www.thefountainmovie.com
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
At once sweeping and intimate, “The Fountain” is a story about love and coping
with mortality, which unfolds over three vastly different time periods. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky got the idea for his screenplay when he realized that, although many cultures have stories about the quest for eternal life, relatively few films have been made about the search for the Fountain of Youth.
“The desire to live forever is deep in our culture. Every day people are looking for ways to extend life or feel younger,” suggests Aronofsky. “Just look at the popularity of shows like ‘Extreme Makeover’ or ‘Nip/Tuck.’ People are praying to be young and often denying that death is a part of life. Hospitals spend huge sums of money trying to keep people alive. But we’ve become so preoccupied with sustaining the physical that we often forget to nurture the spirit. So that’s one of the central themes I wanted to deal with in the film: Does death make us human, and if we could live forever, would we lose our humanity?”
To construct a story that could effectively communicate that theme would require an innovative concept. “What started out as a rough sketch on a restaurant napkin back in 1999 has been through many incarnations,” says the writer/director.
“Darren had this idea of a box-within-a-box-within-a-box-structure before we even knew the name of our lead character,” expands producer Eric Watson.
Indeed Aronofsky found himself inspired. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night and look at my stacks of research and think, ‘I have to make this film; it’s in my blood.’”
Aronofsky designed a tale that would unfold in three distinct eras. But with so many incarnations of the Fountain of Youth existing throughout history and mythology, he had to consider which one would best represent the film’s ideologies. Co-story collaborator Ari Handel explains, “As we started to conceive the story we researched Mayan culture. We looked at the Bible, too, and found that, in many narratives, the Fountain of Youth is embodied by something living, something organic or nourishing.”
With that in mind, Aronofsky created the film’s Tree of Life, which serves as the Fountain of Youth in the conquistador’s story. In the 26th century, Tom is traveling to Xibalba, a distant nebula, which becomes the film’s futuristic version of the Fountain.
“One of the first things that attracted me to this script was the spirituality of it,” notes producer Iain Smith. “And because that spirituality isn’t specific to any one belief system, it translates into a kind of magic.”
As the various mythologies combine, a new myth is created, one that is both otherworldly and familiar by design.
ONE MAN. ONE LOVE. ONE QUEST.
ONE DESTINY.
With a solid thematic guide established, Aronofsky set out to design the motivation of a character who would passionately pursue the Fountain. Thomas Creo, as conquistador, scientist and astronaut has a singular drive and passion. But to tell the story of a man who refuses to accept his fate, or the fate of those he loves, would present a unique challenge.
“It’s difficult to tell a story about the quest for immortality in the present alone. That’s why Thomas’ story takes place in the 16th, 21st and 26th centuries,” says Aronofsky, who goes on to qualify, “but ‘The Fountain’ isn’t a time travel movie in a traditional way. It’s more like three interlocking time periods, where the characters embody three different parts of the same person.”
Although the thousand-year span makes Thomas’ tale epic in scope, time is also hisgreatest enemy. All three of the film’s stories deal with a race against the clock for the sake of love. Tomas the conquistador is charged with finding the Fountain of Youth to protect his Queen from a vengeful enemy who has sworn to destroy her. Tommy the scientist is trying to find the cure for his wife’s cancer before it consumes her. And Tom, who has lived well beyond the normal human life span, is still searching for a way to be reunited with his lost love.
“At its core, ‘The Fountain’ is a very simple love story about losing someone and what that teaches you,” offers Aronofsky, noting that, “in every incarnation, Thomas loves Izzi so profoundly that he will do anything to keep her alive. What he doesn’t realize is that by relentlessly pursuing a way for them to be together forever, he’s actually missing out on her life.”
The character of Tomas/Tommy/Tom is complex. He loves without limits; he seeks control where there is none. He needs to learn acceptance. The actor playing him would need incredible range and stamina to give him life. Aronofsky found that actor in Hugh Jackman, who rocketed to fame with his portrayal of the feral, mutant superhero Wolverine in the “X-Men” film series before taking Broadway by storm, playing singer-songwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy from Oz.” His performance as “Australia’s favorite son” earned Jackman a Tony Award and further established him as a star of both stage and screen.
“I had a great feeling of hope when I first read the script,” Hugh Jackman says.
“The story presents a modern myth. As I understand it, myths are stories told to help us understand the meaning of life. And ultimately those issues aren’t explainable, so we come up with stories that just get into our hearts and make us feel like we understand. These fables may not make scientific sense, but somehow they explain the world to us. That’s what ‘The Fountain’ did for me. It exists in all these fantastic worlds, but Thomas’ struggles are very human.
“In some articulation, Thomas appears in every scene of the film, and in essence, all three roles are the same man. I’d be blessed to play any one of these parts in separate films, so to get to play them all at once was an amazing opportunity I couldn’t pass up. That’s why I slept outside Darren’s door until he gave me the job,” he laughs.
Jackman’s enthusiasm didn’t go unnoticed. “We knew this was going to be a daunting role due to the very difficult physical and emotional transitions’,” recalls Eric Watson. “The actor who took the part had to be ready for that kind of commitment.”
Ironically it was his role as a singing-dancing theater legend—not the roughhewn
superhero Wolverine—which convinced Aronofsky that Jackman was right for the part.
The director first approached the actor about playing Thomas Creo after seeing him perform
live in “The Boy from Oz.”
“Hugh had so much presence and charisma in the show,” says Aronofsky. “He was performing live in front of 3,000 people and yet you felt like you were right next to him. I gave him the script backstage and he called me the next morning and said he wanted to do the film. We were all very passionate about telling this story, so when Hugh connected with it so quickly we knew he was going to be perfect.”
Watson adds, “Hugh was committed to his show for another eight months so we had to wait for him. During that time, Darren and Hugh worked together every week on Hugh’s only day off to evolve the character. So when we got to set, Hugh was Thomas Creo.”
“The character was fantastic,” says the star. “Tomas the conquistador has incredible drive and an unbelievable passion. His devotion to his Queen is single-minded. When she charges him with finding the Fountain of Youth, he’s like an arrow shot from a bow. He’s going to find it. He’s dogged, uncompromising.”
The same can be said about Tommy, the Conquistador’s 21st-century counterpart.
“Tommy is a scientist. He looks at death as a disease that can be cured,” Jackman continues.
“His wife, Izzi, is trying to tell Tommy that maybe dying is somehow part of our genetic code, and maybe going through it is part of our growth as spiritual beings. All Tommy knows is that he has a mission: His wife is dying, he loves her and he wants to be with her, so he must eradicate death.”
Jackman believes that same love consumes his 26th-century character, Tom Creo.
“Once Izzi is gone, we find Tom floating in space with the Tree of Life. In a way, he’s transferred his love for Izzi to the Tree. She lives there as long as the Tree is alive. He has finally realized he couldn’t save her, but he will save the Tree. Izzi told Tommy the story of Xibalba—that when it explodes the souls living there would be reborn. Tom is hoping that by traveling there with the Tree, he and Izzi will be together again.”
It’s the final testament of a loved one, and Tom puts his faith in it. But even as he travels through space, Tom is trying to cheat death. It’s been nearly a thousand years and he still hasn’t comprehended the lesson his wife is trying to communicate.
“Tommy knows that death is real; he understands that it happens,” says Jackman, “but he wants to know why it has to happen? Hundreds of years ago the average human life expectancy was 40; now it’s 80. So why can’t it become 200, or 400? Why can’t we solve this problem of life ending with death?”
Pursuing the answer to that question ends up leading the character to his greatest regret. “Ultimately, Tom is heartbroken that he wasn’t able to save Izzi, and even more distraught that he didn’t get to spend quality time with her while she was alive. But he’s a doer, a fixer, so he keeps pushing forth.”
Aronofsky agrees, “It takes Tom much longer than Izzi to get there, but eventually he’s going to understand this journey.”
Not only would Jackman have to deal with intricate emotional transitions to play the
triple roles, but he would also have to be physically adaptable for each phase of the film.
The arc that takes place in Spain is challenging, as Tomas battles his way into a lost Mayan
temple to face a soldier with a flaming sword. For the future sequences, Jackman had to be
much leaner. He studied tai chi and yoga for 14 months to be ready for the film. The
futuristic role would also require the actor to shave his head.
Declares Aronofsky, “Hugh was willing to give us everything we needed to bring
Tommy to life, but in order for the story to really succeed, you have to believe that Tommy
and Izzi love each other completely.”
“TOGETHER WE WILL LIVE FOREVER”
Aronofsky’s search for someone to embody the object of Tom’s unrelenting love
ended with Rachel Weisz, an Academy Award winner for her role in 2005’s “The Constant
Gardener.” Weisz portrays both Isabel, Queen of Spain, and Tommy Creo’s ailing wife, Izzi,
in the present-day story.
