Posted on 06/01/2002 4:51:25 PM PDT by Pokey78
The director of Muriel's Wedding plans to introduce adult themes into a film of the children's classic, write Chris Hastings and Charlotte Edwardes
A Hollywood remake of Peter Pan is to turn the children's favourite into a highly charged "love story", portraying Wendy Darling as a "Lolita" who is experiencing a sexual awakening through her relationship with the hero.
The plans for the new film, to be directed by P.J. Hogan, the maverick Australian director known for his comedies Muriel's Wedding and My Best Friend's Wedding, have caused dismay among lovers of J.M. Barrie's classic play of heroism and adventure.
Barrie's god-daughter, Laura Duguid, whose father was adopted by Barrie, said that the writer would have been appalled by the film's attempt to give the story such adult themes. She told The Telegraph: "It is a shame the play is being treated in this way. My father and Mr Barrie would have been horrified.
"Mr Barrie just was not interested in that sort of obvious sexuality and romance, and it certainly is not in the original story."
Peter Pan is the latest in a series of literary classics, including Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, to be given a "sexual" make-over to appeal to cinema-goers.
The row over the portrayal of Wendy will also embarrass Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, which was given the literary rights to Peter Pan by Barrie in 1929, and which stands to receive a share of the profits from the production. It is understood to have already approved the new script.
The film, which will cost £20 million to make, will feature Jason Isaacs, the British star of The Patriot, as Captain Hook. None of the other roles have yet been cast.
The film will differ greatly from other adaptations of Peter Pan, written in 1904, by heavily embellishing the relationship between Peter and Wendy, in order to show her developing sexual fantasies about the hero. Her love is unrequited, which, the producers hope, will add an element of tragedy to the story.
Mr Hogan has already begun a worldwide search for a 12- or 13-year-old actress who, he says, "unlike Peter, is crossing the threshold into her teens and is confused yet exhilarated by her burgeoning sexuality".
The casting notes describe Wendy as a girl "imbued with rebellion", "an English rose out for adventure; an angelic girl paradoxically born to wield the sword. Adventure unleashes the animal within her, making her ever more appealing.
"But womanhood has a hold of her - she wants to both kiss Peter and mother him, for his boy-man quality stirs both within her."
Peter, by contrast, is described as "an Errol Flynn aged 12 - a movie star in the classical sense, with equal appeal to boys and girls. He is the love that Wendy can never have". The notes add: "He must also have the touch of heart-breaking tragedy that there is in Barrie's story from beginning to end."
Mrs Duguid, 73, who remembers Barrie from her childhood (he died in 1937 at the age of 77), said that the casting notes grossly misrepresented Wendy's character.
"My father lived with Mr Barrie until he was married, so he knew him very well. He and his four brothers were the inspiration for the Lost Boys. He always said Barrie was asexual. He didn't see women as sexual beings, he put them on a pedestal."
Finding a young actress willing to play Wendy may prove difficult. Sylvia Young, who runs Britain's leading drama school for child actors, said it was "very rare" for children or young teenagers to be asked to take on overtly sexual roles.
The producers of the new film are also facing criticism for overplaying the importance of Wendy in the story. In Steven Spielberg's 1991 adaptation of the story, Hook, the part of Wendy was considered so inconsequential that the character, played by 19-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow, was confined to only two scenes.
Sheila Philp, the curator of the National Trust's Barrie Museum in Kirriemuir in Scotland, said that although Peter Pan did explore adult themes it was definitely not a love story.
"Barrie was very inexperienced when it came to women and his Peter Pan story was not a romance. Peter even says to Wendy, 'You must not touch me. No one should ever touch me.'
The Barries tended to see women as mothers," she said. "Some argue that the Pan character is Barrie himself and that Wendy is his own mother.
"The background is that, like Wendy, Barrie's own mother had to bring up her siblings when she was still a teenager. Later, when her favourite son, David, died in a skating accident, she confined herself to bed in grief."
Ms Philp said that Barrie, who was only six at the time, was traumatised by the events and desperately tried to win his mother's approval.
"He dressed in the dead boy's clothes and tried to stunt his own growth, believing this would please his mother. In the play, Peter Pan is the boy who does not want to grow up."
While it sounds like this adaptation is going to go a touch far, there is a distinct whiff of sexual weirdness about the book. At least, it struck me that way.
The hospital people should be ashamed, the money grubbers.
Is this guy Hogan a homo, by any chance?
Proust
Can Scotchmen still, in face of Peter Pan
Deem for a' that, a Man remains a Man?-- Anthony Powell, Caledonia.
The casting notes describe Wendy as a girl "imbued with rebellion", "an English rose out for adventure; an angelic girl paradoxically born to wield the sword. Adventure unleashes the animal within her, making her ever more appealing.
"But womanhood has a hold of her - she wants to both kiss Peter and mother him, for his boy-man quality stirs both within her."
Peter, by contrast, is described as "an Errol Flynn aged 12 - a movie star in the classical sense, with equal appeal to boys and girls. He is the love that Wendy can never have". The notes add: "He must also have the touch of heart-breaking tragedy that there is in Barrie's story from beginning to end."
Mrs Duguid, 73, who remembers Barrie from her childhood (he died in 1937 at the age of 77), said that the casting notes grossly misrepresented Wendy's character. "My father lived with Mr Barrie until he was married, so he knew him very well. He and his four brothers were the inspiration for the Lost Boys. He always said Barrie was asexual. He didn't see women as sexual beings, he put them on a pedestal."
Finding a young actress willing to play Wendy may prove difficult. Sylvia Young, who runs Britain's leading drama school for child actors, said it was "very rare" for children or young teenagers to be asked to take on overtly sexual roles.
Is it just me, or is the mainstream movie industry creeping closer and closer to kiddie porn?
...then...don't...see...it...
Can Scotchmen facing a nubile Wendy,
Keep himself from getting "extendy"?
Actually, I am not surprised. I always thought there was a hidden sexual dimension to the Peter Pan story I mean the sexual symbolism just screams at you. A Pirate, (and recall that Pirates were notorious homos) becomes obsessed with catching a young boy. He (Hook) has lost a phallic-like appendage (his hand) to a classic female symbol, a Crocodile. A mouth full of sharp teeth that will slice whatever is put in. (Vagina Dentatis is screaming to be let out.)
Meanwhile young "Peter" lives in a group of all-male "boys who never grow up." To "grow up" he is aided and seduced by a flying female. Hook meantime faces the doom of the "ticking clock" of impotence and needs Peter to resurrect himself into a man again. I mean the whole story is just loaded with symbolism.This is just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on. But, then everybody would think I was weird. parsy.
No, it seems to be the trend...
Velma comes out in new scooby doo flick
Proust
Whatever it is creeping towards, it is pretty damn sick. But the *really* sick thing is that people are going to pay money to watch this.
Tuor
Same guys who are given government stipends to produce such delightful art as cruifixes dipped in urine and images of Mary, the mother of Jesus, made out of feces.
There now will be a girl named Wendy,
Who will appear in a movie quite trendy.
The script has the boy who will meet her,
See something quite strange in his peter:
Suddenly It will not be so bendy!
Sorry, I just couldn't help it!
When making up poems about Wendy.
It's permitted to double-entendre-y
And being risque
Is also okay
But we must say nought to offend-y
parsy the poet.
...then...don't...see...it...
Wrong. "Then don't pass it off as 'Peter Pan' to little kids." Name it "Peter Putz, Slurpee, and Tinker-Ring-My-Bell" so people like you will be the only ones going to see it.
Suggestion: Go on. It won't make any difference.
+=<)B^)
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