The tale of the big-審査する bunny: 押し進める off, Paddington ? or, as Peter Rabbit would say, 'Hop it!' It's his turn for a £35 million feature film

  • Leaf-loving bunny, Peter Rabbit was created by?Beatrix Potter 152 years ago
  • Since then he has become a 栄えるing £400 million 全世界の 産業?
  • James Corden is 始める,決める to 発言する/表明する Peter Rabbit in a new £35 million Hollywood film
  • He believes the film will make people adore Peter even more

After a 確かな Marmalade-loving 耐える 得点する/非難する/20d a 抱擁する box office 攻撃する,衝突する across the globe, it was no surprise Hollywood scratched its 長,率いる and considered what other mischievous British family favourite could be turned into a film.

That charming 耐える, Paddington, was already snapped up. Winnie the Pooh was Americanised and 廃虚d some years ago. So enter Peter Rabbit, a cheeky lettuce leaf-loving bunny in a blue jacket, whose creator Beatrix Potter was born 152 years ago.

Peter’s 戦う/戦い to hide from angry gardener Mr McGregor ? whose wife put Peter’s father in a pie ? was first published, 個人として, in 1901 and was the charming (if somewhat dark) introduction to a wonderful world of woodland creatures and their often difficult interactions with humans which made Beatrix one of the world’s most popular children’s authors.

With more than 45 million The Tale Of Peter Rabbit 調書をとる/予約するs sold in 36 languages there is already a 抱擁する audience out there ready and waiting to see their favourite buck on the big 審査する.?

Hollywood's new live action and computer generated Peter Rabbit film was given a budget of £35 million

Hollywood's new live 活動/戦闘 and computer 生成するd Peter Rabbit film was given a 予算 of £35 million

In Japan the little rabbit is so popular there is a Peter Rabbit 主題 park with a brick-for-brick replica of Beatrix Potter’s Lake 地区 home. Peter is a 栄えるing £400 million 全世界の 産業 ? and the film is going to make him even bigger.

‘My parents introduced Peter to me and I, in turn, introduced him to my own children,’ says the film’s American writer and director Will Gluck. ‘And it’s my very 広大な/多数の/重要な honour to be directing a film that will bring him to cinemas everywhere.’

The modern film 見解/翻訳/版 of Peter is somewhat different to his Edwardian 前任者. This Peter, 発言する/表明するd by James Corden, helps to break into Mr McGregor’s house for a party and is a whizz at twerking. He may be charming and adventurous but when he has a serious 落ちる-out with Mr McGregor, he 試みる/企てるs to 電気椅子で死刑にする him. Which, we have to agree, isn’t so charming.

No wonder some Beatrix Potter fans are already 用心深い that the film will 廃虚 her 遺産/遺物. The phrase ‘turning over in her 墓/厳粛/彫る/重大な’ was whispered after the first trailer went out late last year, but Will 主張するs that the essence of the quintessentially British Peter remains.

‘We didn’t change the story by any means,’ says the American, who wrote the 改造するd 見解/翻訳/版 of Annie 同様に as directing 平易な A, starring Emma 石/投石する. ‘But the 調書をとる/予約するs are やめる short so we just kept it going.?

'We painstakingly 再生するd everything we could from the 調書をとる/予約するs and tried to honour every 選び出す/独身 moment of Beatrix Potter throughout the movie. If you love Beatrix Potter and you really know the 調書をとる/予約するs, you’ll realise what we did. In making this film we’ve always felt like humble custodians ゆだねるd with Peter’s 遺産/遺物.’

James Corden, the British comic actor who has become a talk show host and 抱擁する 星/主役にする in America, also 主張するs that the film will make people adore Peter even more. ‘Every British child 落ちるs in love with Peter Rabbit sooner or later,’ says the father of two. ‘I hope that a new 世代 will see this film and rediscover the incredible 調書をとる/予約するs and storytelling of Beatrix Potter.

Writer and director Will Gluck says the Peter Rabbit film was painstakingly reproduced from the classic books

Writer and director Will Gluck says the Peter Rabbit film was painstakingly 再生するd from the classic 調書をとる/予約するs

‘Peter is always going to be a rascal. He’s mischievous. But with the help of his friends he finds a way to grow up. I feel very excited and honoured to be part of the film.’

Like the Paddington films ? the first of them was so popular that a sequel was 解放(する)d last year ? Peter Rabbit is made from a mixture of live 活動/戦闘 with computer-生成するd imagery for the rabbits and friends. It has a £35 million 予算 and has been made with Animal Logic, the same Australian team behind award-winning 風刺漫画s The Lego Movie and Happy Feet.

