Greeneiris' Note: there are some obvious 或者 glaring errors in the 文章 but keep in mind the magazine hit the shelves before the movie was released.
Starlog issue #358, August 2007
Faerie Tale
by
Joe Nazzaro
"A philosopher once asked, 'Are we human because we gaze at the stars, 或者 do we gaze at the stars because we're human?' " With that existential 问题 (voiced 由 Sir Ian McKellan) begins the big-screen 幻想 Stardust. Based on the illustrated novel 由 Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, it's the story of lovesick Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox), who enters the realm of Faerie to retrieve a falling star, only to discover that the 星, 星级 is 问题 has now taken human form (Claire Danes).
What Tristan (Tristran in the original book) doesn't realize is that he isn't the only party seeking the heavenly jewel. There's also a trio of witch queens led 由 the evil Lamia (Michelle Pfieffer), who are hoping to restore their youth and beauty. And then there are the would-be rulers of an ancient kingdom who are in 搜索 of the talisman that will settle their ancient birthright.
The architect behind Stardust is Matthew Vaughn, director of the 2004 sleeper Layer Cake (which edged a certain actor named Daniel Craig a bit closer to James Bond superstardom) and producer of Guy Ritchie's cult gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. As on Layer Cake , Vaughn is 表演 as director and producer, and he co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman. So capturing the unique tone of Gaiman and Vess' novel has pretty much fallen squarely on his shoulders? "Unique tone?" reflects Vaughn. "We've definitely capture and unique tone in this movie, because everyone who sees it says, 'Wow, what the hell was that?'
"I've respected the 图书 tone, but I also wanted to make this for a larger audience, so we never go quite as dark 或者 sexual as the novel, but there are some dark and sexual undertones. I've had to be far 更多 careful with them, because I've made a family film, so Neil [a producer on the project] ad I discussed it at the beginning, and he was very comfortable with that. I said, 'Neil, this is going to cost so much money to make. I can't make it for that audience. It's never going to happen.' We'll probably end up a PG-13. I think it's a comfortable balance. The way I describe it. I feel that I've either made an adult film for children 或者 a children's film for adults; I don't know which."
Faerie Lands
Vaughn is sitting in an editing suite at his 伦敦 MARV Films offices, finishing up post-production on Stardust, which has just been moved to an August 10 release. Early test screenings have been overwhelmingly favorable, and Paramount has begun to realize they may have a potential hit on their hands, but in order to give it a shot, they've moved Stardust away from its 前一个 slot opposite The Simpson's Movie.
That shift has 给 Vaughn some breathing room, so while the final visual FX shots are coming in and Ilan Eshkeri is finishing the score, Vaughn and his editor Jon Harris are trying to shave a few 分钟 off the final cut. "I could get it down to around an 小时 and forty 分钟 with no problem, but when you're introducing a new world, 你 need 15 或者 20 分钟 to set it all up," he explains. "The studio and I have been--arguing is the wrong word, but debating, because if 你 take out the part of the beginning, then boom, you're in the story. But then 你 don't really get to know Tristan, and 你 don't understand the village of 墙 或者 Stormhold. Basically, 你 can start the movie with the picnic scene and you're off. It makes sense, but it takes 12 分钟 to get to that scene."
To illustrate what he's talking about, Vaughn shows the opening sequence on a monitor. It starts with an establishing scene of London's Royal Academy of Science 150 years ago, then leaps ahead to a heated conversation between Dunstan Thorne (Nathaniel Parker) and one of the 墙 villagers (David Kelly), which sets up the concept of the 墙 that separates our world from the land of Faerie.
That 墙 is constantly guarded, with the exception of a market that takes place on the other side every nine years. On this occasion, Dunstan attends the market, where he falls for the beautiful Una (Kate Magowan), who claims to be a princess tricked into servitude 由 her harridan mistress Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). When nature takes its course, Dunstan ends up in a tryst with the mysterious maiden, and as the story moves 前锋, 期待 in time several months, we see Kelly's character delivering a basket containing the infant Tristan to Dunstan's door.
"Within those 12 minutes, 你 learn about Tristan and his mother, so 你 really need those scenes to set everything up," Vaughn argues. "I look at all those great 电影院 of the '70s, where they spent time at the beginning. The Deer Hunter is the best example of getting to know all of the characters, so when 你 put them into the situations that take place later on, you're truly connected to them.
