STACK NZ Dec #69

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STACK

Hugh Jackman seized the rare opportunity to play a villain, in a version of Peter Pan unlike any you’ve seen before. He spoke to Scott Hocking about PAN.

Pan is an unexpected departure from previous Peter Pan films, in that it’s an origin story.What did you think when you read the script? HUGH JACKMAN: It wasn’t what I expected either. When I heard the idea I thought it sounded a bit like, ‘we’ve done Peter Pan a lot, so let’s do an origin story’. But what I didn’t realise at the time was that this was a script from the ‘Black List’,

which is the list of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood. The writer, Jason Fuchs, was only 25 at the time and had this great idea of having the magic of Neverland and the spirit of J.M. Barrie’s story, and tying in all the elements and characters that we know and love. I thought it was really smart, and that’s why it attracted [director] Joe Wright,

whose slightly twisted, creative and free mind was a perfect fit. So I was in.

JoeWright is an interesting choice as director… Yeah. Joe had never done a family film but he grew up in a family that runs a puppet theatre, so he understands that. You can see in all his films – Hanna , Atonement , Anna Karenina , Pride and Prejudice – the visual skill he’s got, and the sense of play, creativity and, I would say, eccentricity. I think it was wonderful to bring that to this fictitious world that is really a metaphor for a child’s imagination, and let it run free. Blackbeard has a great introduction, with a rendition of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit .Was that scripted? [Laughs] I really pinched myself that day and thought, ‘Remember this moment;

HughJackman with Levi Miller

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