“The script was one of the most exhilarating pieces of writing I’ve ever read,”
declares the actress. “It was so emotional and thought-provoking—I sobbed like a baby
after I finished it.”
Weisz was especially inspired by her character’s journey in the present. “Izzi is a
regular person. She’s being confronted by the fact that she is going to die much sooner than
she wants, but she ultimately accepts her fate and makes peace with it. I think she’s very
brave.”
Aronofsky concurs, “We all wish we could face death the way Izzi faces it. She’s in
the prime of her life and she’s going to have to leave everyone she loves behind, yet she
manages to do so with grace.”
“If I were in her position, I hope I would have the courage to behave the way Izzi
does,” says Weisz. “So many people go out kicking and screaming.”
To create a character with the emotional fortitude to make the transition from life to
death, Aronofsky and collaborator Handel talked to nurses who regularly deal with the
terminally ill. Handel reveals, “For the most part they suggested that people come to some
kind of acceptance of their death, even if it’s just a breath before it happens.”
Aronofsky confirms, “They said that it’s often the families of terminally ill patients
who have more difficulty letting go.”
Such is the case with Tommy who would rather run from Izzi’s death than face the
reality that she is going to succumb to her disease. Says Weisz, “When Izzi gives Tommy
her manuscript and asks him to ‘finish it,’ it’s her way of ultimately saying, ‘Learn to be with
yourself. Don’t feel guilty about not being able to save me. Learn to accept your own
mortality and you’ll find this peace, too. For the first time, you won’t be afraid.’”
“Izzi wants Tommy to experience her passing with her,” adds Handel. “She wants
to share this very significant thing with the person she’s spent her life with. She wants to die
with Tommy present, not absent.”
“Right from the start, Izzi is saying to Tommy, ‘Okay, I know I’m going to die and
I’m okay with it, but will you just be with me during these moments? Will you look at the
stars with me, and read my book and take a walk in the first snow?’” Watson says. “But
Tommy can’t do that because he feels like he will be failing Izzi if he accepts her death, so he
keeps fighting.”
“For Tommy, this is about hope versus acceptance,” clarifies Jackman. “If
someone’s sick, you make them get better. Tommy needs to be optimistic for Izzi; he has to
believe he can save her.”
In fact, it may be the only way Tommy can save himself.
Weisz sums up the relationship. “Tommy and Izzi have a very strong and very
mature relationship. She’s found her understanding and now she’s there patiently, lovingly
saying to Tommy, ‘Let it go, live life—live fully and die fully. All the courage you’re putting
into fighting death and protecting me, use that courage to face death because that is the
greatest liberation.”
Also starring in the film is Oscar, Golden Globe, and Tony Award-winning actress
Ellyn Burstyn, who received her sixth Academy Award nomination for her performance in
Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream.” In “The Fountain,” she portrays Tommy’s mentor,
Dr. Lillian Guzetti, who also shares a special kinship with Weisz’ Izzi. “Ellen told me that
I’d better have a part in this film for her, which was fine because I’d written Lilly with her in
mind,” says Aronofsky. “She’s a great connector for Tommy and Izzi.”
“Lilly has been a mentor to Tommy and a friend to Izzi,” offers Burstyn. “I think
she admires Izzi’s outlook in the face of death and she desperately wants to help Tommy be
with his wife in her final moments. She tries to communicate that, but Tommy won’t hear
it. And yet, Lilly and Tommy are both scientists, so she can identify with him, too. She
knows that asking Tommy to give up on fighting his wife’s disease is like asking him to deny
part of himself.”
Burstyn, like her co-stars, was fascinated by the film’s themes. “They’re universal.
We certainly do our best to keep death out of our sight, whereas other cultures focus on it.
The Buddhists meditate on death. They consciously remember that each moment we live is
dead before we even realize it has passed. Trying to hold onto the moment for fear of losing
it is to live in a state of death, because the only way to be alive is to live in the present.”
THE TREE OF LIFE
To create the three worlds of “The Fountain” would require a group of expert
craftsmen. Fortunately for Aronofsky, he assembled a team of artisans years ago at his own
Protozoa Pictures. Many of those artists have worked on all of his films.
“Filmmaking is a family affair for us,” says Eric Watson. It is a sentiment echoed by
the writer/director who assembled the cast and crew on the first day of principal
photography to declare, “Everyone here is a filmmaker.”
“When we did ‘p,’ there were eight people so it was really easy to create that family
atmosphere,” muses Watson. “Darren’s mother was there, bringing bagels to the set every
morning. Now, suddenly, there are 300 people around but you still have to work to make it
an intimate process. If you don’t connect with your crew and your actors, then how are they
going to understand what you’re trying to accomplish?”
Aronofsky clearly provides his entire staff of filmmakers with the tools to create a
familiar language—an almost “inside” way of communicating.
“I’ve never been on a set like this,” says Weisz. “Darren has worked with the same
cinematographer and the same production designer on almost all his movies. When you’re
on-set with them, you feel completely supported. And you also feel like you’re walking into
some hotbed of creativity with all these bright minds around you.”
The director would also take the time to nurture his actors. “He’s definitely an
actor’s director,” adds Weisz. “Darren rehearses for weeks before he starts filming and he
pushes us on-set. There were days when Hugh and I would be sitting there crying, thinking
we’ve just given the best performance we could give, and Darren would say, ‘Okay, let’s do it
again, right away.’ So we’d do the scene again, over and over. Darren pushes you to the
point where you’re no longer conscious of what you’re doing so you end up with a truly
authentic performance. For an actor, that’s just heaven. It’s exactly what you want from
your director.”
“I trust him,” attests Jackman. “He’s a general by nature. But he also has this
generosity of spirit. He wants everyone to collaborate. He encourages the entire crew to
make the film their own. Darren makes it clear that we are all telling this story together.”
“Every department is charged with furthering the thematic intention of the story,”
adds Handel. “It doesn’t matter if you are working in costume, lighting, props—it all goes
toward telling the best story we can tell.”
Making ‘The Fountain’ wasn’t unlike making three short films, each equally grand in
scope. “The first part is very mythical, with the conquistadors in Spain, and this beautiful
and mysterious queen. Then the middle story—the one that takes place in present day—is
the kind of material the actors could really sink their teeth into, it contains the most
emotionally complex scenes to play. And the third part, with Tom sailing through this
gorgeous spacescape toward a glittering nebula, is a metaphysical, almost psychedelic
journey,” details the director. “It was really fun for us because every few weeks we’d get to
sink our teeth into a new millennium with new challenges.”
Describing the environment during filmmaking, Burstyn says, “It was like walking
through an eclectic crafts village. There were people making Mayan jewelry and other people
building a spaceship. The sets being created were for all three phases of the film, past,
present and future. It was just so original. I loved it.”
The story would require great efforts by Aronofsky’s collaborators to create links in
all three periods of the film. Working with director of photography Matthew Libatique,
production designer James Chinlund, editor Jay Rabinowitz, special effects supervisors
Jeremy Dawson and Dan Schrecker, special makeup effects supervisor Adrien Morot,
costume designer Renée April, and composer Clint Mansell, Aronofsky carefully crafted the
film’s creative and technical elements to help the three stories flow together seamlessly.
Director of photography Matthew Libatique has shot all of Aronofsky’s films, going
back to A.F.I. Film School. “From the very beginning,” says Libatique. “I knew the story
and the scope of the theme would have visual impact.”
That impact required a definitive color scheme. “The first film that Darren and I
made together was shot in black and white. On that project we learned that a limited color
palette is an effective way of streamlining what you’re trying to say,” notes Libatique. “So
this film has a strict palette of white and gold. You do see colors, but they’re earth tones. I
shot my own stills to help track the visual language between all three time periods. It was a
way for me to see if I was going too far or too close to achieve the density we wanted.”
Production designer James Chinlund designed a wide variety of sets for the film,
ranging from Queen Isabel’s magnificent throne room in Seville, filled with colonnades,
intricate fretwork, and candlelight; to the Mayan ball court in ancient Mexico; to Tommy
Creo’s present day laboratory, where colors and lighting reflect the theme that weaves
through the time periods; to the towering Tree of Life, built to represent the immortality that
Thomas is searching for; to his spaceship, a unique, organic entity by which Tom floats on
his path to discovery.
“The Tree was the greatest challenge the film presented,” says Chinlund. “The eye
can detect the slightest variation in the natural structure, so it was critical that we get it
right.” The final product was, in Chinlund’s words, “a Frankenstein. We went to a lake in
Northern Quebec and found amazing driftwood pieces and brought them back. So the tips
of the branches and many of the roots are real. Then the sculpture department pulled molds
from those pieces and parts of other trees and we built those around a large steel core frame.
