Stardust (2007 film)

The illustrated fantasy story Stardust was created by Neil Gaiman, with art by Charles Vess. It was first published by DC Comics in 1997 as a prestige format four-issue comic mini-series. Encouraged by publisher Avon, Gaiman decided to adapt Stardust, and in 1999 it was republished as a conventional novel in hardback without illustrations. Gaiman has compared the story to a fantasy version of the 1934 romantic comedy film It Happened One Night.[6][7]

In 1998, Stardust was optioned for a film adaptation by Bob Weinstein at Miramax. Gaiman wrote a treatment, then Ehren Kruger wrote a treatment.[7] Gaiman described the process as "an unsatisfactory development period", and he recovered the rights after they expired. For years Gaiman refused offers to develop the film. Having seen the disappointing results of the hands-off approach taken by Alan Moore, Gaiman preferred to retain control and to influence the development of the film.[8][9]

Eventually, discussions about a film version of Stardust took place between Gaiman, director Terry Gilliam and producer Matthew Vaughn. Gilliam dropped out following his involvement with The Brothers Grimm and not wanting to do another fairy tale. Vaughn left to produce Layer Cake but became the director for the first time on that project. After Vaughn withdrew from helming the film X-Men: The Last Stand, talks resumed and in January 2005, Vaughn acquired the option to develop Stardust.[10] In October 2005, the director entered final negotiations with Paramount Pictures to direct and produce Stardust with a budget estimated at US$70 million.[11]

The adapted screenplay was written by Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, who had been recommended by Gaiman.[9][7] When asked how the book inspired his vision for the film, Vaughn said that he wanted "to do Princess Bride with a Midnight Run overtone."[12] One of the difficulties with adapting the novel was its earnest and dark nature: an adult fairy tale in which sex and violence are presented unflinchingly. With Gaiman's blessing given to the screenwriters, the movie version has a greater element of whimsy and humour. Gaiman did not want people to go to the theatre to see a film that attempted, but failed, to be completely loyal to the book.[13] After creating the audiobook version of the novel, Gaiman realised that there were 10½ hours of material in the book. This led him to acknowledge that the film would have to compress the novel, leaving out portions of the work. Budgetary concerns also factored into the adaptation, even with the level of 2006 technology.[8] The character Captain Shakespeare was expanded extensively from the novel, and the character Ferdy the Fence was created for the film.

Vaughn and Goldman decided that the witches needed names, as in the book they were collectively the Lilim. They chose names from classical sources which coincidentally included names found in Gaiman's The Books of Magic (Empusa) and Neverwhere (Lamia).[14]

On the film's differences from the novel, Gaiman commented: "I sort of feel like my grounding in comics was actually very useful because in my head, that's just the Earth-Two version of Stardust. It's a parallel Earth version of Stardust, which has Robert De Niro and stuff. And I get people who come to the book from having loved the movie who are really disappointed at some of the stuff that isn't there that Matthew brought."[15] Responding to a fan's statement about preferring the film's climax compared to the book, Gaiman clarified that he in fact had suggested the different ending that the film ended up using, and liked it better for the film but liked the book ending better for the book.[16]

Claire Danes promoting Stardust

In March 2006, the studio cast Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, and Sienna Miller. Production began in the United Kingdom and Iceland in April 2006, with the majority of filming taking place in the UK.[17] Vaughn picked Danes, Cox and Pfeiffer for their roles. He intended Captain Shakespeare to be played by either De Niro or Jack Nicholson. Stephen Fry was pitched as a possible Shakespeare, but Vaughn eventually picked De Niro.[18]

Vaughn insisted on an unknown actor for the part of Tristan.[12][18][19] Cox was tentatively cast as Tristan, but to ensure the leads had chemistry on screen Vaughn would not confirm the casting until both leads were cast. Vaughn had Cox audition alongside the prospective leading actresses until the female lead was cast.[19]

Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the role of Yvaine but turned it down, not wanting to be apart from husband Freddie Prinze Jr. while he was filming in the U.S.[20]

The role of Quintus was originally given to comedian Noel Fielding, but due to health issues he had to drop out and was replaced by another comedian Adam Buxton.[21]

Locations used in Scotland included the area surrounding the Quiraing, on the Isle of Skye.

The production started filming in mid-April 2006, with principal photography taking place at Pinewood Studios in London. Location filming started in Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands[22] followed immediately by filming on the Isle of Skye. The scene where Prince Septimus consults the soothsayer was shot in Iceland.[23] The film makers had wanted to use more locations in Iceland but were unable to get the horses they needed.[24][7]

Several weeks of location filming also took place in the woods and the Golden Valley near Ashridge Business school, Hertfordshire in the village of Little Gaddesden in June and July.[25] In mid-2006, there was some filming at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire and in the village of Castle Combe, Wiltshire. Some of the scenes requiring wide open spaces for riding and coach scenes were filmed at Bicester Airfield in Oxfordshire.

