ON SET A MONSTER CALLS

 

WORDSMATTGLASBY

TOTAL FILM | JANUARY  SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS GAMEGAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILMSRADARCOM/TOTALFILM JANUARY  | TOTAL FILM

TFM253.feat_monster.indd 94 03/11/2016 09:59 TFM253.feat_monster.indd 95 03/11/2016 09:59 ON SET

An author talks Going from page to screen with t starts, as all things must, with an Patrick Ness… ending. In 2007, British children’s author Siobhan Dowd died of breast cancer, leaving behind an outline On adapting the book… for her next book, A Monster Calls. “Because of Siobhan and Jim’s “She had characters, premise, contributions, I’m the custodian a beginning but not time,” wrote of three people’s work. And if the Patrick Ness in the introduction. book works, I know why it works. But “stories don’t end with writers”. So I wrote the script on spec, With permission from Dowd’s estate, no studio attached, because Ness finished the book for her in I wanted to start the process 2011, with award-winning results. saying, ‘These are the things Heart-rendingly sad, and hauntingly that I think are important.’” illustrated by Jim McKay, it tells of Conor O’Malley, a schoolboy whose On writing the script… mother is dying of cancer, and who, “On the first draft, I referred every night at 12.07, is visited by a heavily to the novel. But the   monster: the ancient yew tree from screenplay has to work on its the churchyard behind his house, own. What you lose in words brought to roaring, rustling life. The you gain in imagery. The next Monster has three stories for Conor, passes were about setting the to carry him through the darkness, book aside and letting the stories that “chase and bite and hunt”. screenplay survive on its own.” One thing’s for sure, awash with grief Harry Potter-ish graveyard based on one side stands Bayona, a ball of fizzing With the weight of the film resting With as his mother, BOYWONDER TAKING ROOT A Monster Calls the moody Manchester cemetery where Iberian energy, overseeing two units, Weaver as his grandmother, Neeson On meeting Bayona… and gothic realism, is aboveYounglead on Conor’s shoulders, a particularly aboveDirector “I’m bad at first meetings – a tale that sinks its teeth in. the exteriors were shot. On real grass, LewisMacDougall six monitors and a crew of smoking special young actor was required, JABayonaon as a father figure (albeit in tree form) genuinely awful. So there was Having proved himself a master of brought over especially from Blighty, impressedthe Spaniards. “You don’t make it easy and the watchful, wounded-looking setwiththegiant and Toby Kebbell as his actual (but maternal anguish with The Orphanage stand genuine-looking gravestones starstuddedcast for yourself do you?” Total Film offers. MacDougall, who auditioned late in Monstermodel absent) dad, MacDougall was joining much awkwardness, but God (2007) and The Impossible (2012), modelled on the originals, with the “No,” he laughs. “Every time I shoot the process and had only recently quite an acting dynasty. “Liam has bless him, he called almost Spanish director J.A. Bayona would names and dates changed to protect a film I regret that.” And then the made his screen debut in Pan (2015), the age and wisdom of the tree,” immediately after, and said seem the perfect choice to translate the deceased. Despite the fact we’re nightmare begins… fit the bill. “You should always shoot says Bayona. “Then Felicity has the let’s have a second meeting, Ness’ script to the screen. Working in Catalonia, it’s freezing, the sunlight for the Moon,” Ness tells us, from innocence of a mother. It’s so unfair just him and me, and we did.” with him is super-producer (and “spare blocked out by the former TB hospital he book is a classic. Los Angeles. “You might not hit the when you deal with the idea of dying battery”) Belén Atienza, who oversaw looming over us. It’s timeless, powerful Moon but you might hit something young, I thought of Felicity, she’s not On collaborating… Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), The Orphanage… Kindly, someone from wardrobe and heart-breaking, interesting. I knew I was asking the only an extraordinary actress, she “He brought tons of ideas, basically every decent Spanish-language fetches TF a massive red puffer jacket, but at the same time world of a 12-year-old actor, but Lewis can also play a character that resembles and every one was thoroughly fantasy of the past decade, and the so we can’t really complain – especially it’s talking about things carried every single scene.” a little girl. I like playing with discussed. [laughs] I really believe award-winning team behind The as its previous owner was Sigourney that are difficult to talk about in a way “I’d seen Bayona’s work, and I was parenthood in films, that moment my books must be strong enough Impossible (who call their boss “Bayona” fricking Weaver, who co-stars. On set, I haven’t seen before,” says Atienza struck with the power and the beauty to stand up to questioning – or simply “Jota”, pronounced “Hay- giant cranes hold up green screens between takes and telephone calls. of the performances that he was able it only makes them stronger. otter”). Even with material this tricksy hinting just how tall the Monster will “I was really moved. I mean, you read to elicit from those young actors,” says But it was a really happy – and when was the last time you saw be, massive wind machines howl, and it in two hours; once you start with (who voices the Monster) process, very collaborative.” a family film about cancer and talking 12-year-old Lewis MacDougall, who Conor you cannot leave that kid. when we catch up later, his voice like trees? – you wouldn’t bet against them. plays Conor, is strapped into stunt wires And when you finish, it stays with spilt single malt. “So I trusted that On taking a chance… “It’s not a comedy,” confirms Bayona ready to shoot the next scene. Off to you a long time...” whoever he found would be something “Everything’s a risk. If making when we catch up with him on set in special and, indeed, Lewis is – he never, movies is hard, making good Terrassa, just outside Barcelona. Good ever appeared to be acting, certainly movies is much harder, but job we cleared that up. with me. He was real, he was present, I feel like I said my piece in the Wandering through the backlot, he was in the moment and was able screenplay, I found a director who the spectre of mortality is everywhere. to convey an extraordinary range of seems to understand and, off we Today’s scene, a recurring nightmare emotions. I was very touched by the go, let’s see what happens.” MG of Conor’s, takes place on a huge, purity of his performance.”