Australian actress Rose Byrne plays a very modern incarnation of Beatrix Potter called Bea. An artist who adores her animals, Bea’s 絵s of Peter, his cousin Benjamin and triplet sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail re-create 行方不明になる Potter’s real watercolour artwork, in a nod to the bestselling author, who started work as an illustrator.

‘Bea’s an eccentric artist who is obsessed with animals,’ says the actress, who says she has made the film for her children, her two young sons with actor Bobby Cannavale, Rocco and Rafa. ‘It was like stepping 支援する into childhood and using your imagination at 十分な 軍隊.’

James Corden (pictured) who voices Peter Rabbit hopes the new film will help new generations to rediscover Beatrix Potter's storytelling

James Corden (pictured) who 発言する/表明するs Peter Rabbit hopes the new film will help new 世代s to rediscover Beatrix Potter's storytelling

The story starts with the demise of Bea’s 隣人, cantankerous old Mr McGregor played by Sam Neill. Peter and his friends 速く take over his garden and his house. A party scene shows Peter break-dancing and twerking and turning the house upside 負かす/撃墜する.

When Mr McGregor’s son Thomas, played by Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson, arrives to (人命などを)奪う,主張する his 相続物件 he is 荒廃させるd at the 大混乱 the rabbit and his friends have created and becomes 決定するd to have his 復讐 on them. The 戦う/戦い between Thomas and Peter becomes a war, which sees Peter and his friends chase their human 敵 to London, where he 作品 in the Harrods toy department. But both rabbit and man love Bea ? and are 軍隊d to pretend to be friends to make her happy.

‘Thomas is very prim and proper, when he walks around Bea he has a stick up his backside,’ says 星/主役にする Wars actor Domhnall. ‘You’re supposed to find him ridiculous before 軟化するing に向かって him. And the way that happens, I’m 納得させるd, is because someone as brilliant and beautiful as Rose is playing Bea. I think anyone who Bea likes, the audience will like.’

The real Beatrix was the shy but strong-willed daughter of two 豊富な parents who kept her and her younger brother Bertram away from other children to 避ける germs and bad 影響(力)s. She was always happier with her pets ? which 含むd rabbits, mice, snakes, snails, cats and a tame hedgehog called Mrs Tiggy-Winkle ? than other humans. She would spend hours 製図/抽選 and 絵 her animal friends and saw herself as an amateur scientist; when the animals died she would keep their 骸骨/概要s for anatomical sketches.

Peter Rabbit was based on her own rabbit, called Peter Piper, of whom she was 特に fond. She would take him for walks on a leash and 述べるd in a letter how he liked to 嘘(をつく) in 前線 of the 解雇する/砲火/射撃, ‘like a cat. He was clever at learning tricks, he used to jump through a hoop and (犯罪の)一味 a bell and play the tambourine.’

Beatrix first started 令状ing illustrated short stories about Peter for her former governess Annie Carter Moore’s son Noel when he was five. It was Annie who 納得させるd Beatrix that they should be turned into a 調書をとる/予約する.?

At first no publisher was 利益/興味d, so Beatrix self-published 250 copies of The Tale Of Peter Rabbit, which quickly sold out. In 1901 publishers Frederick 警告する & Co agreed to publish the 調書をとる/予約する and it became an 即座の success when it (機の)カム out in 1902. (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域 rix also created the world’s oldest licensed character after 工夫するing and 特許ing a Peter Rabbit doll, games and even wallpaper.

Work led to love for Beatrix, who fell for her editor Norman 警告する. Her parents disapproved of the match ? they didn’t want their daughter to marry a man who worked in ‘貿易(する)’ ? but Beatrix, then 36, 固執するd. Tragically, a month after she 受託するd his 提案 in 1905, Norman fell sick and died of what is now believed to be undiagnosed leukaemia. Beatrix finally 設立する love nearly a 10年間 later with her lawyer William Heelis, to whom she was married for 30 years until her death in 1943, 老年の 77.

In her lifetime she turned 負かす/撃墜する several 申し込む/申し出s to make a film 見解/翻訳/版 of Peter Rabbit, even rebuffing Walt Disney. But surely even she would be happy now that a whole new 世代 will have the chance to enjoy Peter’s mischievous antics in all their animated glory.?

How did they bring Beatrix's beauties to life?

The melding of live 活動/戦闘 and computer images has come a long way since 刑事 先頭 Dyke danced with penguins in Mary Poppins, but 連合させるing humans with 風刺漫画s is still painstaking work.