"I much prefer shorter movies, though. This is the longest film I've ever made, and right now we're going through it trying to trim a few sections. I still have another four 或者 five 分钟 to take out, but it will be a two-hour movie. It's a great film. Hold onto your hat in the 秒 hour, because when 你 get to the inn sequence with the unicorn and the witch, from that point on, you're on the ultimate rollercoaster ride. The first 小时 has some great moments like you've just seen, but it's 更多 beautiful and you're meeting characters and it's slowly building and building. that's how I think a movie should be."
Although Stardust is Vaughn's directorial follow-up to Layer Cake, there was a time not all that long 以前 when his attention was on a very different genre project: the third X-Men film. After spending several months developing the property with screenwriters Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, Vaughn ultimately decided to leave the project and return to London? "I'm a big X-Men fan," he notes, "so I was very honored to be asked to direct the movie. The only reason I didn't was because I didn't believe I had enough time to make the film I wanted to make.
"I worked so hard on the script with Kinberg and Penn and was proud of it, but that sequel needed careful handling, because it dealt with death of major characters and the whole concept of the Cure. I could have done a really good movie, but 狐狸 made the right decision in just plowing ahead, because they made money. I respect [studio chairman] Tom Rothman as businessman for what he did. But for my 秒 picture, I had to make sure that it was creatively 100 percent what I wanted to do, because I'm trying to have a career as a director--and not just created on grosses."
"Instead, Vaughn's company began development on Stardust. "I knew about the property, because I was 给 the book a few years ago, loved it and I became good 老友记 with Neil," he explains. "I asked Neil, 'Do 你 want to do it [as a film]?' And Neil was like, 'Let's do it!' It was a big project at Miramax for a while, but it didn't get made. But Neil saw how I [handled] things and got them off the ground, so we made a deal. Neil gave me the rights, and he stayed on as producer and helped shepherd it along."
"When I left X-Men 3, it gave me the confidence that I could write the script, so I sat down and quickly penned a rough draft, which was structurally sound, but the dialogue sucked and needed much 更多 improvement. I then handed it over to Jane, who took a very good seed and made sure that it became a beautiful flower, plant, tree, whatever. Jane and I did that together--I think it only took eight weeks. It was such a blur, I would say that a couple of months after I wrote the first word of Stardust, we presented it to the studio and it got green-lit. So it was very quick."
Falling Stars
Armed with a finished script, Vaughn began assembling his cast. Although a number of A-list names has expressed interest in Stardust over the years, the director wanted two unknown actors for his leads, with a top-notch cast supporting them. "This was a co-production, so we put up quite a lot of money as well, which always helps," he says. "Ironically, if I didn't go for names, we would have cast this much quicker. But there were key people I saw in certain roles, where we all thought, 'Oh my God, they would be amazing!'
"Paramount, understandably, was like, 'You need people that we recognize!' But they gave me Charlie, because I argued that Tristan should be an unknown actor, so that we truly believe his growth from a nerd to a hero. If 你 have Leonardo DiCaprio looking nerdy, it's no surprise when he blossoms. We screen-tested Charlie, he was fantastic and so we went with him.
"Michelle was my number-one choice for Lamia, because I wanted someone who is the personification of beauty, and she is. That adds to the impact of Lamia falling apart and then becoming young and beautiful again. Michelle is such a talented actress, and she hasn't been seen in a while. Yvaine [Star's real name] was very tricky to cast, but Claire did a wonderful job. She's playing a star, so how the hell do 你 get into that character? And 星, 星级 is a bit of a 婊子, 子 at the beginning, which makes 你 immediately think, 'Oh, I don't like her!' Most 女演员 aren't comfortable doing that, but Claire handled the transition well."
One of Vaughn's biggest casting coups was landing Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro to play Captain Shakespeare, a re-named role that was considerably beefed up from the novel. "He's so good, he steals the movie," Vaughn declares. "I don't know where Shakespeare came from some sick part of my body I guess, but something wrote the character one night. I had this idea, and then Jane and I fleshed it out even more. I wanted someone who was known for being a tough guy, and Robert plays a pirate like you've never seen one before. 你 think Johnny Depp did it? Wait until 你 see Captain Shakespeare; he makes Jack Sparrow look conservative! Shakespeare has an extremely important 20 分钟 of screen time. It's a major moment in the movie."