TOTAL FILM | JANUARY  SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM JANUARY  | TOTAL FILM

TFM253.feat_monster.indd 96 03/11/2016 09:59 TFM253.feat_monster.indd 97 03/11/2016 09:59 ON SET A MONSTER CALLS

when the kids behave like parents and the parents behave like kids…” Part of Conor’s journey is getting to grips with Weaver’s dauntingly severe grandmother. But did the team share his fears? “Not really,” says Atienza. “We were so excited: we’re going to talk to Ripley! Our grandmother is so powerful we needed someone with a big personality, she’s not like a sweet old lady. And, of course, Sigourney’s a star so she’s someone you cannot take your eyes away from. It’s like when you see her on the screen the temperature changes.” It wasn’t the only thing that changed – MacDougall is actually from , and Weaver’s character speaks in a hard-won English accent. “Well, my mother is English and in the beginning I sounded like her,” Weaver tells us, later, in a London hotel suite. “I worked with wonderful dialogue coaches to find the grandmother, because she couldn’t sound like my mother, who went to RADA, I couldn’t sound posh. But once you surrender to the accent and find it, it’s actually a lovely thing, it’s like putting on a lovely coat or something.” On balance we what of the tree, or the animated tales For extra soul, Neeson did ten  TREEOFLIFE  decide not to mention the puffer jacket. it spins? In a nice cinematic touch, days of motion-capture work so the aboveTheMonster When the conversation turns to the added for the film, Conor is a keen voicedbyLiam tree’s movements would match his more naturally maternal figures she’s artist (like Bayona was as a child, and Neesonpaying performance. “You’re put into a body “The Monster’s there to imbue played, she tells us that, “Carrie [Henn, his father too), so they seem to spill Conoravisit suit with all these little ping pong the kid with life lessons,” says Neeson, who played Newt in Aliens] and I are still directly from his drawings as if he’s balls Velcro’ed into the joints, and “but certainly, when he first appears, in touch. She always remembers my willed them into being himself, surrounded by cameras – I had a camera he looks incredibly frightening and birthday, it’s very sweet. She has her a creator as much as a spectator. mounted on my head – and you’re threatening, you know, as indeed all our own children now, of course…” A mixture of motion-capture CGI ‘on’ all the time,” he tells us. “You’re innermost fears are, adults as well as and a gigantic model, left in alarming connected to all these little computer kids. We have profound fears and they ith a story this chunks around the set, the Monster is a nerds at the side of the stage, so when are ugly and terrifying until you start moving – anyone striking creation, an Iron Gi-Ent inked we shot a scene I was able to see chipping away at them, when you who can get from nightmares. “Well, one of the approximately what this creature, this realise they’re legitimate fears, but the through the book things we’ve been struggling with is elemental force, might look like. As silly more you confront them, the more they without welling trying to make him look as real as as I felt, certainly for the first day and will kind of sustain you through life’s up is made of stone, never mind wood possible,” says Bayona. “In terms of the a half, after that I kind of got into it. journey, and then eventually not – the live-action scenes, shot in the CGI, it should be photorealistic but with It was wonderful, it was just J.A. and become fears at all…” muted grey-greens of earth and illness, weight, like it’s made of wood. I told the myself and Lewis, and we worked very “Bayona put it an interesting way,” guarantee tears before