hook has yet to have his close encounter with a crocodile and instead, starts off as a prisoner, digging for Blackbeard.
“He’s a demoted, deflated man who seems quite lost,” explains actor Garrett Hedlund, 31. “When he sees Peter, Hook thinks he’s found his golden ticket out of there.”
Wright, inspired by Hedlund’s upbringing in rural Minnesota, felt James Hook could be someone plucked out of an old John Ford Western.
“Hook has this wonderful old-fashioned sense about him, because he could’ve been a prisoner for over 100 years. He’d be happy on a horse on the prairies,” explains Hedlund, who also starred in 2012’s On The Road alongside Kristen Stewart, and credits Wright with keeping things upbeat on set.
“On these films, some days can be tougher than others and Joe is very aware of that. If he saw the energy flailing, he’d play music and then all of us would be dancing. It reminded you what it was like to be a kid again.”
As was the dressing-up box they had access to throughout the three-week rehearsal period.
“Hugh would throw on this almost ballerina tutu and knee-high boots and wear something crazy on his head that was reminiscent of his Marie Antoinette wig, so it was fun. Sometimes you can be anxious or nervous when you’re embarking on a film, but on this, nobody felt afraid to feel foolish.”
FINDING PETER
The search for a young actor to play Peter was global, with casting directors sent far and wide to find a boy who could fulfil both the emotional and physical requirements of the role.
Levi Miller, then aged 11, auditioned in Brisbane, before being flown to LA to meet Wright and finally London to do a chemistry read with Hedlund (to see if they gelled convincingly). The youngster was at home having dinner when he received the call to say he’d got the part.
“I just started bawling my eyes out – tears of joy, of course. It was a dream come true and I was excited to get started,” beams Miller, who is now 13.
Before cameras started rolling, he embarked on stunt training, which mostly involved “falling and hitting myself on the ground” and “working on my core” for the flying scenes on a robotic arm (a process he describes as “insane”).
Until the night he’s taken away to Neverland, the orphanage, run by Mother Barnabas (Kathy Burke) is the only home he’s known.
“She’s a monster, an absolutely terrible person, but the actress who plays her is lovely,” notes Miller.
As was Rooney Mara, who plays the beautiful Neverland native Tiger Lily (“I have a crush on her,” he confesses).
The young actor has high praise for his older co-star Jackman, too: “Blackbeard is an intimidating character, especially to Peter, and Hugh played him perfectly.”