Then we added real bark, and fake bark, and paint, and all kinds of things. So it really is a
hybrid.”
Chinlund’s tree is being transported by Tom Creo to the distant nebula Xibalba at
the edge of the universe, a journey that would force Aronofsky and his team to consider how
their spaceship would look. “In typical depictions of a spacecraft, there are a lot of
fluorescent panels and gadgets all over,” says the writer/director. “But they get in the way of
that amazing view. So we decided to distill the ship down to its most necessary function—
which is to carry Tom and the tree through space without losing the spectacle of the
journey.”
The result looks more like a soap bubble than the space shuttle. “Five hundred years
from now technology is going to be very different, so this spaceship has no buttons or
control panels,” notes Watson. “There’s something magical about Tom’s ship because it’s
not really explained. You don’t know how he gets the Tree in there, or how he’s controlling
his flight. You should just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
In creating the film’s imaginative visuals, the effects team set out to craft a timeless
and original look for outer space that did not rely heavily on computer-generated imagery.
Aronofsky explains, “Once we settled on a spaceship that was translucent we had to decide
how we wanted space to look. I wanted to give the audience something different from what
they’ve seen—something organic.”
To achieve that goal, the visual effects team of Jeremy Dawson and Dan Schrecker,
from internal-effects house Amoeba Proteus, enlisted English photographer Peter Parks
who shoots micro-photographs of tiny chemical reactions interacting in a Petri dish.
Dawson remarks, “The textured world of Peter’s photographs was similar to the
Hubble photographs we’d been looking at. Once blown up, these living things looked like
space to us.”
“What’s really amazing is that the substances that Peter shot are all contained in an
area that’s no bigger than a postage stamp,” adds Schrecker. “And none of the elements used
to create space are generated strictly from the computer. They’re just collages of actual
photography.”
When enhanced these microscopic living things look like a golden nebula. “I liked
the idea of something so small representing something so vast,” adds Aronofsky. “It was a
great complement to the themes of the story.”
Aronofsky’s ideas about Tom’s ship and the look of space carried through the rest of
the production design elements. “There was a definite mandate from Darren about the look
of the film,” notes Labatique. “We didn’t want it to have a contemporary gloss, so we
decided to try and do as many things in-camera as possible. We do have our share of green
screens, but with those screens came elements that we shot ourselves.”
Iain Smith expands on the idea. “Darren believes visual effects are there to support
and extend the story but the film should be about the heart.”
That is not to say the film doesn’t have its share of eye-popping visual stunts.
Special makeup effects supervisor Adrien Morot reveals that it took five long months to rig
just one of the effects shots on his to-do list. “There is the scene where Tomas drinks from
the Tree of Life. A moment later, he starts to convulse and falls to the ground. Suddenly
flowers and greenery start blooming out of his body…from all over. Darren wanted to do
that live, without computer effects.”
The shot would inspire Morot to go back to the days when creating a shot using CGI
wasn’t a possibility. “Basically we took what is essentially a big plastic bladder and glued
leaves and flowers onto the bag. Once it’s inflated, it looks like a full bouquet. We used 60
of them. Hugh even had one in his mouth, with a tube hidden under his beard,” says the
supervisor. “Building the air rig was quite a task. It took a lot of power to simultaneously
pressurize those things.”
“The beauty of Darren’s philosophy,” says costume designer Renée April, “is that it’s
not only about the end product but also about the process of making the film. That’s very
unusual in Hollywood. We created everything for the Mayans, from their costumes, to their
hairpieces, to the bones they wear.”
April’s pièce de résistance may be Queen Isabel’s gown, a shimmering cascade of
olive and gold, with a branchlike pattern woven into the design. For the futuristic sequences,
a very narrow color scheme was used consisting of warm gray and charcoal.
“I had to find a line to connect these three stories, not only in color or texture, but
also in some little reminder of what was there before,” states the designer. “The Queen’s
dress has a pattern with tree branches. Then, in the contemporary story, Izzi has a blanket
that you barely see, but it’s got the same design. And of course Tom is traveling with this
great tree—so all three periods are linked in an almost subliminal way.”
More overt signals were also employed. “Rachel’s character wears white throughout
the film, and she’s almost always backlit by white,” details April. “Hugh’s character is shown
a lot in the darkness and shadow, so we dressed him in black.”
Composer Clint Mansell also sought to create connections beyond the visual. “In
the beginning, we talked about each time period having its own theme,” notes Mansell, who
is another of Aronofsky’s longtime collaborators. “But ultimately Darren does a lot of
cross-cutting between the worlds, so I had to focus on the emotional arc of the characters
over the film as a whole.” To craft the score, Mansell wrote six themes he called “Lonely
Man,” “Snow,” “Tree of Life,” “Red Dress,” “Road to Awe” and “Romance.” “I
approached my composition as a three or four-movement symphony that weaves emotions
through the story and then climaxes when all the elements of Thomas’ life come together.”
Similarly, James Chinlund’s set designs are meant to further the character’s central
motivation and emotional state. “All the sets were designed around the principle of the light
at the end of a long tunnel, which mirrors Tom’s voyage on the ship. He starts in the dark
and moves toward a distant light, so we created lots of long passages. We used scrims and
materials that would diffuse light in different ways.”
Tommy’s laboratory was no different. “The windows in the lab look out onto
rock,” continues Chinlund. “The lab is underground, and there’s no light getting in, except
in the atriums, where the white light is trying to penetrate. The practicals in the lab had a
gold tint—which for us represents logic and science—a misdirect for Tommy on his path
toward the white light.”
Aronofsky avers, “Izzi is Tom’s beacon, his only truth—whenever she appears she
represents love and purity.”
“FINISH IT”
In the film, Izzi has written a book about a conquistador on a quest for his Queen,
but she tells Tommy to write the last chapter—asking him to “finish it.” Izzi has discovered
a sense of peace through her illness, and wants her husband to find that peace as well. She
knows it’s the only way for Tommy to complete his journey.
“Taking this journey with Darren as Thomas Creo was a singular experience,” states
the film’s leading man. “I think he’s crafted a beautiful story that is at times tragic and
enlightening, and sometimes even funny. It’s a love story. It’s visually amazing and
intellectually challenging. I hope it touches people. I think it will.”
Adds the writer/director, “I like to be taken somewhere when I go to see films. I like
to be transported. I’m hoping that “The Fountain” takes people to places they’ve never
seen…but most of all I hope they’re entertained.”
ABOUT THE CAST
HUGH JACKMAN (Tomas, Tommy, Tom Creo), a native of Australia, made his
first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in 2000’s “X-Men,” which marked the first
installment of the blockbuster franchise. He has since reprised the role in “X2” and “X
Men: The Last Stand.” In addition, Jackman earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for
his performance in the romantic comedy drama “Kate & Leopold,” opposite Meg Ryan.
Jackman most recently starred with Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen’s comedy
“Scoop.” His additional film credits include the title role in “Van Helsing”; the thriller
“Swordfish,” with John Travolta and Halle Berry; and the romantic comedy “Someone Like
You,” opposite Ashley Judd. In addition to “The Fountain,” Jackman has three more films
due out in 2006. He next stars in Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige,” and will also be heard
in the animated features “Flushed Away” and “Happy Feet.”
An award-winning stage actor, Jackman was honored with the 2004 Tony Award for
Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of singer-songwriter Peter Allen in the Broadway
hit “The Boy from Oz.” His work in that show also brought him Drama Desk, Drama
League, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards. His previous theatre credits
include: “Carousel,” at Carnegie Hall; “Oklahoma!,” at the National Theater in London, for
which he received an Olivier Award nomination; “Sunset Boulevard,” for which he won a
‘MO’ Award (Australia’s equivalent of a Tony); and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” for
which he also received a ‘MO’ Award nomination.
Jackman began his career in Australia in the independent films “Paperback Hero”
and “Erskineville Kings.” For his performance in the latter, he won the Film Critics Circle
of Australia’s Best Actor Award and earned a nomination for the Australian Film Institute’s
Best Actor Award. In 1999, he was named Australian Star of the Year at the Australian
Movie Convention.
RACHEL WEISZ (Isabel, Izzi Creo) won an Academy Award for her performance
in “The Constant Gardener.” In Fernando Meirelles’ highly acclaimed drama, she played the
doomed activist Tessa Quayle. For the performance, she also won the Golden Globe, the
London Film Critics Circle Award and the SAG Award.
Born and raised in London, Weisz has also appeared in “The Mummy” films,
“About a Boy,” Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Enemy at the Gates,” “Beautiful Creatures,”
“Swept from the Sea,” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty.”