Another highlight is the sequence that introduces the dying Lord of Stormhold and his feuding sons, each of whom hopes to become the 下一个 ruler 由 killing off his siblings in various underhanded ways. The current monarch, who attained his 标题 in a similar fashion, is Peter O'Toole, making the most of his memorable scene. "Peter told me that he reads this [sort of] shit all 日 long, but he loved the script and wanted to do it," Vaughn says. "He wants to be in good movies, and it was only a day's filming, so he just came in and did it. And it was fantastic to work with a legend."
For the warring brothers, Vaughn cast Jason Flemyng (Primus), Rupert Everett (Secundus), Mark Heap (Tertius), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Quartus), Adam Buxton (Quintus), David Walliams (Sextus) and Mark Strong (Septimus). "Septimus was the most important character to get right and Mark is someone I've kept my eye on for a long time." he notes. "He's a brilliant actor, and [he plays Septimus like] Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It's a different performance, where you're thinking, 'Who the hell is this guy?'
"And for the rest of the brothers, I wanted to create this dysfunctional family who have to kill each other in order to get to the top. I cast people who are talented and funny. Jason is a solid actor whom I've worked with before. He has great timing and is very underrated. And when I saw Mark Heap in [the surreal British hospital comedy] Green Wing, I thought, 'My God, that guy is good!' There's a huge twist with Secundus, so I needed a famous face. I thought it was going to be hard to cast, but that big moment now works even better because of Rupert."
Vaughn suddenly grins like a small boy with a secret he's dying to share. "Would 你 like to see that scene?" he asks. And truth be told (as he shows it to STARLOG). it's an even meatier chunk of the story, starting with young Tristan sitting 下一个 to village beauty Victoria Forester (Sienna Miller), with whom he's obviously smitten. As lovesick boys are wont to do, he's willing to offer Victoria anything for her hand, and so he agrees to find the falling star. The story then cuts to distant Stormhold, where the dying King is surrounded 由 his seven sons, four of them living, the other three in ghostly form. The dead brothers are able to communicate with each other but not their living brethren, so they can only watch as Secundus enters the King's chambers to discuss succession.
The "big moment" that Vaughn is referring to involves a couple of changes from the novel which would be unfair to reveal here; suffice to say that Secundus is soon welcomed 由 his departed brethren. Faced with three still-living heirs, the King decided to resolve their situation in an untraditional manner, 展示 them the stone that symbolizes his power. "Only he of royal blood can restore the ruby," he announces. "And the one of 你 that does so shall be the new King of Stormhold!" With that, the dying monarch casts the stone out of the 城堡 window.
Another modification to the 来源 material is that--in addition to being grey specters who remain unseen 由 the living--each of the dead brothers appears as they were at the moment of their demise. For example, one of them is badly burned, while another still has an axe protruding from his skull. "That came from my 爱情 of An American Werewolf in London," says Vaughn. "It's one of my 最喜爱的 films, and the ghosts were inspired 由 that."
Maybe so, but there is a danger of making a movie too self-referential? "That's funny because the studio told me, 'Never mention The Princess Bride!" because it flopped at the box office and they were absolutely scared of it," Vaughn observes. "But everybody who has seen the film says, 'This is like a modern 日 Princess Bride!' And try selling this movie to someone in one sentence. It's very hard, because there's so much going on. If a film has 更多 than one plotline--'It's about a guy who has to catch a fallen 星, 星级 that has turned into a girl, and witches are trying to eat her heart, and the prince is trying to find her, because she has the stone that knocked her out of the sky, and he lives in an English village, which is 下一个 to this world...'People respond with, 'What are 你 talking about?' "
Fantasy Sights
Although Stardust is heavily steeped in traditional fantasy, Vaughn also wanted to base the film in reality. "The problem with most 电影院 nowadays is that they have so much CGI and so many enhanced scenarios and scenes that 你 just don't buy it," he argues. "I don't like watching films like that, and it's even one of my criticisms of The Lord of the Rings. Some moments felt like 你 were in a video game--[like when the camera] swoops down through the mines. It just felt too digital. I've tried to make sure that everything in Stardust comes across as 更多 real. I've tried to do as much in-camera and as little CGI as possible.
