"When I was a kid, my dad read me the Peter Rabbit books, so I always had an emotional tie to him - and when I had kids, I read the books to them," --Director Will Gluck
PRODUCTION NOTES
ABOUT THE FILM
"When I was a kid, my dad read me the Peter Rabbit books, so I always had
an emotional tie to him - and when I had kids, I read the books to them,"
says Will Gluck, the co-writer/director of the famous bunny's first big screen
adventure, Peter Rabbit. "The thing I love most is that Peter is a little
mischief-maker. He's depicted in a beautiful old-fashioned style, but the
Trojan horse is that Peter Rabbit is a little son-of-a-gun. I thought it was a
great opportunity to take that little nugget, what Beatrix Potter gave Peter,
expand that personality trait and make it our own contemporary story."
And who better to give Peter his voice than James Corden, a mischief-maker in
his own right, who puts aside the wit and gets emotional when it comes to
playing the impish rogue in a little blue coat who wreaks havoc in Mr. Thomas
McGregor's vegetable garden. "It's a wonderful story that owes everything
to Beatrix Potter," he says. "I felt incredibly honored that Will
thought my voice could lend itself to this adored rabbit. I met a kid who was
so excited - he said, 'You're going to be Peter Rabbit,' and I said, 'No, Peter
Rabbit is Peter Rabbit, he just needed a voice for this film."
In the film, Peter's war with Old Mr. McGregor, keeper of the vegetable garden,
takes a turn when the old man kicks the bucket (a victory Peter is all too
happy to claim for himself). But when his great-nephew, Mr. Thomas McGregor
(Domhnall Gleeson), inherits the place, Peter realizes that the battle for
control of the vegetable garden - and the heart of their next-door neighbor,
Bea (Rose Byrne) - has only just begun. To help, Peter is enlisting his family
and friends - sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail, cousin Benjamin Bunny,
Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and other characters
author and illustrator Beatrix Potter created in her original tales.
And because Peter Rabbit is so beloved, especially throughout the British
Commonwealth, Gluck was able to attract an all-star cast to bring these famous
characters to life, including Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy
Ridley as the triplets, Grammy winner Sia as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and David Wenham
as Johnny Town-Mouse.
In addition, the live-action cast did double duty behind the microphone, as
Domhnall Gleeson plays the frog Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Rose Byrne voiced Jemima
Puddle-Duck, and Sam Neill - on camera as Old Mr. McGregor - gives voice to Tommy
Brock, the badger.
For the animation, Gluck and fellow producer Zareh Nalbandian partnered with
Nalbandian's Animation and VFX studio Animal Logic, who's previous credits
include The LEGO Movie, Happy Feet, and other films, for a film that would
combine animation with live action. "We wanted to use as many of the
Beatrix Potter characters as possible to honor what she created,"
continues Gluck. "We're all familiar with the beautiful watercolor
paintings - if they were to come to life in the real world, we hope this is
what they would look like."
The inspiration was Potter's original illustrations. "Will and I went to
see the original pictures at the Beatrix Potter archives in London. She
literally painted them at the size that they are in the books," Nalbandian
explains. "The challenge was to start with such small works and to
maintain the integrity of the characters that are so beloved in the books,
while we bring Peter into the 21st Century. It was a huge opportunity for us to
do something that's never been seen before."
One way of maintaining the integrity of the original paintings was to refer to
the illustrations whenever possible. "Our goal was to make the rabbits and
the other animal characters look like real animals but with clothes and
expressions that the books suggest," says Gluck.
The look of the film was only one part of maintaining the integrity of the
characters - just as important was ensuring that Peter behaved as Peter - a
character who takes risks and enjoys a good prank, but one whose good heart
shines through.
"Peter is told not to go into McGregor's garden because his father was put
into a pie for going into the garden. What does he do? He goes into the garden.
That's who Peter is - there's nothing more you can tell someone who's like
that," Gluck explains. "He has that impishness, but also a bold
confidence and a self-delusion that he's always right, when he's actually often
wrong. He's never in doubt, though, so he keeps charging forward until he
realizes he's gone too far."
But even as Peter faces the music because of his daring bullheadedness, his
true character emerges. "He comes to realize that he has to take care of
his cousin and his three sisters, and although he wouldn't admit it to himself,
he realizes that there might be shades to Thomas McGregor," Gluck
continues. "Peter is adolescent who starts to appreciate that things
aren't always black and white."