Weisz made her London stage debut in Noel Coward’s “Design for Living,” directed
by Sean Mathias, for which she received the London Drama Critics Award for Outstanding
Newcomer. She reunited with Mathis for the West End production of “Suddenly Last
Summer.” In 2001, she worked with Neil LaBute in London and then off-Broadway in the
stage production of “The Shape of Things.”
Weisz studied English at Cambridge University, where she also co-founded the
Talking Tongues Theater Group. The company performed numerous experimental pieces
and won the prestigious Guardian Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
ELLEN BURSTYN (Dr. Lillian Guzetti) is one of the only actresses ever to have
won both a Tony Award and an Academy Award in the same year. In 1975, she won a Tony
for her performance in Bernard Slade’s production of “Same Time, Next Year” on
Broadway, and took home an Oscar for the title role in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t
Live Here Anymore.” For her work in that film, she also received a Golden Globe Award
nomination and won a British Academy Award for Best Actress. Burstyn has also been
honored with Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in “The
Last Picture Show,” “The Exorcist,” “Same Time, Next Year,” “Resurrection,” and Darren
Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream.” In addition, she won an Independent Spirit Award
and received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her performance in the last.
Burstyn’s long list of film credits also includes “Alex in Wonderland,” “The King of
Marvin Gardens,” “Harry and Tonto,” “Providence,” “Dream of Passion,” “Silence of the
North,” “Twice in a Lifetime,” “Dying Young,” “The Cemetery Club,” “Roommates,”
“How To Make An American Quilt,” “The Babysitter’s Club,” “The Spitfire Grill,” “Playing
By Heart,” “The Yards,” “Walking Across Egypt,” “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood” and Neil LaBute’s remake of “The Wicker Man.”
Burstyn has also garnered three Emmy Award nominations for her work on
television, the most recent coming this year for her work in the television movie “Mrs.
Harris.” She received her first Emmy nod in 1981 for her performance in the title role of
“The People vs. Jean Harris,” for which she was also Golden Globe-nominated. She gained
a second Emmy nomination for her role in the 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame production
“Pack of Lies.”
A consummate stage actress, Burstyn appeared on Broadway in the 1982 production
of “84 Charing Cross Road,” and off-Broadway in “Park Your Car in Harvard Yard,” in
which she starred with Burgess Meredith. She starred in the acclaimed one-woman play
“Shirley Valentine,” and then starred in the Broadway plays “Shimada,” in 1992, and
“Sacrilege,” in 1995. In the mid-90s, she starred in two plays written by Horton Foote: “The
Trip to Bountiful” and “The Death of Papa.” She also starred in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long
Days Journey Into Night,” at Houston’s Alley Theatre and at Hartford Stage in Connecticut.
In the fall of 2003, Burstyn returned to Broadway in “Oldest Living Confederate Widow
Tells All,” presented at the Longacre Theater, where she had made her Broadway debut in
1957 in Sam Locke’s “Fair Game.”
Burstyn was the first woman to be elected President of Actor’s Equity Association
(1982-85), and served as the Artistic Director of the Actors Studio for six years, where she
studied with the late Lee Strasberg. She received the Career Achievement Award from the
2000 Boston Film Festival and the Career Achievement Award from the prestigious
National Board of Review in 2001. In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the Best
Spoken Word category as the narrator of “Growing Old Along With Me, The Best Is Yet
To Be.” She holds three honorary doctorates, one in Fine Arts from the School of Visual
Arts, a Doctor of Humane Letters, from Dowling College, as well as one from the New
School for Social Research, where she teaches in the Actors Studio/New School M.F.A.
program. Burstyn also lectures throughout the country on a wide range of topics.
Burstyn recently completed her memoir, titled Lessons in Becoming Myself, which is
being published by Riverhead Press.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
DARREN ARONOFSKY (Writer/Director) made his feature film directorial
debut with the acclaimed independent feature “p,” which he also co-wrote. The film
brought him several honors, including the Director’s Award at the 1998 Sundance Film
Festival and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. His second film, the
critically acclaimed “Requiem for a Dream,” premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and
captivated both critics and audiences. Starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly
and Marlon Wayans, the film went on to earn five Independent Spirit Award nominations,
including one for Best Feature and one for Aronofsky for Best Director. The accolades
continued with “Requiem for a Dream” being named on more than 150 Top-Ten Lists for
2000, including those of The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and
the American Film Institute. For her work in the film, Burstyn won the Spirit Award for
Best Actress and earned Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations.
In 1996, Aronofsky and producing partner Eric Watson formed the production
company Protozoa Pictures to develop future projects. Protozoa subsequently launched
Amoeba Proteus to develop animated feature films.
Born in Brooklyn, Aronofsky graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School and
went on to study live action and animation at Harvard University. His senior thesis film,
“Supermarket Sweep,” won international awards and was a national finalist in the 1991
Student Academy Awards. In 1994, he received an M.F.A. in Directing from the American
Film Institute. AFI again honored Aronofsky in 2001 with the prestigious Franklin J.
Schaffner Alumni Medal.
ERIC WATSON (Producer) began his career at San Francisco State University,
majoring in Broadcast Communication Arts. He went on to study Motion Picture
Production at the American Film Institute, and was awarded the Mary Pickford Scholarship
for Excellence in Producing. Watson first met and collaborated with director Darren
Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique at AFI, marking the beginning of a long
and productive partnership.
In 1995, Watson moved to New York City to produce his first feature, “p,” directed
by Aronofsky. The movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. Released that
summer, it was warmly received by a wide audience, and went on to earn Watson an
Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature.
Watson also produced “Requiem for a Dream,” Aronofsky’s follow-up to “p,” which
stars Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Academy Award winner Jennifer
Connelly, and Marlon Wayans. “Requiem for a Dream” was named one of the Top Ten
Films of 2000 by a number of national publications, including The New York Times, Rolling
Stone and Entertainment Weekly.
In 1996, Watson and Aronofsky formed the production company Protozoa Pictures.
Protozoa is currently developing several projects, including an adaptation of the novel
Flicker, written by Theodore Roszak; an adaptation of the novel Song of Kali, written by
Dan Simmons; and “The Hunt.”
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Watson also served as executive producer on Rob Schmidt’s feature début, “Saturn,”
and on David Twohy’s “Below.”
ARNON MILCHAN (Producer) is widely renowned as one of the most prolific and
successful independent film producers of the past 25 years, with over 100 feature films to his
credit. Born in Israel, Milchan was educated at the University of Geneva. His first business
venture was transforming his father’s modest business into one of his country’s largest agrochemical
companies. This early achievement was a harbinger of Milchan’s now-legendary
reputation in the international marketplace as a keen businessman.
Soon, Milchan began to underwrite projects in areas that had always held a special
interest for him – film, television and theater. Early projects include Roman Polanski’s theater
production of “Amadeus,” “Dizengoff 99,” “La Menace,” “The Medusa Touch” and the miniseries
“Masada.” By the end of the 1980s, Milchan had produced such films as Martin
Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon at Time in America” and Terry
Gilliam’s “Brazil.”
After the huge successes of “Pretty Woman” and “The War of the Roses,” Milchan
founded New Regency Productions and went on to produce a string of successful films
including “J.F.K,” “Sommersby,” “A Time to Kill,” “Free Willy,” “The Client,” “Tin Cup,”
“Under Siege,” “L.A. Confidential,” “The Devil’s Advocate,” “The Negotiator,” “City of
Angels,” “Entrapment,” “Fight Club,” “Big Momma’s House,” “Don’t Say a Word,”
“Daredevil,” “Man on Fire,” “Guess Who,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Big Momma’s House
2.”
His upcoming projects include: “Deck the Halls,” a holiday-themed comedy starring
Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, Kristin Davis and Kristin Chenoweth, directed by John
Whitesell; “Firehouse Dog,” a family comedy starring Josh Hutcherson, Bruce Greenwood,
Dash Mihok, Steven Culp and Bree Turner, directed by Todd Holland; “Jumper,” a sci-fi action-
adventure directed by Doug Liman; and “Dallas,” based on the television phenomenon directed
by Gurinder Chada.
Along the way, Milchan brought on board two powerful investors and partners who
share his vision: Nine Network and Twentieth Century Fox. Fox distributes Regency movies in
all media worldwide (excluding an output arrangement Regency has in Germany), including on
U.S. pay television, and international pay and free television. Milchan also successfully
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diversified his company’s activities within the sphere of entertainment, most specifically in the
realm of television through Regency Television (“Malcolm in the Middle,” “The Bernie Mac
Show” and “Windfall”) and sports where the company was at one time the largest shareholder
of PUMA, the worldwide athletic apparel and shoe conglomerate based in Germany, which was
later sold after a successful re-branding of the brand in 2003. In addition, Regency has acquired
the worldwide television rights to Women’s Tennis Association Tournaments from 1999
through 2011 and has licensed these rights to Pan European Broadcaster Eurosport S.A.