"There were certain CG things that we had to do, but for a film like Stardust, it's a very small CGI package. That's going to sound like a total oxymoron, because there are about 800 visual effects shots, but--and this is where the studio was freaking out, saying, 'Where are they all?'--most of them 你 don't notice. In terms of obvious CGI, there maybe are 100 shots. The other 700 are subtle comps and ghosts, wire removal and stuff like that. It was a good test, because Jon and I were nervous about this CG world, which is quite different for up.
"Even now, shots are coming in, and the pacing is suddenly [ruined] because the CG shot is three 秒 longer that what we wanted. So it's a dangerous but exciting area. It's weird: 你 have ultimate control, but 你 also have no control, because you're relying on these guys pressing buttons, and they're sitting there saying. 'OK, I'll make it 更多 like this.' Then we run out of time, and they say 'But 你 说 你 liked that,' and we tell them 'We liked what it looked like then, but now it looks different!' We've been working with [visual FX supervisor] Peter Chiang, who has been a knight in shining armor the whole way through. He was 给 a small budget, and has been able to squeeze every available moment of screen time out of it. Peter has done a great job."
With a few months' work of post-production still remaining, it's a bit early to render a verdict on Stardust: but Vaughn believes it's coming together rather nicely. "I'm still amazed that I've made it." he grins "Everything has gone according to plan, and the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle is the music. But I'm really happy. It's a good film, and so far people like it. I remember feelling really good about Lock, Stock when we first showed it to people, because it was fresh and had a voice, but we still couldn't get distribution. then when we finally got the film out there, people enjoyed it.
"And I belive that it's the same thing with Stardust: It doesn't fit in any box, but I like that, and I hope people feel that way too. Producer Lorenzo di Boniventura, who worked on The Matrix went through the roof. But I just don't know.
"I hope the public likes the movie and tells other people to go and see it, so maybe it will build some momentum," Matthew Vaughn says. "We have some wonderful ideas for sequels, but we'll see what happens. We have two ideas for follow-ups, and if this one does well, I'll certainly be happy to make them."
Starlog issue #358, August 2007
Faerie Tale
by
Joe Nazzaro
"A philosopher once asked, 'Are we human because we gaze at the stars, 或者 do we gaze at the stars because we're human?' " With that existential 问题 (voiced 由 Sir Ian McKellan) begins the big-screen 幻想 Stardust. Based on the illustrated novel 由 Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, it's the story of lovesick Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox), who enters the realm of Faerie to retrieve a falling star, only to discover that the 星, 星级 is 问题 has now taken human form (Claire Danes).
What Tristan (Tristran in the original book) doesn't realize is that he isn't the only party seeking the heavenly jewel. There's also a trio of witch queens led 由 the evil Lamia (Michelle Pfieffer), who are hoping to restore their youth and beauty. And then there are the would-be rulers of an ancient kingdom who are in 搜索 of the talisman that will settle their ancient birthright.
The architect behind Stardust is Matthew Vaughn, director of the 2004 sleeper Layer Cake (which edged a certain actor named Daniel Craig a bit closer to James Bond superstardom) and producer of Guy Ritchie's cult gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. As on Layer Cake , Vaughn is 表演 as director and producer, and he co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman. So capturing the unique tone of Gaiman and Vess' novel has pretty much fallen squarely on his shoulders? "Unique tone?" reflects Vaughn. "We've definitely capture and unique tone in this movie, because everyone who sees it says, 'Wow, what the hell was that?'
"I've respected the 图书 tone, but I also wanted to make this for a larger audience, so we never go quite as dark 或者 sexual as the novel, but there are some dark and sexual undertones. I've had to be far 更多 careful with them, because I've made a family film, so Neil [a producer on the project] ad I discussed it at the beginning, and he was very comfortable with that. I said, 'Neil, this is going to cost so much money to make. I can't make it for that audience. It's never going to happen.' We'll probably end up a PG-13. I think it's a comfortable balance. The way I describe it. I feel that I've either made an adult film for children 或者 a children's film for adults; I don't know which."