Protecting these elements of Peter's character was extremely important to the
filmmakers; every step of the way, they worked closely with the guardians of
the Beatrix Potter legacy, the publishers at Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd., a
division of Penguin Random House, which has published Beatrix Potter's Original
Peter Rabbit Booksâ„¢ since 1902.
"We're hugely excited about this new adventure for Peter Rabbit and the
opportunity to bring him to a whole new generation of fans via the big
screen." says Susan Bolsover, director of licensing and consumer products
for Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd, part of Penguin Random House. "We were
thrilled that Will Gluck was keen to capture the essence of Beatrix Potter's
books and particularly the mischievous and loveable nature of Peter Rabbit,
which is hugely important."
Hugely important, because through Peter's mischief (and their own), children
learn how far they can push their boundaries - and how to face any consequences
with grace. "Although there's a moral to the story, I don't feel children
feel they're being preached to in that moral," she says. "I think
that's why it particularly works. And who doesn't love a bit of mischief?"
Bolsover thinks that the PETER RABBITâ„¢ movie will connect with 2018 audiences
in a similar way that the book did for readers in 1902 because those themes of
adventure and mischief are timeless. "I think Beatrix Potter was able to
reach so many people with The Tale of Peter Rabbit because it's a funny,
timeless story that captures children's imaginations," she adds.
"Beatrix understood the importance of talking to children on their own
level and created a story, set in the natural world that all children would
recognize with themes that would be universally appealing."
Another way that the filmmakers honored the Potter legacy was by filming scenes
in England's Lake District, a part of the English countryside where Potter
lived and became a huge influence on her work; after her death in 1943, Potter
bequeathed most of her estate - her farms, her land, her artwork, her sheep -
to the National Trust, which has been looking after that legacy for more than
70 years.
John Moffat, General Manager for the National Trust's Beatrix Potter places,
notes, "Beatrix Potter left the National Trust a large legacy and caring
for her home, Hill Top, many original artworks and farms and land are a huge
part of our role as a conservation charity in the Lake District. She was an
amazing woman and we're keen to share her work and tales with families
everywhere. We're all very excited about the movie, and hope that the film will
bring new audiences into contact with Beatrix and inspire them to make a visit
to the places in the Lakes that inspired her to write her classic tales."
"It was incredibly important to go to the Lake District," says Gluck.
"That's where the movie is set; it's where Beatrix Potter lived, where she
wrote her stories and painted her pictures. We tried to create a world that
looks exactly like it did in all her books; we were inspired to take every
little moment, everything she ever wrote or painted, and construct our world
around that."
CASTING AND CHARACTERS
"The cast of the film is an embarrassment of riches," says Gluck.
"We were very lucky to get all these people, and we used the actors'
expressions when we started building the animation, so the characteristics of
Peter and the other animals are embodied by the voice cast."
PETER RABBIT - VOICED BY JAMES CORDEN
Peter Rabbit is an impetuous, mischievous, but good-hearted rabbit who lives in
a burrow with his sisters and cousin Benjamin Bunny. Even though his father was
put in a pie by the old farmer McGregor, Peter can't help himself but sneak
into his garden to steal fruits and veggies for his family and his lack of fear
and stubbornness gets him into trouble often.
The film's eponymous hero is voiced by James Corden, who brings a perfect
balance of mischief and charm to the role.
"It was always the dream to have James as Peter; we essentially wrote the
role for him," says Gluck. "He has the ideal combination of
exuberance and sweetness and is of course very, very funny. He can be biting,
yet he gets away with it."
"He's a rascal," says Corden. "He thinks he has power and
ability beyond what's in him, as all young people do. He has that confidence
and zest for life - the type of rabbit that doesn't say 'why,' he says 'why
not.'"
"Peter had to feel timeless," says executive producer Jodi
Hildebrand. "The key to it was a voice that we wanted to follow on any
adventure he chose to go on, and James Corden is that voice and that
personality. He's funny and charming and mischievous, and for us that was the
linchpin of bringing Peter to life."
Corden says, again, it all comes back to the character Beatrix Potter created.
"I think Peter gets away with his mischief because of his sweet and
adorable nature," he says. "You just can't help but smile when you
see him."