Regency owns a large stake in the Israeli Network, a television station brought to the United
States via a satellite distribution agreement with Echostar. Recently, Regency also acquired a
large stake in Channel 10, one of only two commercial broadcast stations in Israel.
IAIN SMITH (Producer) was born in Glasgow in 1949, and graduated from the
London Film School in 1971. He worked in London for several years before returning to
his native Scotland to make “My Childhood” for the British Film Institute, the first movie in
the award-winning trilogy by the late Bill Douglas.
Smith went on to form his own production company, in partnership with Jon
Schorstein, and together they produced television commercials, documentaries, children’s
feature films, and low budget dramas. In 1978, Smith served as the production manager on
Bertrand Tavernier’s “Deathwatch,” starring Harvey Keitel. A year later, he joined David
Puttnam and Hugh Hudson to make “Chariots of Fire.”
He served as line producer on a variety of films for David Puttnam, including Bill
Forsyth’s “Local Hero,” starring Burt Lancaster; Roland Joffe’s “The Killing Fields,” starring
Sam Waterston; and Joffe’s “The Mission,” starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. He
also produced Brian Gilbert’s “The Frog Prince.”
In 1987, he formed Applecross Productions and went on to co-produce Richard
Marquand’s “Hearts of Fire,” starring Bob Dylan and Rupert Everett, and Michael Austen’s
“Killing Dad,” with Richard E. Grant, Denholm Elliott, and Julie Walters. In 1991, he coproduced
Roland Joffe’s “City of Joy,” starring Patrick Swayze and Pauline Collins, and, in
1992, served as executive producer on Ridley Scott’s “1492—Conquest of Paradise,” starring
Gerard Depardieu and Sigourney Weaver.
In 1994, Smith co-produced Stephen Frears’s “Mary Reilly,” starring Julia Roberts
and John Malkovich, followed by Luc Besson’s “The Fifth Element,” starring Bruce Willis
and Gary Oldman. He then produced Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Seven Years in Tibet,”
starring Brad Pitt, as well as Jon Amiel’s “Entrapment,” with Sean Connery and Catherine
Zeta-Jones.
He went on to serve as executive producer on Tony Scott’s “Spy Game,” starring
Robert Redford and Brad Pitt; Anthony Minghella’s “Cold Mountain,” starring Jude Law,
Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger; and as producer on Oliver Stone’s “Alexander,”
starring Colin Farrell, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie. Smith also serves as a producer
on Alfonso Cuaron’s futuristic drama “Children of Men,” which makes its world premiere at
this year’s Venice Film Festival, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine.
Smith is a board member of both The U.K. Film Council and The Scottish Screen.
He has served on The Scottish Film Council, The Scottish Film Production Fund, The
Scottish Film Training Trust, and as a governor of the National Film and Television School.
He is currently Chair of the Film Skills Strategy Committee, Deputy Chairman of the British
Film Advisory Group, and is a director of the Children’s Film and Television Foundation.
NICK WECHSLER (Executive Producer) has produced or executive produced a
variety of independent and studio movies, most recently “North Country,” starring Charlize
Theron, Frances McDormand, and Sissy Spacek. Wechsler is currently in post-production
on “We Own the Night,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix and in preproduction
on “Reservation Road,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo and to be
directed by Terry George.
Many of the films Wechsler produced have gone on to win awards, including “Sex,
Lies and Videotape,” which garnered the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or in 1989;
“Drugstore Cowboy,” the National Society of Film Critics pick for Best Film that same year;
“The Player,” which received the 1991 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Comedy;
“Little Odessa,” which won the 1995 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Award; “Love Jones,”
which received the 1997 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Film; and “Eve’s
Bayou,” winner of the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, in 1998.
“The Fountain” marks Wechsler’s second collaboration with Darren Aronofsky,
having previously served as an executive producer on “Requiem For A Dream” in 2000.
Wechsler also executive produced Spike Lee’s “25th Hour,” starring Edward Norton, Phillip
Seymour Hoffman, and Barry Pepper; and produced Phillip Kaufman’s “Quills,” starring
Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet. His other production credits include John Herzfeld’s
“Fifteen Minutes,” starring Robert DeNiro and Ed Burns; “Invisible Circus,” starring
Cameron Diaz; and “The Yards,” starring James Caan, Joaquin Phoenix, and Mark
Wahlberg. Wechsler also served as executive producer on “Signs & Wonders,” directed by
Sundance award-winner Jonathan Nossiter, as well as “Noriega” for Showtime.
ARI HANDEL (Story, Associate Producer) graduated from Harvard University
with a degree in biology, and went on to get a PhD in neuroscience from New York
University’s Center for Neural Science. In 2000, Ari left academia to work on the
development of “The Fountain.” Since 2002, Ari has been the President of Protozoa
Pictures, where he is currently writing and developing new projects.
MATTHEW LIBATIQUE (Director of Photography) is a graduate of the
American Film Institute. His collaboration with Darren Aronofsky on “p” gained him an
Independent Spirit Award nomination in l997. Their second collaboration, “Requiem for a
Dream,” garnered Libatique the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography in
2001. “The Fountain” is their third team project.
Most recently he acted as cinematographer on “Inside Man,” directed by Spike Lee.
Libatique has collaborated on two films with director Joel Schumacher, “Tigerland” and
“Phone Booth.” His other film credits include “Everything Is Illuminated,” “Gothika,”
“Abandon,” “Josie and the Pussycats,” “Saturn,” “She Hate Me,” and “Never Die Alone.”
He began his career as a cinematographer in the music video industry. Libatique’s
work has appeared on MTV for such artists as Death In Vegas, Erykah Badu, Incubus,
Tupac Shakur, Moby, Tracy Chapman, Snoop Dogg, and Jay-Z. In 2002, Libatique was
awarded the Music Video Production Association Cinematography Award for his work with
Matchbox Twenty. His commercial credits include work for clients as diverse as
Volkswagen, Sprite, BMW, The Gap, and Major League Baseball.
Libatique is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
JAMES CHINLUND (Production Designer) has worked with some of the
industry’s most innovative filmmakers. In addition to his initial collaboration with Darren
Aronofsky on “Requiem for a Dream,” he has worked with director Spike Lee on his
critically acclaimed film “The 25th Hour,” with director Paul Schrader on his ‘60s era biopic
“Autofocus” and with Todd Solondz on the dark suburban portrait “Storytelling.”
Chinlund was born in New York City, and graduated from Cal Arts in Los Angeles
with a degree in Fine Arts. His first feature credit was as art director on Vincent Gallo's
“Buffalo 66,” and, in 1998, Chinlund met Matthew Libatique and Eric Watson on the set of
Rob Schmidt’s “Saturn,” his first feature credit as production designer.
In addition to his work in the film industry, Chinlund has worked extensively in the
commercial and fashion industries with such directors as Lance Acord, Roman Copolla,
Todd Oldham and Gus Van Sant; and such clients as Calvin Klein, MiuMiu, Chloe, Pirelli,
Sony, Levi’s, Estee Lauder and Nike.
JAY RABINOWITZ (Editor) previously collaborated with Darren Aronofsky as
the editor on “Requiem for a Dream.” He more recently edited Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile”
and Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers.”
Rabinowitz has also been Jarmusch’s editor of choice on the films “Coffee and
Cigarettes,” “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” “Dead Man,” “When Pigs Fly” and
“Night on Earth.” Rabinowitz’s other film work includes Paul Schrader’s “Affliction,”
Keith Gordon’s “Mother Night” and Lodge H. Kerrigan’s “Clean, Shaven.”
For television, Rabinowitz served as an editor on the series “Oz” and “Homicide:
Life on the Street.”
RENÉE APRIL (Costume Designer) has created the costumes for a wide range of
films, most recently including Bill Paxton’s “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” Roland
Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow” and George Clooney’s “Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind.” Her other film credits include “Heist,” “Waking the Dead,” “Grey
Own,” “The Red Violin,” “Mother Night,” “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” “Map of
the Human Heart,” “Black Robe,” “The Moderns,” “Children of a Lesser God” and “Agnes
of God.”
In addition, April has won three Genie Awards for her work on the television
projects “Tales From the Neverending Story,” “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and
“Million Dollar Babies.” She also served as the costume designer on such telefilms as “The
Audrey Hepburn Story” and “Pretty Poison.”