Faerie Lands
Vaughn is sitting in an editing suite at his 伦敦 MARV Films offices, finishing up post-production on Stardust, which has just been moved to an August 10 release. Early test screenings have been overwhelmingly favorable, and Paramount has begun to realize they may have a potential hit on their hands, but in order to give it a shot, they've moved Stardust away from its 前一个 slot opposite The Simpson's Movie.
That shift has 给 Vaughn some breathing room, so while the final visual FX shots are coming in and Ilan Eshkeri is finishing the score, Vaughn and his editor Jon Harris are trying to shave a few 分钟 off the final cut. "I could get it down to around an 小时 and forty 分钟 with no problem, but when you're introducing a new world, 你 need 15 或者 20 分钟 to set it all up," he explains. "The studio and I have been--arguing is the wrong word, but debating, because if 你 take out the part of the beginning, then boom, you're in the story. But then 你 don't really get to know Tristan, and 你 don't understand the village of 墙 或者 Stormhold. Basically, 你 can start the movie with the picnic scene and you're off. It makes sense, but it takes 12 分钟 to get to that scene."
To illustrate what he's talking about, Vaughn shows the opening sequence on a monitor. It starts with an establishing scene of London's Royal Academy of Science 150 years ago, then leaps ahead to a heated conversation between Dunstan Thorne (Nathaniel Parker) and one of the 墙 villagers (David Kelly), which sets up the concept of the 墙 that separates our world from the land of Faerie.
That 墙 is constantly guarded, with the exception of a market that takes place on the other side every nine years. On this occasion, Dunstan attends the market, where he falls for the beautiful Una (Kate Magowan), who claims to be a princess tricked into servitude 由 her harridan mistress Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). When nature takes its course, Dunstan ends up in a tryst with the mysterious maiden, and as the story moves 前锋, 期待 in time several months, we see Kelly's character delivering a basket containing the infant Tristan to Dunstan's door.
"Within those 12 minutes, 你 learn about Tristan and his mother, so 你 really need those scenes to set everything up," Vaughn argues. "I look at all those great 电影院 of the '70s, where they spent time at the beginning. The Deer Hunter is the best example of getting to know all of the characters, so when 你 put them into the situations that take place later on, you're truly connected to them.
"I much prefer shorter movies, though. This is the longest film I've ever made, and right now we're going through it trying to trim a few sections. I still have another four 或者 five 分钟 to take out, but it will be a two-hour movie. It's a great film. Hold onto your hat in the 秒 hour, because when 你 get to the inn sequence with the unicorn and the witch, from that point on, you're on the ultimate rollercoaster ride. The first 小时 has some great moments like you've just seen, but it's 更多 beautiful and you're meeting characters and it's slowly building and building. that's how I think a movie should be."
Although Stardust is Vaughn's directorial follow-up to Layer Cake, there was a time not all that long 以前 when his attention was on a very different genre project: the third X-Men film. After spending several months developing the property with screenwriters Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, Vaughn ultimately decided to leave the project and return to London? "I'm a big X-Men fan," he notes, "so I was very honored to be asked to direct the movie. The only reason I didn't was because I didn't believe I had enough time to make the film I wanted to make.
"I worked so hard on the script with Kinberg and Penn and was proud of it, but that sequel needed careful handling, because it dealt with death of major characters and the whole concept of the Cure. I could have done a really good movie, but 狐狸 made the right decision in just plowing ahead, because they made money. I respect [studio chairman] Tom Rothman as businessman for what he did. But for my 秒 picture, I had to make sure that it was creatively 100 percent what I wanted to do, because I'm trying to have a career as a director--and not just created on grosses."
"Instead, Vaughn's company began development on Stardust. "I knew about the property, because I was 给 the book a few years ago, loved it and I became good 老友记 with Neil," he explains. "I asked Neil, 'Do 你 want to do it [as a film]?' And Neil was like, 'Let's do it!' It was a big project at Miramax for a while, but it didn't get made. But Neil saw how I [handled] things and got them off the ground, so we made a deal. Neil gave me the rights, and he stayed on as producer and helped shepherd it along."
