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sinister Mr. Barron.
“It was very strange,” he
laughs. “I’ve had the experience,
on a small scale, of casting actors
to play characters I’ve written,
but this was such a different
calibre. It was, ‘here comes Sam
Jackson and Judi Dench and Asa
Butterfield…’ these people I knew.
“Eva Green is a great choice as
Miss Peregrine,” he notes. “She
seems to be channelling Katharine
Hepburn at times – if you crossed
Katharine Hepburn with a bird!
She has an incredible gravitas you
wouldn’t necessarily expect from
someone as young as she is. It’s
perfect for the character.
“I think a lot of people read the
book and thought Miss Peregrine
was older than she really is. But
she’s not. There are photos of her
in the book – she’s not old, but
she has the authority and maturity
of an older person, which is
appropriate since she is hundreds
of years old.”
Riggs also visited the set to see
Burton and his cast at work.
“It was mind blowing to meet
him and watch him work, and
to watch the amazing people he
collaborates with work,” he recalls.
“They’re masters of their craft,
and many have been working with
him for decades. As a film nerd,
of course I knew about Colleen
Atwood, the Oscar-winning
costume designer, and Bruno
Delbonnel, the cinematographer,
who has shot some of the most
beautiful looking movies of the
last two decades, and on and
on. To watch these people giving
their all to bring my little book to
life was indescribable. What an
honour. And watching them on set
that first time, that’s what made it
start to seem real.”
Riggs’s visit to the modest set
in Florida brought back memories
of his own time at film school.
“You would shoot in a friend’s
parent’s house, and do your
best to cram cameras and lights
and crew and actors into a little
bedroom – except there was
this massive team of legendary
craftsmen and Hollywood actors
and Tim Burton running around
with wild hair and dark glasses,
Tim Burton-ing,” he laughs. “It
was insane.”
21
FEATURE
DVD&BD
300: Rise of an Empire
As Artemesia, the beautiful and
ruthless commander of the Persian
naval fleet, Green is the reason this
sequel is better than the original.
Eva Green's exotic
beauty makes her a
natural for roles that
lean towards the
dark side...
Dark Shadows
In her first collaboration with Tim
Burton, a blonde Green stole the
show from Johnny Depp's vampire
as the wicked witch Angelique
Bouchard.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
As the manipulative femme fatale of
the title, Ava Lord, Green was the best
thing about this disappointing sequel
to the Frank Miller cult favourite.
Penny Dreadful
Green's tormented psychic Vanessa
Ives was the soul of Showtime's
ambitious and stylish mash-up of
classic literary horror characters.
I was drawn
to strange
images, just as
I’m drawn to
strange stories
•
Miss
Peregrine's Home
for Peculiar
Children
is out on Jan 4