CLINT MANSELL (Composer) rejoins the creators of “The Fountain,” having
worked on their earlier films “Requiem for a Dream” and “p.” Mansell is the former
vocalist, guitarist, and keyboard player for Pop Will Eat Itself.
His most recent project was composing the score for the action movie “Smokin’
Aces,” starring Ben Affleck, Jeremy Piven and Alicia Keys.
Mansell has also scored such films as “Doom,” “Wind Chill,” “Trust the Man,”
“Sahara” and “The Hole.”
JEREMY DAWSON and DAN SCHRECKER (Visual Effects Designers) formed
Amoeba Proteus in 1997 to create graphics, titles, music videos, and trailers for Darren
Aronofsky’s first feature film, “p.” Following this success, Dawson and Schrecker
collaborated again with Aronofsky to create the visual effects for “Requiem for a Dream.”
Since that time, the company has gone on to supervise visual effects on a number of films,
including “Frida,” which garnered the team a Visual Effects Society nomination for Best
Visual Effects, “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen” and Wes Anderson’s “The Life
Aquatic with Steve Zissou” for which they oversaw all of the animation and underwater
components of the film.
Dawson and Schrecker met as undergraduates at Harvard, where they were
classmates and friends with Aronofsky. After Dawson received his undergraduate degree, he
went on to complete an MFA in Photography and Digital Media from the School of Visual
Arts in New York. Dan Schrecker studied animation at Harvard before going on to receive a
Masters degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Amoeba Proteus is currently working on an original animated feature film that they
will write and direct.
ADRIEN MOROT (Key Special Effects Makeup Artist) is the founder of Maestro
FX Studios and is considered one of the industry’s most inventive special effects artists.
Morot recently completed work on the upcoming film “The Covenant.” His other
film credits include “Lucky Number Slevin,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “A Hole in One,”
“Taking Lives,” “Secret Window,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “Decoys,” “Beyond Borders,”
“Sur le seuil,” “My Little Eye,” “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” “Wisegirls,” “A Glimpse of Hell,” “The Art of War,” “The Bone Collector,” “Lady of the Lake,” “The Education of Little Tree,” “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” and “Blood Symbol.”
WARNER BROS. PICTURES and REGENCY ENTERPRISES Present
A PROTOZOA PICTURES / NEW REGENCY Production
A Film by DARREN ARONOFSKY
HUGH JACKMAN
RACHEL WEISZ
“THE FOUNTAIN”
and ELLEN BURSTYN
Directed by
DARREN ARONOFSKY
Screenplay by
DARREN ARONOFSKY
Story by
DARREN ARONOFSKY & ARI HANDEL
Produced by
ERIC WATSON
ARNON MILCHAN
IAIN SMITH
Executive Producer
NICK WECHSLER
Director of Photography
MATTHEW LIBATIQUE, ASC
Production Designer
JAMES CHINLUND
Edited by
JAY RABINOWITZ, A.C.E.
Costume Designer
RENÉE APRIL
Music by
CLINT MANSELL
HAPPY FEET
In the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you're nobody unless you can sing-which is unfortunate for Mumble (ELIJAH WOOD), who is the worst singer in the world. He is born dancing to his own tune…tap dancing.
Though Mumble's mom, Norma Jean (NICOLE KIDMAN), thinks this little habit is cute, his dad, Memphis (HUGH JACKMAN), says “it just ain't penguin.” Besides, they both know that without a Heartsong, Mumble may never find true love.
As fate would have it, his one friend, Gloria (BRITTANY MURPHY), happens to be the best singer around. Mumble and Gloria have a connection from the moment they hatch, but she struggles with his strange “hippity-hoppity” ways.
Mumble is just too different-especially for Noah the Elder (HUGO WEAVING), the stern leader of Emperor Land, who ultimately casts him out of the community.
Away from home for the first time, Mumble meets a posse of decidedly un-Emperor-like penguins-the Adelie Amigos. Led by Ramon (ROBIN WILLIAMS), the Adelies instantly embrace Mumble's cool dance moves and invite him to party with them.
In Adelie Land, Mumble seeks the counsel of Lovelace the Guru (also voiced by ROBIN WILLIAMS), a crazy-feathered Rockhopper penguin who will answer any of life's questions for the price of a pebble.
Together with Lovelace and the Amigos, Mumble sets out across vast landscapes and, after some epic encounters, proves that by being true to yourself, you can make all the difference in the world.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Kennedy Miller production, in association with Animal Logic Film. A George Miller film, “Happy Feet” features the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving and Anthony LaPaglia.
The film also features the tap dancing of Savion Glover. “Happy Feet” is directed by George Miller, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Collee, Judy Morris and Warren Coleman. The film is produced by Doug Mitchell, George Miller and Bill Miller, with Zareh Nalbandian, Graham Burke, Dana Goldberg, and Bruce Berman executive producing. The music is composed by John Powell, and the soundtrack also includes songs performed by Prince, Yolanda Adams, Fantasia Barrino, Gia Farrell, Chrissie Hynde, Patti LaBelle, k.d. lang, Jason Mraz, and Pink.
“Happy Feet” will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.
The film has been rated “PG” for “some mild peril and rude humor.”
The Production
“If ‘Babe’ was the ‘talking-pig’ movie, then this is the ‘dancing-penguin’ movie,” states George Miller about the films he helped bring to the world in the 1990s, and his most recent work, ‘Happy Feet,’ which he co-wrote, produced and directed. Miller came to the idea of the story of an Emperor Penguin who happens to be a great tap dancer after watching a number of documentaries on the wildlife of the Antarctic.
“There’s only one thing that attracts me to any project whether it be ‘Mad Max,’ or fables about pigs or penguins—the power of the story,” Miller states. “Story is king! What’s so seductive about working in film is that you can go into whatever world you like, but you’re always trying to find the most meaningful stories. So, to me, there’s not much difference between ‘Mad Max,’ ‘Babe,’ or, indeed, the creatures of ‘Happy Feet.’
“I was always attracted to the epic nature of Antarctica,” the director continues. “About ten years ago, when I saw ‘Life in The Freezer,’ the BBC/National Geographic documentary on penguins, it struck me that there was a great story there. Penguins live such extraordinary lives, richly allegorical in terms of how we conduct ourselves as humans. The way they survive at the far end of the planet, huddling against the cold, sharing the warmth, singing to find a mate.”
Miller is referring to the penguin’s ‘Heartsong,’ the identity-defining croon of the Emperor Penguin, and the way they distinguish each other within the flock. “To us, it sounds like squawking,” he clarifies. “But to each individual penguin, it’s like a song. There might be 25,000 birds on an Antarctic ice shelf, each having a song unique to themselves, and somehow one manages to find another through the cacophony.
“This story follows our main character from the moment of his parents’ coming together, his hatching and childhood, all the way up through young adulthood and all the experiences that he endures trying to find his way in the world.”
Into the community of the Emperor Penguins, the hero, Mumble, is born unable to sing. His parents take him to a remedial teacher who encourages him to give expression to his deepest feelings. But they come out in the form of tap dancing, which is regarded by his community as being a little weird.
The use of the Heartsong idea allowed Miller to incorporate music and dance into his story, which would go on to feature contemporary and classic songs, as well as various styles of dancing.
“‘Happy Feet’ started long before ‘March of the Penguins’ was released,” explains Miller in answer to a question he is often asked. “The fact that the documentary was so successful was a double delight because it helped set up interest in our computer-animated movie about penguins.”
CHARACTERS AND CASTING
To bring the central character of Mumble to life would require a fleet of technical wizards and a special voice talent. Co-writer Judy Morris offers, “Mumble is earnest and open to new things. We knew whoever voiced him would have to be able to communicate an intelligent innocence, and, at the same time, be hip and cool. We needed an actor with a real, open quality; we found the perfect match in Elijah Wood.”
“Mumble’s confidence and innate sense of self is extraordinary,” says Wood, who portrayed another determined hero in the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “He refuses to see his dancing as a problem, and he doesn’t want to give up the part of himself that makes him unique. He’s saying, ‘I have this oddity, but it’s not odd to me, it’s just odd to you. I’m okay with it, so you’re the one who has to come around.’”
Wood is proud to send a strong message of self-acceptance to children and adults alike. “It’s really important for everyone to realize that we shouldn’t compromise on those things that are individual to us, especially for other people.”
While Wood provided Mumble’s voice, his unusual Heartsong would come from another talented performer—Tony Award-winning dancer Savion Glover. “I can relate to Mumble a lot,” declares Glover. “Because, while I’m true to my own art form, which is tap dancing, I’m not much of a singer. I’ve tried it; I’ll continue to have a go at it, but I’m better at expressing myself through my feet, just like Mumble.”
