STACK January 2017 Issue 147

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20 JANUARY 2017
DVD&BD
FEATURE
Author Ransom Riggs was delighted that his favourite filmmaker would be bringing his
best-selling novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, to the screen. Words Adam Colby
Visiting Tim Burton’s set
where his best-selling
novel, Miss Peregrine’s
Home for Peculiar Children, was
being adapted for the screen
was, says Ransom Riggs, “mind
blowing.”
Riggs is a huge fan of Burton’s
work and couldn’t have been
happier to know that his favourite
filmmaker was making a movie
of his book. Riggs himself is
a filmmaker – having attended
film school at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles
– and once Burton was on board,
he knew that his book was in very
safe hands.
“As a filmmaker, I understand
that when you adapt a book for
the screen you need to internalise
that story and make it your
own,” he says. “To make a great
film which stands on its own
as a piece of art and not just an
uninspired copy, it’s necessary
that the filmmaker find and
express their own personal vision
of the story. And that’s what Tim
has done so brilliantly.
“That said, if it had been anyone
other than Tim directing and Jane
Goldman writing the script, I
would have been pretty nervous,”
he adds. “But I so trusted Tim’s
sensibility that I was able to say,
‘okay, take the keys and bring the
car back in one piece when you’re
done...’ And that’s more or less
what happened.”
Riggs’s compelling story of a
group of outcast children with
strange abilities was inspired in
part by his collection of haunting
old photographs, many of which
illustrate his Peculiar Children
novels. It was those images that
immediately caught Burton’s
attention when he read the book.
“I grew up loving books like
The Chronicles of Narnia – stories
about discovering hidden worlds
within our own, about discovering
that we are more than we realise,”
explains Riggs. “I started writing
when I was young, and mostly I
wrote stories that were trying and
failing to be Narnia. I also grew up
loving film and photography. About
eight years ago I began collecting
old snapshots at flea markets and
secondhand stores. I was drawn
to strange images, just as I’m
drawn to strange stories – and,
having just graduated from film
school, I was looking for ways
to combine stories and images.
When I hit upon the idea of
using these unusual photographs
to illustrate a book, I knew
immediately what kind of story
I wanted to write: a story about
a hidden world. And of course
the strange-looking kids in the
photographs had to live there.”
Riggs is, understandably,
impressed with the stellar cast
that Burton has assembled for the
film, including Eva Green as Miss
Peregrine, Asa Butterfield as Jake,
Dame Judi Dench as Miss Avocet,
and Samuel L. Jackson as the
[Eva Green] seems to be channelling
Katharine Hepburn at times - if you
crossed Katharine Hepburn with a bird!
Burton
book
by
the