BEA - ROSE BYRNE
McGregor's next-door neighbor, Bea, has given up the city life to move to a
small cottage to attempt to prove herself as a painter. She feels isolated,
save for a set of diminutive, furry friends: the rabbits. Peter is her
favorite, and she is his.
Rose Byrne takes the role. "Bea is stubborn and determined, but she's also
torn. Her talent lies with her animal paintings, not her human portraits, but
she doesn't take that form seriously and hence doesn't feel like a true
artist," she says. "The animals are her friends and her family, a bit
like Snow White meets Jane Goodall."
"Will's ambition was a very modern take on a classic tale, which is hard
to do," Byrne continues. "It's so beloved so you have to be really
tender, but I thought it was genuinely very funny."
"Rose is luminous," says Hildebrand. "She is that person who
everyone loves, which was so necessary for our film because Peter loves her,
the triplets love her, Benjamin loves her and Thomas McGregor falls in love
with her. The audience had to believe the strength of that love, and with Rose
they can."
The challenge for Byrne would come in acting in a film against a lead character
that would be animated after photography. "You have to harness your
imaginative powers as much as you can in those scenes," she explains.
"It's incredibly technical, so besides the director, there are so many
heads of departments who need to be watching your every movement - visual
effects, special effects, camera department, art department. There are so many
complicated steps to creating a successful portrayal of the character and her
interaction with her screen partners, a lot of moving parts."
THOMAS McGREGOR - DOMHNALL GLEESON
Thomas McGregor has risen through the ranks of London's famed department store
Harrods, working diligently - some might say obsessively - towards the post of
Associate General Manager, only to find that the position has gone to a man who
doesn't deserve it. When he inherits the McGregor manor (and its attached
vegetable garden), Thomas sees a chance to sell it in order to finance his own
toy shop.
A man who wants everything neat, tidy, and in its place, Thomas is about to
meet his match in Peter.
"What's the worst place you could put someone like Thomas? In a dirty
garden with little rabbits trying to mess it up," says Gluck. "He's
driven to distraction."
"He's a bit uptight, and then he gets fired through no fault of his own -
he flips out when he loses a job that should have been his, and I could
understand that. I can understand that frustration," he notes. "And
then he meets somebody who changes his life."
Two somebodies, actually - there's Bea, the sweet and generous next-door
neighbor who sees something in Thomas, and then there's Peter, the rabbit who
turns his garden (and his life) upside down.
In fact, at the beginning of the film, Thomas' motivation is centered around
revenge. "He has been swearing to himself that he would find a way to get
back at Harrods," he notes. "When he finds out he's inherited the
manor, he sees it only as an opportunity to fix it up and sell it, to make
enough money to start his own toy shop." It's no surprise that when Peter
begins to make a mess of the garden, he similarly begins a vendetta - no matter
how crazy that is.
And Thomas McGregor's feud with Peter starts with vegetables, but it's taken to
the next level as they rival for Bea's affections. "It's a really tricky
balance to have a villain who becomes a love interest," says Hildebrand.
"Domhnall was perfect for this part because he can do it all - he gets
huge laughs out of this tightly wound character... then turn into an Irish
Buster Keaton with big physical comedy... then melts like a puppy in Bea's
arms. He can truly do it all."
"Thomas and Bea are very different people," says Gleeson. "She's
kind and caring, and sees that he's strange but doesn't treat him badly for it.
Any other woman he's shown interest in has been immediately put off by his
uptightness. Bea seems to find it funny and sweet, and she's relaxed enough for
the two of them. He tells her that he likes her art, and that means something
to her."
Gleeson says that Gluck's approach to the comedy of the part was what attracted
him to the role. "We operated on the principle that it needed to work for
everybody, but we never said, 'We'd better do this because it's a kids' film'
or 'We'd better add a joke in here for the adults,'" he notes. "Will
approached the film with the perspective that funny is funny, and funny will be
funny for people of every age."
OLD MR. McGREGOR - PORTRAYED BY SAM
NEILL
As the film opens, Peter's longstanding family feud with Old Mr. McGregor is at
full tilt: all the rabbits want to do is eat the bountiful produce that he so
diligently grows in his garden, and all Old Mr. McGregor wants to do is catch
them and bake them into a pie (as he successfully did with Peter's father).
Sam Neill, who portrays the curmudgeonly farmer, wryly notes that Potter's
stories, which he'd read to his own children, are told with bias from the
rabbits' point of view. "If you look at it from Old Mr. McGregor's point
of view, what have rabbits ever done to contribute?" asks Neill.