Glover also responded to the character’s fish-out-of-water feeling. “At school, Mumble feels like a geek. I’m a geek, too. A tap dance geek.”
Adding to the all-star voice talent of the cast are two of Australia’s leading native stars: Hugh Jackman as Mumble’s father, Memphis, and Nicole Kidman as his mother, Norma Jean.
“Memphis is a pretty cool penguin,” says Jackman, a Tony Award winner for his performance as Australia’s “favorite son,” Peter Allen, in Broadway’s hit show “The Boy From Oz.” He continues, “And he sure does love Norma Jean. When they fall for each other, he’s the happiest he’s ever been in his life.”
Kidman, an Academy Award winner for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” was also no stranger to singing on-screen, having played Satine, the songstress of the Moulin Rouge in Baz Luhrmann’s film of the same name.
“Working with Nicole again was just wonderful,” states Miller. “She’s quite something. When the producer Doug Mitchell called her to talk about the film, she agreed to do it on the spot. When I asked her later why she took it on without even reading the script, she said that, given our past relationship, she would never say no. I was really taken aback by the kindness of that gesture.”
“When you first meet Norma Jean, a lot of the penguin boys are interested in her. She has this wiggle and this walk and this voice. It’s cute and sexy. But she only has eyes for Memphis,” says Kidman. “Then they have a baby together, and from the moment she sees Mumble, she just loves him. She doesn’t care that his Heartsong sounds a little different; she thinks he’s perfect just the way he is, which is the way any mother feels about their child.”
“One of my favorite things about Norma Jean is that she’s the only one in the community who truly believes that there’s nothing wrong with Mumble,” adds Miller. “She stands up for her son.”
But Memphis blames himself for Mumble being so “different” because of a mishap when his son is still in the egg.
“He starts to lose his mojo,” says Jackman. “For much of the story, Memphis is very unhappy because he does the thing that Mumble refuses to do—he loses his sense of who he really is.”
“Memphis and Norma Jean want Mumble to be happy,” says Kidman. “But Memphis has a harder time with the dancing, so Norma Jean tries to help him bridge the gap. She says, ‘He may not be exactly like you, but he’s yours. Love him for who he is.’ Then, once Mumble shows his Dad that he’s going to be alright, the family comes together again.”
“I’m very proud of the family we assembled,” beams Miller. “Hugh, Nicole and Elijah really gave the story a beating heart.”
The penguin who makes Mumble’s heart leap is the strong and daring Gloria, voiced by Brittany Murphy. “Gloria is the greatest singer in a whole generation of penguins,” attests Miller, “so naturally I needed an actress who not only had a great speaking voice, but an inspiring singing voice as well.”
Known for a variety of film roles, Murphy had never sung on camera. “I didn’t know Brittany could sing until someone showed me a test she did,” recalls the director. “It turns out that she trained as a singer before she trained as an actor. She sang two songs in the movie and she was just superb.”
Gloria’s Heartsong is key to Mumble’s story. Presented at first as a slower version of the disco anthem “Boogie Wonderland,” the song is a true expression of her character. But it’s not until Mumble begs her to listen to the music he makes with his feet that her song finds a rhythmic match, and something new is set free.
Having always loved music, Murphy says that the passion to express oneself through song was an idea to which she responded. “Although Gloria knows she’s talented, her singing is viscerally driven. It’s a form of expressing her innermost thoughts and feelings, as Mumble does through the rhythm of his feet.”
The actress adds that she immediately liked her character. “Gloria’s very confident, strong and sassy, with tons of heart. She’s all about good intentions and she’s never afraid to speak up. She’s someone I would want for a best friend.”
Murphy’s character is devoted to her best friend Mumble, but her appreciation isn’t shared by the elders of the community, including Hugo Weaving’s cantankerous Noah.
“Hugo has a lovely voice,” says Miller, “but I pushed him to the limit. In one scene he had to shout above a fierce blizzard and a thousand singing voices.”
Wandering the wilds of Antarctica, Mumble finally finds true camaraderie in an unlikely place—with the Adelie Amigos, a group of five wisecracking Latino penguins, who may be a lot smaller than Mumble in size but have personalities that are larger-than-life. Led by Ramon, the most rambunctious of the crew, the Adelies quickly befriend our hero and, for the first time in his life, Mumble truly has somewhere to belong.
The Adelies brand Mumble’s moves “so accidentally cool” and show him how to really enjoy life.
To give the Adelies their fast-and-furious repartee, Miller first went to a master: legendary comedian Robin Williams, who plays Ramon. “All I needed to know when I agreed to do the film was that George Miller was directing,” declares Williams. “I mean, this is a man who has worked with talking pigs, and this movie is basically ‘March of the Penguins’ meets ‘Riverdance.’”
With Williams ready to voice the frenetic leader of the Amigos, Miller reached out to some of the Latino community’s established comedians to round out the group. Carlos Alazraqui, Johnny Sanchez III, Jeff Garcia and Lombardo Boyar gave voice to Nestor, Lombardo, Rinaldo and Raul, respectively.
“George was determined that we record the Amigos in a group, with all the microphones open,” notes co-writer Warren Coleman. “The actors stood in a loose circle so that they could always see and react to each other. They spurred each other on, searching for the line or idea that would make the whole room laugh. This spirit served our story superbly, as the Amigos are a family—a band of brothers who love and support each other.”
“We basically let them improvise and riff off each other,” adds Miller. “It got completely wild.”
“We were Los Penguinos,” exclaims Williams of his co-stars. “When we get together, we throw down!”
Williams especially enjoyed his character’s bravado and eye for women. “Ramon is great at finding pebbles. In the penguin world, pebbles are like bling and Ramon knows the girls like bling. He’s always trying to impress the ladies. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this character—because every one of us has a little macho penguin inside, and I wanted to get in touch with my macho penguin.”
The energy of the incomparable Williams could not be contained in just one role. The actor does double voice duty in the film, also starring as the eccentric Rockhopper penguin Lovelace, the Guru of Adelie Land, who also narrates the story.
Much of Lovelace’s allure is represented by his strange “talisman,” a discarded plastic six-pack ring that has gotten stuck around his neck. “Lovelace is smooth like Barry White. He dispenses wisdom. He answers all of the Adelies’ questions through his contact with the mystical beings who gave him his funky necklace,” notes Williams.
Playing both parts would require the actor to create two very distinct characters. “Robin has this intuitive talent,” notes Judy Morris. “His acting is a lot like Savion’s dancing—it’s something unexplainable. They’re both so talented and fast.”
“Robin makes no claim to be a singer, but he took it on—in Spanish no less. And, as with everything he does, he put all his heart and soul into it,” observes Miller.
Rounding out the cast are movie and television star Anthony LaPaglia as the Boss Skua, the leader of a gang of birds who menace young Mumble; and veteran actresses Miriam Margolyes and Magda Szubanski as penguin school teachers, Mrs. Astrakhan and Miss Viola, who try to coax a more palatable Heartsong from Memphis and Norma Jean’s young son. World famous zoologist and animal lover, the late Steve Irwin voices one of the humongous elephant seals who Mumble and the Adelies encounter in the vast wilderness of the Antarctic.
Miller offers, “I’ve been very lucky with this voice cast. Robin Williams, as the world knows only too well, is a force of nature. It was just a marvelous experience to work with him. What was also great to see was Robin working with the young actors like Elijah Wood and the four fine comedians who played the other Amigos—Johnny Sanchez, Jeff Garcia, Carlos Alazraqui and Lombardo Boyar.”
The director continues, “There is not a lot of difference working with voice actors or working with actors on a set. We organized the voice recording much as we do on a live-action set, recording as many actors as possible at once. It was such a lovely cast; we just put them together and let them go at it. I forced myself to close my eyes lest I became beguiled by those fabulous movie star faces.
“We recorded in many, many different places, depending where the actors were working at the time. Hugh, Nicole and Elijah were all recorded in Los Angeles and New York, and Robin in San Francisco and LA, along with Brittany and Anthony. Hugo Weaving was recorded in Australia. So the voicing was done all over the place. Acting is a contact sport and, at every opportunity, we put as many actors together as we could.”
THE MUSIC
When George Miller was first inspired to write “Happy Feet,” he wasn’t imagining it as a musical. “As I was conceiving this story, it occurred to me that the way the Emperor Penguins find their soul mates through song required that there be songs in the movie. When it turned out that Mumble couldn’t sing but could dance, I suddenly found that I was in the middle of a musical. I like to call it an accidental musical,” Miller remarks.
Miller ended up focusing the film around the Heartsong concept and, because popular music is a form of expression familiar to everyone, the producers selected iconic songs to bring the story to life. “Happy Feet” enlists many kinds of musical styles, including rock, funk, opera, rap, liturgical, pop, gospel and latin in the narrative.