Another film location was on Elm Hill in Norwich. The area, with a mixture of Tudor and medieval buildings dating as far back as the 11th century, was transformed into the streets of Stormhold. The Briton's Arms tea house became the Slaughtered Prince public house.[26] The owners were so enthralled with the new look, including a spectacular mural and new thatching, that they appealed to the local council and English Heritage to keep it, but their request was refused. Filming also took place in Wales, at the Brecon Beacons National Park.[27][28]

The design of the witches' lair was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in the palace of Versaille, France, but with black instead of white and silver instead of gold.[12]

Filming was finished by 13 July 2006.[25]

The film required 830 visual effects (VFX) shots which were supervised by Peter Chiang and produced by Tim Field. Double Negative supervised 350 shots, and other work was shared out among six other companies including LipSync Post, Cinesite, The Senate, Baseblack, Machine and Rushes. Mattes & Miniatures provided miniatures. The pirate skyship set was shot against a 360 degree greenscreen, required fully CG backgrounds and digital extending the size and the bow of the ship. Some distance shots of ship were entirely CG. Yvaine required a star glow effect for more than eighty shots.[29][30] Two of the witches required a signature magical effect, Lamia had a green fire effect created using a combination of particle animation and joint-driven soft body ribbons, and Sal had a black smoke effect, created by turning animated geometry into a target-driven fluid simulation. The age transformation of Lamia was achieved using composite of multiple motion control plates, including a pass in the full prosthetic makeup, the transformed youthful Lamia, and a pass where the hair was pulled through a dummy head, played in reverse to give the appearance of hair growing, composited and blended with a procedural glow effect. Twenty feet of The Wall was built on location as a practical effect and extended into the distance using digital painting. VFX were completed by February 2007.[29]

• After watching an early cut, British pop band Take That wrote and recorded a song for the film titled "Rule the World", featuring Gary Barlow on lead vocals. The song features in the end credits to the film and was released as a single on 22 October 2007 in the United Kingdom and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart.[31][32][33]
• US record label Decca Records released a soundtrack album featuring Ilan Eshkeri's score on 11 September 2007, but "Rule the World" was not included.[34]
• Dimmu Borgir's song "Eradication Instincts Defined" is featured in both the UK and US trailers.[35]
• Prelude 2 in C Minor from the first book of the "Well-Tempered Clavier" by Johann Sebastian Bach was adapted for use in the first part of the scene at Lamia's Inn.
• Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 6 in D Major by Antonín Dvořák was adapted for use for the dancing scene aboard the flying ship.
• "The Infernal Galop" from Jacques Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld", more commonly known as the "Can-can", plays during the fight between Captain Shakespeare's men and Septimus's men on board the sky vessel.

Stardust was well received by test audiences. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was surprised when the film was well received across all demographics, despite the film not having been designed for everyone, expecting instead for parts of the audience to feel the film was not for them. In their feedback audiences agreed it was not a fairy tale, giving various descriptions of it, such as an adventure with magical elements.[36] A March release had been planned but when Paramount saw its commercial potential it was pushed back to a later date.[12]

Stardust was released on 10 August 2007 in the United States in 2,540 theatres, opening at No. 4 and earning US$9,169,779 in its opening weekend (an average of $3,610 per theatre). The film also opened the same day in Russia and the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States, earning $8,118,263 as of 14 October 2007. In the UK and Ireland, the film was released on 19 October 2007 and spent 8 weeks in the box office top ten.[37] Stardust was blocked from release in China due to additional restrictions on foreign films on top of the existing quota system limiting non-Chinese films.[38]

Stardust earned a total of $137,022,245 worldwide.[4] Its biggest markets were the US, where it made $38 million, and the UK, where it made $31 million (approximately £19.5 million ).

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was judged "Certified Fresh" given 76% rating, based on reviews from 193 critics. The critics' consensus reads: "A faithful interpretation that captures the spirit of whimsy, action, and off-kilter humor of Neil Gaiman, Stardust juggles multiple genres and tones to create a fantastical experience."[39] On Metacritic the film has a score of 66/100 based on 33 reviews.[40] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A-" on scale of A to F.[41]

Roger Ebert called it a "fun" movie and gave it a positive rating of 2.5 out of 4 stars, he criticised the pacing as being cluttered and unfocused, and concluded "It's a film you enjoy in pieces, but the jigsaw never gets solved."[42] The New Yorker's Bruce Diones called it "more surprising and effective than the usual kiddie-matinée madness."[43] John Anderson of Variety wrote: "Sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek humor, fairly adult jokes and some well-known faces acting very silly, this adventure story should have particular appeal to fans of The Princess Bride, but in any event will never be mistaken for a strictly-for-kids movie." Anderson praised Pfeiffer for her comedic timing, and calls De Niro's performance "as engrossing as a car crash". He says the romance is the least interesting part of the film, but the sweep of the story and the humor keep the film together.[44] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "Michelle Pfeiffer is Lamia, as deliciously evil a witch as the movies have ever invented" and suggested she should be the center of the film. Holden says Danes is miscast, and describes De Niro's performance as "either a piece of inspired madcap fun or an excruciating embarrassment."[45] Michael Dwyer of The Irish Times described the film as "diverting in its whimsical way, but burdened with nonsequiturs, and it ought to have been subjected to more rigorous pruning in the editing suite". Dwyer criticized the cameos of Gervais and De Niro as unsubtle, jarring, and self-indulgent, and said Danes was miscast. He praised Pfeiffer, saying she gave the film "the kiss of life".[46] Dan Jolin of Empire magazine called it "Patchy but great fun, peppering plenty of black humour into a sweet if silly fairy-tale romance."[47] Glenn Kenny of Premiere called it "an eye-poppingly elaborate fantasy that's shot through with action-movie adrenaline and attitude."[48] Time Out London compared the film to Time Bandits or The Princess Bride "but it lacks the former's originality and the latter's heart".[49] Tim Robey of The Telegraph wrote: "There's a shameless romantic streak here, quite welcome in a boy-targeted genre that usually insists battles are cool and love is for wimps."[50]

Philip French of The Observer said the film "fails on every level" and referring to a scene with Robert De Niro said it "plumbs new depths of camp embarrassment".[51] Deborah Ross of The Spectator called the film "a grindingly familiar huge pile of nothing which may please six-year-olds and fantasy nerds, but that's about it".[52]

Associated Press film critic David Germain put the film in 7th place on his list of the 10 best films of 2007.[53] Rule the World was also submitted for consideration at the 80th Academy Awards for Best Original Song but was not nominated.[54]