Source: Warner BrosBased on the best-selling book by Cornelia Funke, "Inkheart" is a fantasy adventure that sends a father and daughter on a quest through worlds both real and imagined.
Mortimer "Mo" Folchart (Brendan Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett), share a passion for books. What they also share is an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud. But there is a danger: when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages.
On one of their trips to a secondhand book shop, Mo hears voices he hasn't heard for years, and when he locates the book they're coming from, it sends a shiver up his spine. It's Inkheart, a book filled with illustrations of medieval castles and strange creatures--a book he's been searching for since Meggie was three years old, when her mother, Resa (Sienna Guillory), vanished into its mystical world.
But Mo's plan to use the book to find and rescue Resa is thwarted when Capricorn (Andy Serkis), the evil villain of Inkheart, kidnaps Meggie and, discovering she has inherited her father's gift, demands that she bring his most powerful ally to life--the Shadow. Determined to rescue his daughter and send the fictional characters back where they belong, Mo assembles a small group of friends and family--some from the real world, some from the pages of books--and embarks on a daring and perilous journey to set things right."What are the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined?" asks "Inkheart" director Iain Softley. "That's something in which I've always been interested--the way that fantasy can impinge on the real world. And when you are talking about books and stories, especially in the mind of a child or an adolescent, then those boundaries between reality and imagination are even more fascinating to explore. One of the things that appealed to me about 'Inkheart' is that it's a story that bridges the everyday and fantasy realms."
The film "Inkheart" is based on a best-selling book of the same name by internationally acclaimed author Cornelia Funke. An instant sensation when it was published in 2004, Inkheart became a #1 New York Times bestseller, spending a total of 70 weeks on the list and going on to be translated into 37 languages. The first novel in Funke's Inkworld trilogy, Inkheart was followed by Inkspell, published in 2005, and the latest book, Inkdeath, which was just published in 2008. In 2005, Funke, who has written nearly 50 books, was named one of Time magazine's "Most Influential People of the Year."
"Inkheart" charts the adventures of Mortimer "Mo" Folchart and his daughter, Meggie, as they battle the evil forces of a fictional world--forces Mo himself inadvertently called forth from the pages of a fantastical story by reading it aloud.
While the thought of characters springing to life at the mere mention of their names could be perceived as a cautionary tale, Brendan Fraser, who plays the part of Mo, counters, "I think 'Inkheart' advocates the written word read aloud. To have people read aloud to one another is quite powerful--parents to children, children to adults, teachers to children, children to each other... It's an interesting notion that something real might come out of the story, but if the listener actually believes it in their imagination, it might as well be real. There is always room for a story that relies on the power of literature."
Producer Diana Pokorny knows exactly how much of an impact the novel has had on young readers. "My daughters are voracious readers and my eldest daughter's favorite book is Inkheart. She knows the book backwards and forwards and talked incessantly about it, so it really did seem fateful that I would get the opportunity to be a part of the film. For me, it is a story about the love of reading and the power of books, but, more importantly, it is a story about home and family. And as the mother of two ardent fans, and as a fan myself, it was quite magical to see those words that we loved to read so much as a family actually come to life."
Softley, who also served as a producer on the film, notes, "Cornelia provided us with such rich material that bringing it to life was the easy part. She created a wonderful, magical adventure, and her vivid descriptions and illustrations enabled us to step into her book within a book."Funke, who produced the film with Softley and Pokorny, says that she knew Softley was the ideal person to take the helm in bringing her book to the screen. "'The Wings of the Dove' is one of my all-time favorite movies, one of the most brilliant film adaptations of a book I've ever seen. So when I heard that Iain was interested in directing 'Inkheart,' I was thrilled. I knew he wouldn't back away from the darker elements of the story, but would nevertheless fill it with warmth. He is an excellent actors' director, but he's also one of the most visual directors with an exceptional feeling for texture and color. I could not imagine a better choice for 'Inkheart.'"