"They've eaten, they've bred, and they want to come in and take the fruits
of his labor. He sees them as barbarians beyond the gate; what's outside is
chaos. I see him as a much beleaguered, industrious man, and a hero for our
times," he kids.
Although only on set for a short time, Neill was seen by the filmmakers and
crew as the perfect embodiment of this much-maligned character. "Will wanted
to stick to the original Beatrix Potter creation, literally down to the shirt
buttons," says the film's costume designer, Lizzy Gardiner. "I
dressed Sam in a fat suit, cashmere and wool. Given the heat, we had to use a
complex air-conditioned suit underneath, and plug him in between shots."
Rose Byrne, the one live actor Neill played against, says, "Sam is
hilarious and such a professional. I think he really enjoyed himself underneath
all the make-up and the fat suit and the weird collars. He had a twinkle in his
eye; he was having a lot of fun."
FLOPSY, MOPSY and COTTON-TAIL - VOICED
BY MARGOT ROBBIE, ELIZABETH DEBICKI and DAISY RIDLEY
Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit begins with the now famous words:
"Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were
Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter."
The three sisters are as much part of the landscape of many childhoods as their
brother is. As PETER RABBITâ„¢ opens, their mother has passed away, and Peter
is determined to be a responsible older sibling and caretaker to the trio. (At
least, that's his intention.)
"We approached the characters by imagining that Peter Rabbit is about 16
(human) years old, and Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail are tweens,"
explains Gluck. "Even though they're triplets, they're very distinct.
Flopsy is nervous about everything. She's insecure and fighting for her place
among her sisters. Especially with Mopsy - the oldest, bossiest and
most-refined. She likes being in charge...when Peter's not around. Cotton-tail
quite simply marches to the beat of her own drum. She ultimately ends up being
the greatest warrior but is a little bit off-kilter; every time she says
something, all the rabbits think, 'Wait, what?'"
"Flopsy has a bit of a middle child syndrome," says Robbie.
"She's very jealous that she's not the oldest sister, and I think she
feels that she gets bossed around by Mopsy. She has a nervous energy - she
sometimes doubts herself."
Robbie says that she was a massive Peter Rabbit fan as a child. "I had
little teacups and saucers with Peter Rabbit and all of the other characters
painted on them," she recalls. "I've kept all of those, and I want to
give them to my children one day. These characters are so timeless; it's a
magical, simple world, and it's nice to escape into that."
Debicki agrees that her character, Mopsy, "is a little bossy," she
says. "Maybe a better way to put it is that she's headstrong; she's an
adorable, one-foot-tall rebel. She's smart, she's feisty, and she's very
adorable."
Debicki says that she was thrilled to be part of a film based on these timeless
stories. "I think that Beatrix Potter's stories have lasted the test of
time because the characters are so beautiful and genuine, charming and funny
and mischievous," she continues. "Kids have always been able to
project themselves into those characters and into these lessons about love,
family, community."
"Cotton-tail is a loose cannon," says Ridley. "She's a bit
mental and scruffy around the edges. The sisters are all integral to Peter's
success for the garden; they love each other very much, but they argue
hilariously along the way. They each have a vital role to play."
Like her co-stars, Ridley grew up admiring Beatrix Potter's creations. "My
sisters and I used to go to a violin course in the Lake District - we'd go to
the Beatrix Potter museum all the time," she says.
Audiences can also expect many of Peter's friends to make appearances in the
film. Peter's cousin, Benjamin Bunny, is very sweet and loyal and always by
Peter's side, even if he's warning him against some mischief; the role is
voiced by Colin Moody. Johnny Town-Mouse, an overconfident city mouse, way too
proud of his home town, is voiced by David Wenham. Pigling Bland, voiced by
Ewen Leslie, is posh, meticulous and judgmental, but will accept an invitation
to fun if he gets the chance. Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle - an aging hedgehog who's
always looking for a little spice in her life - is voiced by pop superstar Sia.
The film's live action cast also got in on the fun with Sam Neill voicing Tommy
Brock, the badger, a lovable lug who's not always the sharpest hoe in the shed,
Rose Byrne giving voice to Jemima Puddle-Duck, a bit of a worry wart, until a
party helps her loosen up, and Domhnall Gleeson bringing life to Mr. Jeremy
Fisher, a gentlemanly frog.