"When I left X-Men 3, it gave me the confidence that I could write the script, so I sat down and quickly penned a rough draft, which was structurally sound, but the dialogue sucked and needed much 更多 improvement. I then handed it over to Jane, who took a very good seed and made sure that it became a beautiful flower, plant, tree, whatever. Jane and I did that together--I think it only took eight weeks. It was such a blur, I would say that a couple of months after I wrote the first word of Stardust, we presented it to the studio and it got green-lit. So it was very quick."
Falling Stars
Armed with a finished script, Vaughn began assembling his cast. Although a number of A-list names has expressed interest in Stardust over the years, the director wanted two unknown actors for his leads, with a top-notch cast supporting them. "This was a co-production, so we put up quite a lot of money as well, which always helps," he says. "Ironically, if I didn't go for names, we would have cast this much quicker. But there were key people I saw in certain roles, where we all thought, 'Oh my God, they would be amazing!'
"Paramount, understandably, was like, 'You need people that we recognize!' But they gave me Charlie, because I argued that Tristan should be an unknown actor, so that we truly believe his growth from a nerd to a hero. If 你 have Leonardo DiCaprio looking nerdy, it's no surprise when he blossoms. We screen-tested Charlie, he was fantastic and so we went with him.
"Michelle was my number-one choice for Lamia, because I wanted someone who is the personification of beauty, and she is. That adds to the impact of Lamia falling apart and then becoming young and beautiful again. Michelle is such a talented actress, and she hasn't been seen in a while. Yvaine [Star's real name] was very tricky to cast, but Claire did a wonderful job. She's playing a star, so how the hell do 你 get into that character? And 星, 星级 is a bit of a 婊子, 子 at the beginning, which makes 你 immediately think, 'Oh, I don't like her!' Most 女演员 aren't comfortable doing that, but Claire handled the transition well."
One of Vaughn's biggest casting coups was landing Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro to play Captain Shakespeare, a re-named role that was considerably beefed up from the novel. "He's so good, he steals the movie," Vaughn declares. "I don't know where Shakespeare came from some sick part of my body I guess, but something wrote the character one night. I had this idea, and then Jane and I fleshed it out even more. I wanted someone who was known for being a tough guy, and Robert plays a pirate like you've never seen one before. 你 think Johnny Depp did it? Wait until 你 see Captain Shakespeare; he makes Jack Sparrow look conservative! Shakespeare has an extremely important 20 分钟 of screen time. It's a major moment in the movie."
Another highlight is the sequence that introduces the dying Lord of Stormhold and his feuding sons, each of whom hopes to become the 下一个 ruler 由 killing off his siblings in various underhanded ways. The current monarch, who attained his 标题 in a similar fashion, is Peter O'Toole, making the most of his memorable scene. "Peter told me that he reads this [sort of] shit all 日 long, but he loved the script and wanted to do it," Vaughn says. "He wants to be in good movies, and it was only a day's filming, so he just came in and did it. And it was fantastic to work with a legend."
For the warring brothers, Vaughn cast Jason Flemyng (Primus), Rupert Everett (Secundus), Mark Heap (Tertius), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Quartus), Adam Buxton (Quintus), David Walliams (Sextus) and Mark Strong (Septimus). "Septimus was the most important character to get right and Mark is someone I've kept my eye on for a long time." he notes. "He's a brilliant actor, and [he plays Septimus like] Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It's a different performance, where you're thinking, 'Who the hell is this guy?'
"And for the rest of the brothers, I wanted to create this dysfunctional family who have to kill each other in order to get to the top. I cast people who are talented and funny. Jason is a solid actor whom I've worked with before. He has great timing and is very underrated. And when I saw Mark Heap in [the surreal British hospital comedy] Green Wing, I thought, 'My God, that guy is good!' There's a huge twist with Secundus, so I needed a famous face. I thought it was going to be hard to cast, but that big moment now works even better because of Rupert."
Vaughn suddenly grins like a small boy with a secret he's dying to share. "Would 你 like to see that scene?" he asks. And truth be told (as he shows it to STARLOG). it's an even meatier chunk of the story, starting with young Tristan sitting 下一个 to village beauty Victoria Forester (Sienna Miller), with whom he's obviously smitten. As lovesick boys are wont to do, he's willing to offer Victoria anything for her hand, and so he agrees to find the falling star. The story then cuts to distant Stormhold, where the dying King is surrounded 由 his seven sons, four of them living, the other three in ghostly form. The dead brothers are able to communicate with each other but not their living brethren, so they can only watch as Secundus enters the King's chambers to discuss succession.