Together with executive producer Ileen Maisel, Funke was also instrumental in the choice of David Lindsay-Abaire to adapt her novel. The author worked closely with him throughout the course of crafting the screenplay, which was "a very interesting process for me as a writer," she says. "I believe if you stick too closely to a book, it can paralyze you creatively. I knew David loved the book, so I wanted to free him from being too faithful to it. I said, 'Just go for the heart,' and when I finally saw the script, it was a magical moment. It was a thrill for me to see my story through the eyes of another artist. That is the greatest privilege of being a storyteller--to have the opportunity to work with so many incredibly gifted people to tell my story again in a different way. What a kick!"
"I was very eager to work with Cornelia," Lindsay-Abaire states. "I had read the book a couple of times and relished every page of it. It's a terrific story, filled with adventure and characters that were wonderfully rich and fun to explore, and I loved how complicated many of the relationships between them are. But I was mostly drawn to what Inkheart says about the power of books and storytelling. I was honored to be entrusted with adapting it and felt a strong obligation to stay true to the spirit and tone of her book. She and I were in constant contact while I was writing the screenplay. Some things inevitably change from page to screen because they are very different mediums, but it was important to me that Cornelia be a part of the process and approve the choices we made. It's her baby, after all."Softley remarks, "One of the things I really look for in a script is if I can see the film in my head, and that was definitely the case with this one. As I was turning the pages, I couldn't wait to know what was going to happen next. The characters leapt off the page, really fascinating, diverse characters, each with his or her own distinct attributes."
For Funke, the casting of Brendan Fraser as Mo was the fulfillment of her original vision for the character. "Brendan inspired this character from the very beginning," the author reveals. "I pictured Mo with Brendan's face and Brendan's voice. He has an exceptionally beautiful and expressive voice, which is very important for this character." Very important, because, in the world of "Inkheart," Mo is known as a "Silvertongue"--someone who can speak the written word into reality.
Mo has been hiding a secret from his young daughter, Meggie. "Her mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances nine years ago due to Mo's strange ability to make real anything printed when he reads aloud," Fraser offers. "Innocently enough, he was reading Meggie a bedtime story from an obscure book they found called Inkheart...and something terrible happened. Three of the book's characters came to life and then disappeared into the night. But there was a trade off: his wife and Meggie's mother, Resa, went into the book. And that's what sent Mo on his expedition to find Resa and set things right."
Unfortunately for Mo, the characters released from Inkheart stole his only copy of the book. Nine years later, he is still searching through the dusty shelves of bookstores far and wide, hunting for his only hope: another copy of Inkheart.
Only three years old when her mother vanished, Meggie has no memory of that fateful night. And though she knows Mo is keeping something important from her, she never could have imagined the truth about her father's amazing gift...a gift she inherited.
Meggie is played by British actress Eliza Hope Bennett, who won the role over hundreds of other young hopefuls. Describing her character, Bennett says, "Meggie is a bookworm like her father, but he does not allow her to read aloud, which frustrates her because she doesn't know why. She also has a natural curiosity about her mother, but if she ever brings her up to Mo, he instantly shuts her down, so she knows not to push it. She's always been very dependent on her father because he's the only parent she's had, but I think over the course of the film she is forced to become more independent. She grows up quite a lot by the end of the story."
The close relationship between Mo and Meggie was mirrored by the actors playing them. "When I first met Brendan, I knew it was extremely important that we got on because Meggie and Mo have such a strong relationship. He was so warm and welcoming to me, we got along immediately. I found it really easy to treat him as my father because he treated me as if I were his daughter. He was just so nice and really caring."
Fraser has equal praise for his co-star, saying, "It was a privilege to be working with a young person who is so intelligent and thoughtful and so enthusiastic about her work. She's remarkably talented as an actress, which is evident, but as a person, she's just a terrific kid. It's going to be exciting to see where she goes from here, but I think we're going to be seeing a great deal more of her in the years to come."
See Also: Inkheart - Coming Up With Lifelike Characters Is The Key To Any Story / Inkheart - Sometimes Filming A Movie Is All About The Location
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