bedtime. But people from the VFX company that closely. We had a little mock-up of wrecking brute, it towers over the the face, which is pretty ballsy for an says Ness. “Reality doesn’t have its AFAMILYSTORY I wanted him to move realistically.” the boy’s house and the back garden, own value, it merely is, so to find truth cemetery set as the earth shakes aboveRogueOne’s expensive SFX flick. “I think the best At this, Atienza cuts in, “It’s funny so I was able to get a sense of how (thanks to the powerful hydraulics FelicityJonesplays way to talk about big things is through within it, we have to tell stories about when you say that a tree has to move big the creature should be and adjust underneath), gravestones topple and Conor’smum fantasy,” explains Atienza, “because it… that’s how we make sense of realistically!” Bayona continues: “It accordingly, to make sure when I was deep fissures appear in the ground. big subjects are difficult to explain. a universe that seems chaotic and should be tough, clumsy, heavy, rigid kneeling down or on my hunkers Time and again, just as MacDougall’s Not difficult, impossible. These subjects, meaningless.” None of which sounds – I don’t want it to look like a CGI [haunches], my knee wasn’t bursting about to be swallowed by the ground, most of the time, they relate to very PG-friendly. “It’s a children’s film character. There’s a moment in into a house or something.” the wires save him from the abyss. mystery. You don’t have answers for with the soul of an adult,” explains the film that references King Kong It’s an image that wouldn’t be out of them so you need to tell tales to talk Bayona. “But what I like about it is, – [pause] the old one – and there’s ack on the lot, in Conor’s place in The Impossible, we tell Bayona, about them. And fantasy makes you it’s what we do as filmmakers. We try lots of shots we’ve done with a real nightmare, we watch the once “Cut!” has been called. So why think about these things, makes you and make people understand the world hand, real foot, real face, and some Monster do way worse does he keep returning to scenes of feel them, even if it doesn’t give you better through art. Which is what Conor of them are clumsy, the hand than that, thanks to such wrenching child imperilment? any answers, the trip is worth it.” understands at the end of the story: looks like a puppet and I love that. the magic of SolidTrack, “I’ll give you the number of my Weaver finds the story similarly that art can heal…” In other words, I love that because it has a soul a camera system that allows the psychotherapist,” he jokes, “he’ll cathartic: “I feel like, for all of us stories don’t end with directors any that you lose in CGI. The VFX guys CG’ed creature to occupy the same make a better explanation.” with these problems of mortality and more than they end with writers. want perfection, but the soul is space as MacDougall (on the But it’s not a joke, not even close. catastrophic illness, the Monster picked in the mistake, it’s in the flaw.” monitors at least). A huge, building- In fact, the film looks death squarely in us up and put us on his shoulder.” A Monster Calls opens on 1 January.

TOTAL FILM | JANUARY  SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM JANUARY  | TOTAL FILM

TFM253.feat_monster.indd 98 03/11/2016 09:59 TFM253.feat_monster.indd 99 03/11/2016 09:59 A MONSTER CALLS A MONSTER CALLS

Prepare for the most heart-wrenching fantasy movie of the year. Matt Glasby is on set as Patrick Ness’s tale of death and dreaming comes to the screen…

70 | SFX MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2017 FEBRUARY 2017 | SFX MAGAZINE | 71

SFX282.monster.indd 1 23/11/2016 10:36 SFX282.monster.indd 2 23/11/2016 10:36 A MONSTER CALLS A MONSTER CALLS