The "big moment" that Vaughn is referring to involves a couple of changes from the novel which would be unfair to reveal here; suffice to say that Secundus is soon welcomed 由 his departed brethren. Faced with three still-living heirs, the King decided to resolve their situation in an untraditional manner, 展示 them the stone that symbolizes his power. "Only he of royal blood can restore the ruby," he announces. "And the one of 你 that does so shall be the new King of Stormhold!" With that, the dying monarch casts the stone out of the 城堡 window.
Another modification to the 来源 material is that--in addition to being grey specters who remain unseen 由 the living--each of the dead brothers appears as they were at the moment of their demise. For example, one of them is badly burned, while another still has an axe protruding from his skull. "That came from my 爱情 of An American Werewolf in London," says Vaughn. "It's one of my 最喜爱的 films, and the ghosts were inspired 由 that."
Maybe so, but there is a danger of making a movie too self-referential? "That's funny because the studio told me, 'Never mention The Princess Bride!" because it flopped at the box office and they were absolutely scared of it," Vaughn observes. "But everybody who has seen the film says, 'This is like a modern 日 Princess Bride!' And try selling this movie to someone in one sentence. It's very hard, because there's so much going on. If a film has 更多 than one plotline--'It's about a guy who has to catch a fallen 星, 星级 that has turned into a girl, and witches are trying to eat her heart, and the prince is trying to find her, because she has the stone that knocked her out of the sky, and he lives in an English village, which is 下一个 to this world...'People respond with, 'What are 你 talking about?' "
Fantasy Sights
Although Stardust is heavily steeped in traditional fantasy, Vaughn also wanted to base the film in reality. "The problem with most 电影院 nowadays is that they have so much CGI and so many enhanced scenarios and scenes that 你 just don't buy it," he argues. "I don't like watching films like that, and it's even one of my criticisms of The Lord of the Rings. Some moments felt like 你 were in a video game--[like when the camera] swoops down through the mines. It just felt too digital. I've tried to make sure that everything in Stardust comes across as 更多 real. I've tried to do as much in-camera and as little CGI as possible.
"There were certain CG things that we had to do, but for a film like Stardust, it's a very small CGI package. That's going to sound like a total oxymoron, because there are about 800 visual effects shots, but--and this is where the studio was freaking out, saying, 'Where are they all?'--most of them 你 don't notice. In terms of obvious CGI, there maybe are 100 shots. The other 700 are subtle comps and ghosts, wire removal and stuff like that. It was a good test, because Jon and I were nervous about this CG world, which is quite different for up.
"Even now, shots are coming in, and the pacing is suddenly [ruined] because the CG shot is three 秒 longer that what we wanted. So it's a dangerous but exciting area. It's weird: 你 have ultimate control, but 你 also have no control, because you're relying on these guys pressing buttons, and they're sitting there saying. 'OK, I'll make it 更多 like this.' Then we run out of time, and they say 'But 你 说 你 liked that,' and we tell them 'We liked what it looked like then, but now it looks different!' We've been working with [visual FX supervisor] Peter Chiang, who has been a knight in shining armor the whole way through. He was 给 a small budget, and has been able to squeeze every available moment of screen time out of it. Peter has done a great job."
With a few months' work of post-production still remaining, it's a bit early to render a verdict on Stardust: but Vaughn believes it's coming together rather nicely. "I'm still amazed that I've made it." he grins "Everything has gone according to plan, and the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle is the music. But I'm really happy. It's a good film, and so far people like it. I remember feelling really good about Lock, Stock when we first showed it to people, because it was fresh and had a voice, but we still couldn't get distribution. then when we finally got the film out there, people enjoyed it.
"And I belive that it's the same thing with Stardust: It doesn't fit in any box, but I like that, and I hope people feel that way too. Producer Lorenzo di Boniventura, who worked on The Matrix went through the roof. But I just don't know.
"I hope the public likes the movie and tells other people to go and see it, so maybe it will build some momentum," Matthew Vaughn says. "We have some wonderful ideas for sequels, but we'll see what happens. We have two ideas for follow-ups, and if this one does well, I'll certainly be happy to make them."