The Peter Rabbit actors had to play their 役割s と一緒に sticks, or ‘stuffies’, which were either furry animal 代表s, or cardboard 削減(する)-outs, of their co-星/主役にするs. If there was any physical 接触する, stunt actors in blue Lycra 控訴s filled in for the bunnies.

< div class="mol-img">
Rose Byrne as Bea (pictured) with Benjamin and Peter

Rose Byrne as Bea (pictured) with Benjamin and Peter

For one scene in which he’s fighting the animals, Domhnall Gleeson was 攻撃する,衝突する with sticks by four men in blue Lycra 控訴s for ten hours. ‘There’s more to come to 支配するs with than I’d imagined,’ 収容する/認めるs the actor. ‘When the script is so much fun you assume it’ll be fun to make. But a lot of work goes into making something fun.’

Working even harder than the 星/主役にするs are the animators who have to 確実にする the CGI matches perfectly with the humans.?ビデオ 監督者 Will Reichelt 手段d out the distance a one-foot-tall animal can cover in a second.?

And as the human actors are doing their thing, hiding out of sight on the 床に打ち倒す with a fishing line is a puppeteer 確実にするing the grass or leaves move at just the 権利 time, in just the 権利 位置/汚点/見つけ出す.

‘As Peter runs along, not only do you need to see his 影をつくる/尾行する on the ground, but also anything he kicks up ? dirt, dust, bits of grass,’ says Will. ‘This is 決定的な to make him appear 統合するd into the world.’

一方/合間, the 表現s of the rabbits ? who in r eal life don’t tend to smile, raise eyebrows or give sardonic looks ? had to be 実験d with on the 審査する so that they looked just 現実主義の enough without overacting.

So who's pals with Peter??

Oscar nominee Margot Robbie voices Flopsy (left, with Mrs Tiggy-Winkle)

Oscar 指名された人 Margot Robbie 発言する/表明するs Flopsy (left, with Mrs Tiggy-Winkle)

A host of 星/主役にするs joined the cast to lend their 発言する/表明するs to Peter’s friends and family.

Australian singer Sia 発言する/表明するs the hedgehog Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Night 経営者/支配人 actress Elizabeth Debicki, another Australian, 発言する/表明するs Mopsy, 説, ‘She is the eldest of Peter’s triplet sisters and is smart and feisty.’

Oscar 指名された人 Margot Robbie plays Flopsy (left, with Mrs Tiggy-Winkle), who she says has ‘middle-child syndrome’. She 追加するs, ‘She has a nervous energy and a 削減(する) lisp.’?

The 反抗的な sister Cotton-tail is 発言する/表明するd by Britain’s Daisy Ridley, fresh from playing another 反逆者/反逆する in the 星/主役にする Wars films. ‘Sh e’s a loose 大砲,’ says Daisy. ‘She’s awesome.’

Wizards of Oz who re-created the lakes?

Although Beatrix Potter’s 創造s are most 一般的に associated with her Lake 地区 home, she 現実に wrote her first tales of Peter Rabbit when she was still living with her parents in Kensington. However, it would be very hard not to 言及/関連 the Lake 地区 and her Hill 最高の,を越す home which she bought with the proceeds of Peter Rabbit.

Although some filming ? おもに scenic ? was done in Windermere and Ambleside, most of the movie was made in Sydney, Australia, where parts of the Lake 地区 and even London’s Paddington 駅/配置する were re-created.

A foxy foe of Peter’s
A copy of Potter’s home in Sydney

A copy of Potter’s home in Sydney and (far left) a foxy 敵 of Peter Rabbit’s

Two beautiful rustic English cottages, 完全にする with a lavender garden and vine-covered 塀で囲むs modelled on Hill 最高の,を越す, were built from scratch in Sydney’s Centennial Park for Bea’s home and the McGregor house. The filmmakers then had to work hard to make the (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域ing-hot Australian summer look like the more tepid English 見解/翻訳/版.

A moveable 審査する 削減(する) out the 厳しい light of the Australian sun, so it felt more like a はしけ English summer, but Sydney was going through a 熱波 during 狙撃 and that made filming 条件s difficult. Between takes Domhnall and Rose had hair dryers pointed at them to 乾燥した,日照りの up the sweat while six gardeners worked on the all-important vegetable patch to 確実にする it didn’t wilt in the boiling 40°C 気温s.

宣伝

Peter Rabbit will be in cinemas from 16 March.