SnitchSeeker recently sat down with the cast and crew of the soon-to-be-released
Inkheart to discuss the ties between their film and
Harry Potter. We also interviewed world-renowned author Cornelia Funke, who wrote the
Inkworld series, and discovered her thoughts about
Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.
Here's a quick synopsis of
Inkheart for those of you who have been living under a rock.
Quote:
Mortimer “Mo” Folchart and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie, share 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 locates a book he’s been searching for since Meggie was three years old, when her mother, Resa, vanished into its mystical world. But Mo’s plan to use the book to find and rescue Resa is thwarted when Capricorn, the evil villain of the book, Inkheart, kidnaps Meggie and, discovering she has inherited her father’s gift, demands that she bring to life his most powerful ally, 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.
Of interest to many Harry Potter fans is the fact that actor Jim Broadbent, who plays the character of Fenoglio in
Inkheart, will portray Professor Slughorn in the upcoming
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We asked a couple of the film's stars, Paul Bettany and Brendan Fraser, what it was like to work with Broadbent.
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Paul Bettany: Awful. He's an awful human being and I suggest you never do. (laughs) As you can imagine, he's very, very funny. So kind and generous – it's a really great mix between kind and generous and wickedly funny. And sharp as a whip.
Brendan Fraser: This guy is brilliant. He's so funny, he's delightful. He can't get anything wrong. He's inspiring. He can do so much with an eyebrow, when I would have to do calisthenics to try and match up to it. I was there really to learn from him. Actors like that come along infrequently, at least in my career. I feel like I was privileged and lucky to work with Jim.
We asked director Iain Softley how he managed to sign on award-winning Roger Pratt as his director of photography (DP) for
Inkheart. Pratt is well-known for his amazing camera work, and did two Harry Potter films,
Chamber of Secrets and
Goblet of Fire.
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Iain Softley: It was great working with Roger Pratt. He's a British DP with a fantastic track record. He did The Fisher King, the original Batman with Tim Burton, Brazil, Harry Potter 2 and Harry Potter 4, really visionary pieces of work. I talked to Roger for many, many years about working with him and we discussed different projects and I was just really pleased that he was able to come on board this one.
Since the cast for
Inkheart is predominantly British, other than Brendan Fraser, we wondered if there was any hesitancy using an American leading man. Or if, perhaps, the idea was that it would help draw in American audiences.
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Iain Softley: Not really. I think 10 years ago it would have been more of an issue. With the Internet and everything, we are much less sensitive to finding people that have different accents being a problem. I think the witness of that is films like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean. If those films hadn't existed, I think there would still be arguments about, "Well American audiences really don't want to listen to English accents."
Author Cornelia Funke, who has written nearly 50 children's books, told us that she admires fellow author J.K. Rowling's ability to use visual imagery rather than realistic descriptions to help readers of all ages understand difficult topics.
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Cornelia Funke: She clouds your reality into a "costume." For example when she does torture, in a children's book, she goes so close to what torture is – and you can bear to look at it because she clouds it in a costume. Or when Dumbledore has the pensieve, where he puts the thoughts that bother him - he doesn't want to get rid of the memories, but he can't stand them for awhile. What a perfect way to express the human condition!
So that, I think is the task of fantasy writers that put our human condition into story - not into realistic description. And she [Rowling] can do that.
And, finally, as we have many fanfic writers here on SnitchSeeker, we asked Funke what advice she would you give to aspiring writers.
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Cornelia Funke: Always have a pen with you, most important. Even one that writes on skin because you may not have paper. You will have the ideas at the most unusual and strangest places. Read, read, read like crazy because you have to know what the others are doing and understand the craft. Be very patient with your ideas because they take a long time to grow. And then just … write.
We also learned that screenplays have already been written for the two sequels in the
Inkworld series –
Inkspell and
Inkdeath – and the director and cast members confirmed to us that they are all signed on to do them, assuming
Inkheart does well at the U.S. box office.
You can read our previous interview with
Inkheart's Eliza Bennett
here.
Inkheart releases in U.S. theatres on Friday, Jan. 23.