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Finding Neverland is a 2004 biographical drama film, directed by Marc Forster and written by David Magee, based on the 1998 play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee. It depict…
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Investigate this subjectFinding Neverland is a 2004 biographical drama film, directed by Marc Forster and written by David Magee, based on the 1998 play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee. It depicts the life of British author and playwright J.
Finding Neverland is a 2004 biographical drama film, directed by Marc Forster and written by David Magee, based on the 1998 play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee. It depicts the life of British author and playwright J. M. Barrie and the family who inspired him to create Peter Pan. The film stars Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Mitchell, and Dustin Hoffman.
Finding Neverland premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 4, 2004, and was released in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2004, and the United States on December 17, 2004, by Miramax Films. 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.
In 1903, following the dismal reception of his latest play, Little Mary, 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 him 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.
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. 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.
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.
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 17 December 2004.
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.
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." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 38 critics, in
Source: Finding Neverland (film) (CC BY-SA)
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