The Wind In The Willows is one of those pieces of literature that’s has been adapted routinely in nearly every medium for decades and decades, and now director Ray Griggs wants to bring it into the 21st century with a high-tech/low-tech approach reminiscent of Where The Wild Things Are. WETA will assist with the process that will have actors in animal suits with animatronic faces perform against their pre-recorded dialogue.
Deja Vu writer Bill Marsilii came up with the script which seems to add a very Fantastic element to the story by way of a “sinister plot that threatens to destroy the uneasy truce between the peaceful animals of the Willow and what remains of Mankind.” The animals must, of course, pool their resources and talent to undo said plot. This all sounds like a pretty grand quest for such a meandering story about fucking about in boats and cars, but they’ve got to Hollywood it up a little I suppose.
Grigg’s production is an independent one, made up of funds he raised through private investors, but it wasn’t all that long ago that Disney had their eye on the property and were looking into an interesting director to handle it for them- Guillermo Del Toro. It didn’t work out, however…
“It was a beautiful book, and then I went to meet with the executives and they said, ‘Could you give Toad a skateboard and make him say, ‘radical dude’ things,’ and that’s when I said, ‘It’s been a pleasure…'”
Radical dude things. That comes from a Rotten Tomatoes conversation with Guillermo from 2008.
The 2010 The Wind in the Willows looks to shoot in the fall.
7 comments
BAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! I had never heard that anecdote before. Oh my lawd. That's like the roundtable meeting on the Simpsons where they are discussing the character of Poochy. That is hilarious.
Do you think that's real? Or do the Execs get bored and call in directors to talk about projects they have no intention of hiring them for and have a bit of fun asking for stupid shit to be added?
Merging the plot of Ballard's CRASH into Toad's story arc would be truer to the spirit of the book than the proposed plot.
Yeah, what the fuck? Wind in the Willows is beautiful, why the fuck are we saving mankind all of a sudden? You might as well give Toad a skateboard at that point, holy shit. Fuck that.
#1
Thats exactly what I thought reading this…they should make Toad 10% Rastafarian!
With Weta on board I´m really courios to see the result!
It couldn't be worse than that overly homoerotic version with Matt Lucas. "Ooh, Ratty, let me help you out of those wet clothes!"
From memory, there are undercurrents (I wouldn't call them plot elements because the whole thing is more meditative than narrative) of tension between town and country, animal and human in the book. There's also the proto-religious element of Pan – whose one, enigmatic appearance noticeably inspires awe and fear in the animals – and something of a quest for enlioghtenment for Mole, who starts as a pretty naive, stupified figure but who I believe goes through challenges and adventures that lead to an apotheosis of sorts. So, whilst it sounds dumb on paper, you could argue there are aspects of the existing story that could be 'heightened' for want of a better word. Making it too neatly plot driven would be to take it well away from the source.
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