tories are wild creatures… when you let them loose, who knows That kid’s defi nitely what havoc they might wreak?” won the science fair. “WE ALL So proclaims the eponymous Monster (Liam Neeson), an ancient yew tree called forth NEED by troubled schoolboy Conor O’Malley (Lewis STORIES” MacDougall) in this dark Liam Neeson: a monster talks fantasy directed by JA Bayona (The Orphanage, The Impossible). He’s not kidding… Based on the YA novel by Patrick Ness (showrunner of Doctor Who spin-off Class), this particular story is wreaking havoc across an entire studio backlot outside Barcelona. Amid the sinewy branches littering Jim Kay concept art, from A Monster Calls The search for the missing the set, the Monster is, quite literally, in pieces. Special Collector’s Edition, Walker Books. contact lens continued. In one corner sits its huge, trunk-like head with red bulbs instead of eyes; in another is a 6ft reservations. “I was going to say no because of gives way beneath him. Just as he reaches the For his current Monster, brought to life by glimpses of the Monster combined with foot. If Bayona and co do their jobs, it won’t the pressure to write something good,” he tells edge, stunt wires save him. “No accidents for performance capture and CGI, “We did live-action footage. Colossal and crepuscular, just be the Monster who’s in bits… us. “Also, I didn’t want to write a book that she now,” says Bayona watching anxiously. “I cross thousands of designs,” says Bayona, “but the with eyes of fl ame and scratchy pen-stroke In case you hadn’t guessed, A Monster Calls would have written, I wanted to write a book my fi ngers!” Though levity is in short supply in more we went into fantasy the less interesting detailing, he more than does justice to McKay’s is an absolute heartbreaker. “It’s a story about that she would have loved.” Illustrated by Jim the fi lm, Bayona did allow himself some it was. I wanted to keep it very ambiguous, magnifi cent drawings. In fact, he could a kid dealing with the death of his mother McKay, the fi nished novel received a rapturous fan-boy moments directing Sigourney Weaver, more like an image where you can project your photosynthesise an Ent for breakfast… [Felicity Jones],” Bayona tells SFX between reception, and Ness wrote a spec script which who plays Conor’s fearsome grandmother, needs, your fears, more than something with takes. “When you touch the need to say attracted Bayona, “a really strong fi t” according asking, “Why was she carrying a gorilla when lots of horns and tentacles.” Just don’t mention goodbye, people normally don’t go that far to the author. “I respect the seriousness with she stepped out of the helicopter in Working the E word. “I went to a friend and showed him PAYING IT FORWARD when they go to the movies. Especially in which he is willing to take a young person’s POV, Girl?” This, we learn, was a reference to King the fi nal design and he said it looks like an Ent!” If the fi lm deals with legacies – the things that fantasy movies, which are so restricted because which not all movies featuring kids do, and his Kong, the ultimate misunderstood monster, Bayona laughs. “I said, ‘What the fuck is an we gift those we leave behind – it also, of course, they cost a lot of money. Studios don’t want to implicit willingness to let genres bleed, which who cameos here in a cine-fi lm Conor watches Ent?’ and then I googled ‘monster tree shape’ represents one. “This was something that What attracted you to the role? disturb the audiences, they want them only to I believe in very strongly,” says Ness. Neeson is with his mum. “There are probably only 60 and I saw there were lots of characters that Bayona explained to Patrick the fi rst time we all They had me from day one. I remember have fun, and I thought they could have a lot of more succinct: “I was gripped from page one.” kids in the world who watched old cine movies look like Ents. I thought, I don’t want my tree met,” says Atienza. “Siobhan Dowd started this, reading several years ago that Patrick was given this story by Siobhan Dowd fun watching this fi lm but they can also learn when they were young, but they all grew up to to look like a tree, it needs to look like a man, so you very respectfully took her work and made who passed away from cancer, you what life is about. I don’t want to sound be fi lmmakers,” says Ness, “so that’s why King we threw away those designs, started from something beautiful, now we’re asking for know. Patrick’s an amazing writer, and pretentious, but I wanted to make audiences CHILD’S PLAY Kong is in there, god love him…” Weaver, for scratch and ultimately came up with something permission to do the same. It’s a lovely journey: I admired him all the more for working think about it, then send them back home with On a cemetery set recalling something out of her part, was glad to be working with Liam much more similar to what’s in the book…” this woman leaving something behind, Patrick on an original idea from another writer the fi lm still growing in their minds.” Godric’s Hollow in Harry Potter, a pivotal Neeson, the “best looking tree in the world…” Producer Belén Atienza, who’s had a hand in taking it on, and hopefully us doing something that she wasn’t able to complete. Based on an outline left behind by