(Left) Kiefer Sutherland stars on Paramount+’s ‘Rabbit Hole.’ (Right) Oscar® nominee, Al Pacino arrives on the red carpet of The 92nd Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 9, 2020.
Preview:
Kiefer Sutherland, Al Pacino and Ever Anderson will star in ‘Father Joe’.
Barthélémy Grossmann is aboard to direct.
Luc Besson will produce the action thriller.
As a veteran of the action thriller genre (not to mention other types of movies), Luc Besson is also someone who supports other filmmakers.
But despite his experience behind the camera, Besson is handing over shot-calling duties to Barthélémy Grossmann, who in addition to his own directing work has also served as second-unit director for several Besson movies.
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in ’24’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
The new movie stars Sutherland (who also joins the project as producer) as the title character, a man of faith who wages a violent war against the city’s criminal underworld.
Pacino plays a powerful mob boss whose empire collides with Father Joe’s crusade. Anderson plays a young woman caught between danger and redemption under Joe’s guidance.
Here’s what Sutherland had to say about joining the movie:
“I have been a fan of Luc Besson going back to ‘Subway’. As a director and a writer, he has a unique capacity to weave drama and action together without sacrificing either. I’m so excited about this opportunity to work with him as the writer of ‘Father Joe’ and director Barthélémy Grossmann. I can’t wait to get started.”
Where else can we see Kiefer Sutherland, Al Pacino and Ever Anderson?
(L to R) Director Michael Mann, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on the set of 1995’s ‘Heat’. Photo: Warner Bros.
On Disney+ now, ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ is the latest attempt by the studio to transform one of its animated classics into live action. And thankfully, despite being pushed straight to streaming, this reveals itself to be far better than the much-maligned ‘Pinocchio’ conversion job that (dis)graced screens last year, even that had Robert Zemeckis directing and Tom Hanks starring.
And that’s largely thanks to director David Lowery, who finds a lyrical, visually lush approach and ups the emotional ante to give the story more meaning.
xtKndQmvnZNvRRMLVqVhs3
What’s the story of ‘Peter Pan & Wendy?’
Given that author J.M. Barrie’s original play premiered back in 1904 and it, and the novel spawned from it have been adapted many, many times through the years, it’s hard to imagine anyone doesn’t know the narrative for this one. But just in case…
‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ introduces us to Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson), a young girl on the verge of leaving her family and childhood home behind to attend boarding school. One night, Wendy and brothers Michael (Jacobi Jupe –– yes, the younger brother of ‘A Quiet Place’s Noah) and John (Joshua Pickering) meet Peter Pan (Alexander Molony), a boy who refuses to grow up.
Alongside her brothers and a tiny fairy, Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi), she travels with Peter to the magical world of Never Land. There, she encounters an evil pirate captain, Captain Hook (Jude Law), and embarks on a thrilling and dangerous adventure that will change her life forever.
Even with a seemingly failsafe story, Peter Pan has offered mixed blessings to filmmakers through the years. Disney famously made a successful animated version way back in 1953, but in more recent times, it has become something of a third rail for directors who dare to go near it.
It has provided flops for ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ filmmaker P.J. Hogan, whose 2003 traditional ‘Peter Pan’ boasted Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook but could only wrangle $121 million worldwide from a $100 million budget (not counting advertising etc.) ‘Atonement’s Joe Wright tried a punkier, revised version in 2015 with Hugh Jackman playing Hook. That did even worse, losing money. And even more recently, ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Benh Zeitlin turned the focus to Wendy Darling with, well, ‘Wendy’, which was made for $6 million and has so far returned less than $300,000 on limited, pandemic-impacted release after it landed in 2020.
Yet Lowery has pulled off something that feels like it both channels Barrie’s original story and does interesting things with it that make it feel fresh.
This is, of course, not Lowery’s first ride on the Disney rodeo either –– he previously brought the world a fine adaptation of ‘Pete’s Dragon’. With that movie there was a lot more scope for change, the director swapping the live action/cartoon musical story for a more grounded (aside from the whole dragon thing), story of a lost boy who finds solace in a giant winged creature.
Lost boys –– and girls –– are, of course a big part of the ‘Pan’ story (Peter has a group he’s collected through the years), and in finding his young cast, Lowery has tracked down some authentic (and authentically diverse) actors to bring the roles to life.
Ever Anderson, daughter of Milla Jovovich and director Paul W.S. Anderson, brings charm and a soulful quality to Wendy and also does well on the stunt front when called upon (the apple not falling far from the tree there). As her brothers, Pickering and Jupe aren’t called upon to handle too much, but what they bring is kids who are appealing and never precociously annoying.
Molony as Peter initially feels smug and arrogant, but those are a slightly in keeping with his base character. And as the movie probes deeply into his reasons for being the way he is, he warms up.
Law as Hook is a fantastically preening villain at first, but the actor is also talented enough to handle the deeper origin story that Lowery and co-writer Toby Halbrooks hand him. And he’s ably supported by Smee (Jim Gaffigan, who unveils a solid British accent), who is also handed more of a character than the usual comedy sidekick.
Lowery kicks off with a very theatrical feel, upping the fantasy levels and, if there’s a problem to be found, the earlier scenes (which take place at night) are a little muddy with the digital filming. And Molony, for one, sometimes looks like he’s been crafted with CGI, even more so than Shahidi’s Tink.
But once the movie gets to Neverland, sunshine arrives and the canvas expands, the movie becomes much more watchable. And the effects –– such Hook’s ship going flying and the infamous ticking-belly crocodile (to whom Peter fed Hook’s hand once he cut it off years ago) –– are effective, even if they sometimes stretch the more limited budget offered by a movie produced for the streaming service as opposed to ‘Pete’s Dragon’s lush theatrical look.
The music, meanwhile, both in score form from musicians Daniel Hart and Oliver Wallace (who channels John Williams at times) and the pirate songs from the original animated movie given fresh treatment, really help to enhance the experience.
This is Lowery bringing his carefully crafted indie sensibility to the film, once again putting his stamp on it rather than feeling like it rattled off of a construction conveyor belt. It might not appeal to fans of his more esoteric work such as ‘A Ghost Story’, but it’s a perfectly fun story for family audiences, especially with young children who have yet to see their first ‘Pan’ adaptation.
You won’t feel like a codfish for catching this one.