writer scene is in process. Dressed like a typical and looks forward to Bayona’s next project, just about every Spanish-language fantasy at the same level.” When asked for comparison Why does the Monster appear Siobhan Dowd, who died of cancer in 2007, British schoolboy, MacDougall sprints through Jurassic World 2: “I expect to be a) a dinosaur, since 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth, recalls: “When we points she namechecks huge, haunting to Conor? Monster was completed by Ness, with some toppling gravestones as the earth shudders and or b) a bystander horribly eaten by a dinosaur.” went to shoot the performance capture it was fantasies such as The Iron Giant and ET. Well, the monster’s there to try and the fi rst time for us, and the fi rst time for Liam, They’re pretty sizeable boots to fi ll, but Bayona teach life lessons, to imbue the idea that nothing is ever as it seems. And, so the fi rst few days were like, ‘Er, it’s an empty and Atienza are no strangers to soliciting of course, the overriding element in this space with a [performance-cap] suit…’ But little visceral responses from their audiences. story is that this boy’s going to have to by little you forget about the suit and you start “We had a big problem with The Impossible, cope with the death of the greatest GOT WOOD? seeing Liam as a tree, a monster, and that was a because people started to faint,” says Bayona, love he’ll ever have in his life, which very beautiful process. The end result is a citing incidents at fi lm festivals where is his mother. It certainly isn’t just Our favourite sentient trees a children’s fi lm. There’s life lessons combination of real effects and CGI. We really ambulances were sent for. “Belen called me and in it for all of us… like to work with practical effects. We did that said, ‘We’ve had fi ve screenings and fi ve people in The Impossible, we had real water, and it fainted. Next Friday, the fi lm opens in Spain in Can stories heal? totally changed the tone. The fi rst idea was to 600 screens. Oh my god!’” We all need, and love, stories, you know. That’s why fairytales were do CG water; people said you can’t do a In the case of A Monster Calls, however, it’ll written – I’m thinking in particular of tsunami with real water, but the process of be fl oods of tears rather than actual fl oods. Oscar Wilde’s beautiful children’s working out how to do it ‘for real’ was much “Ultimately it has to be emotional because man stories, that have profound lessons built more interesting; which is the case here too. understands things through emotion,” says into them – and they’re usually about We think it’s in the combination of practical Bayona. “It’s going to remove the audience from how complex life actually is. I mean, the stories that the Monster tells the Apple Trees Tabanga The Whomping Willow Treebeard Groot and digital FX, so you cannot say what’s digital their comfort zones and send them back home boy, they never turn out the way you The Wizard Of Oz (1939) From Hell it Came (1957) Harry Potter series The Two Towers (2002) Guardians Of The Galaxy and what’s real. If we get there that’s great.” thinking about their own lives. That’s what think they should turn out, you know, Scrumpers beware, anyone A wrongfully executed South (2001 onwards) The anthropomorphic arbor (2014) Another special effect comes courtesy of I like about movies, making a transformative because life isn’t like that. coveting these chaps’ Seas prince is reincarnated The thwack of something on by which all others must be Voiced by Vin Diesel in his Neeson’s rich Ulster rumble. “I wanted to use experience, so you’re not the same after forbidden – but oh-so- as a scowling killer stump willow has different measured, this irascible Ent least plank-like performance, my own accent,” he explains. “Because it’s old watching it.” And with that, he heads back to It’s quite a legacy to be carrying… tempting – fruit can expect bent on revenge, thanks to connotations at Hogwarts: – Middle-earth’s “shepherds Marvel’s tri-syllabic tree packs It is. I never met Siobhan and I’ve only a dressing down as sour some good old radioactive this secret-passage-guarding- of trees” – is one of the a world of meaning into the in itself, it’s Celtic, and I think in the audience’s his monitors, to his wild creature of a story, met Patrick a couple of times, but as off-cider. Talk about fallout in this brilliantly shrub has just chinned a fl ying world’s oldest, and slowest, words: “I am Groot.” And, imagination Irish accents give a kind of weight and prepares to wreak havoc once more. I hope they’re impressed with what whingeing pommes./ Follow creakySFX B-movie. on Twitter car/– twitter.com/SFXmagazinebroomstick/werewolf. inhabitants. Timber! eventually, “We are Groot.” and an ancient quality.” Thanks to a new [director JA] Bayona has done. REX (1) IMAGE © 2016 A MONSTER CALLS, AIE TELECINCO CINEMA, SAU, APACHES ENTERTAINMENT, SL AND PELICULAS LA TRINI SLUW pre-viz system called SolidTrack, we’re given A Monster Calls opens on 1 January.

72 | SFX MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2017 / Follow SFX on Twitter – twitter.com/SFXmagazine FEBRUARY 2017 | SFX MAGAZINE | 73

SFX282.monster.indd 3 23/11/2016 10:36 SFX282.monster.indd 4 23/11/2016 10:36