“Because all the penguins look essentially the same, each had to be differentiated by unique voices and, indeed, unique songs, so I decided from the get-go to mainly use a repertoire of songs from the twentieth century,” Miller elaborates. “Judy Morris has a remarkable, encyclopedic knowledge of music; she’s like a walking iPod. She can conjure up any tune or any lyric of any song at a moment’s notice. In the countless sessions we held to select music, she came up with some inspired choices that fit our story.”
Helping to craft the musical soundscape for the film was noted composer John Powell. “We didn’t just need a composer on ‘Happy Feet,’ we needed a multiple-threat player,” suggests Miller. “I wanted someone who wouldn’t feel like they were slumming in pop music, and who wouldn’t be intimidated by the more classical orchestral pieces or opera, or even rap. John Powell really understands world music, and he’s young enough as a composer to draw on many musical disciplines and genres.”
“John created some really incredible arrangements,” offers Brittany Murphy. “For one of Gloria’s songs, we did an homage to Freddie Mercury with Queen’s ‘Somebody To Love,’ which was a perfect selection to go along with the movie’s theme. We went in this gospel direction; it was very sensitive but still really fun. It was incredible working on the arrangements with John. He is a great musical mentor to me.”
Some of the other Heartsongs featured in the film include: The Beach Boys’ “Do It Again,” Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” (sung by Robin Williams in Spanish), and a version of Prince’s “Kiss” (sung as a duet between Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman). The last led to a coup for the musical repertoire of the film. When Miller wanted to change the original “Kiss” lyrics (to “make them more penguin”), he asked for Prince’s permission, which was initially denied. After watching an early cut of the film, not only did the musician agree to the lyric changes, he liked it so much that he wrote an original song for the film that is played over the end credits. Prince’s “The Song of the Heart” will also be featured on the “Happy Feet” soundtrack, being released by Warner Sunset/Atlantic Records on October 31, 2006.
The same album will showcase a wide array of popular artists, including the legendary Patti LaBelle, Yolanda Adams and “American Idol’s” Fantasia Barrino, all singing “I Wish”; Pink performing “Tell Me Something Good”; Chrissie Hynde and Jason Mraz singing an original mash-up of the songs “Everything I Own/The Joker”; k.d. lang singing The Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers”; Gia Farrell’s new single “Hit Me Up”; and the Brand New Heavies’ song “Jump N’ Move.” John Powell’s orchestral score will also be featured in “The Story of Mumble Happyfeet.”
“Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman also sing in the film,” Miller recalls. “But given that Mumble’s character is excluded from his community because he sings so badly, Elijah Wood wasn’t required to sing well. So the truth is I don’t know if he can! I did, at one point, ask him to sing very badly—and he did that magnificently.”
“I learned a lot about the role of music in film on this project,” declares Miller. “I watched the great musicals, trying to understand what’s at the heart of the choreography and what makes a big production number work. It is clear that dance pieces must be narrative, not merely decorative.”
DANCE
Perhaps no musical element was as integral to advancing the story as dance, which is the essence of Mumble’s own Heartsong.
Miller says, “When we decided to make a film about a dancing penguin, I couldn’t expect the digital artists to animate brilliant dancing. After all, a dancer, like an animator, acquires their skills over a lifetime. So the best way to make the penguins dance was through motion capture.”
Miller believed Savion Glover was just the man to lead Mumble’s tap revolution. “Given that Mumble is a virtuoso tap dancer, who better than Savion to play him? Savion’s inimitable dancing was motion captured for Mumble’s tapping in the main dance sequences in the movie. He’s a dazzling percussionist,” states the filmmaker. “His rhythms are so complex and sophisticated. Tap dancing is music you make with your body, and Savion is a virtuoso. You can play him anything and he’ll improvise to it. At one point, we played him a helicopter and he mimicked the sound with his feet. He was moving so quickly, he was faster than the camera could record…or than I could see with my naked eye. He is quite extraordinary.”
Having made his Broadway debut at age 12, Glover has shared the stage with such tap dancing legends as the late Sammy Davis, Jr. and Gregory Hines. “Savion is the latest in a line of classic hoofers,” notes Miller. “He loves tap so much, it is absolutely part of him. He feels an obligation to pass his knowledge on, which is why he was the only choice of dancers to give Mumble his Heartsong.”
“I truly believe that kids are going to see this tap dancing penguin and say, ‘That’s too cool.’ George Miller is bringing back tap, and I’m just grateful to be a part of that,” says Glover. “I’m not the only one; I know there are many great hoofers looking down on George right now and saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.’”
Judy Morris backs up Savion’s belief. “The composer’s little son was completely entranced when he saw Savion at work, and ever since he’s been tap dancing like crazy.”
Warren Coleman recounts just how extraordinary Glover is. “At the start of every motion capture take, the performers stand still to be ‘snapped’ by the computers. But at times we could hear a ‘brrrrrr’ noise… It sounded like a tiny machine-gun. The sound technician desperately tried to find its source so we could start capturing. He checked the air-conditioner, computers, sound equipment, everything. But then it would disappear and we could start. It was only later that Savion let us in on his little practical joke. He had actually been tapping, with foot movements so tiny and fast that no one could detect them even up close, under powerful lights. He had us all completely stumped, particularly the sound guy.”
A predominantly live-action director, Miller had initially considered creating “Happy Feet” in a live-action format, a la the “Babe” movies, where actual penguins would be digitally enhanced to sing and dance. The idea was quickly abandoned. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy to train a penguin to dance,” jokes the director.
“Live action and computer animation are essentially no different—all the principles of filmmaking apply to both,” Miller comments. “When I work with animators it’s like working with actors in ultra slow motion; you’re dealing with nuanced performance frame by frame. The main difference is that you break down synchronicity. The voices are done at one time. The body movements, the facial expression, the lighting, the camera work, the costuming and everything else, are done at different times. In live action they’re more simultaneous.
“Also, in making a film in the digital realm, the material is utterly malleable. You can move your characters, or your camera, or your lights anywhere. You can work your story to a much finer degree than you normally would. I think this is one of the reasons that the filmmakers at Pixar, in particular, are such masterful storytellers. For someone like me, who sees film as a medium for storytelling, the opportunity to work with CGI has been a revelation. You get to hone your tale to a degree that is not usually possible.”
Working with Sydney-based visual effects house Animal Logic, Miller initiated the use of motion capture technology as a means to allow him to film real actors and dancers and have their performances translated into their on-screen penguin counterparts. Motion capture uses many cameras shooting from different directions, but rather than recording an image, the camera captures information from many small reflectors attached to a body-hugging suit. The recorded motion data is then applied to a pre-designed character model within specialized computers. In the case of Mumble, that model came in the shape of an Emperor Penguin.
On “Happy Feet,” motion capture was pushed to the technological limit to allow Miller to direct multiple performers on the capture floor in their suits, while their penguin characters appeared on a computer screen—in real time. “Our crew took this to a new level,” notes Miller. “I was actually able to see the actors moving instantly as penguins on the monitor while they performed. It gave me the freedom to get exactly what I needed on stage. I was able to direct the performers to move a little more or a little less to match what is appropriate for a penguin’s range of motion.”
“The process of making this movie was amazing,” says Glover. “It’s all about instant gratification. There I was on stage, wearing this suit with all these little reflectors all over it, and then Mumble was right there on the computer screen. You could actually see me as Mumble.”
Though tap dancing was chosen to give Mumble his individual style of expression, the filmmakers also wanted to represent other forms of dance in the movie, so Miller recruited choreographer Kelley Abbey. “Kelley has done everything. She’s the top stage and music video choreographer in Australia and is also an extraordinary performer. In the film, she dances and performs the dramatic moves for several characters, including Norma Jean, Gloria and Ramon.”
“There were some really interesting challenges on this film,” states Abbey. “Dancers are meant to move, we flow, but penguins are basically shaped like a football with feet.”
Learning to move like a penguin was a required part of every performer’s training on the film, so Abbey instituted compulsory “penguin school.” However, before she could train anyone else on how to move like a penguin, Abbey had to learn to do so herself. “I watched documentaries; I had to know what was best for several species of the bird.”
The choreographer’s explorations in movement and dance actually revealed the opposite of what most would expect. “When people think of penguins, they think about turned out feet, sort of like Charlie Chaplin,” states Abbey. “But in reality, a penguin’s walk is more parallel, almost turned in. They don’t have a hip access point, so all of their real movement comes from their neck.”
“Penguins do have knees but they are well inside their bodies. Kelley Abbey emphasized the penguin-like quality of the dancing and the dancers ‘penguinized’ their moves,” the director explains.
Another valuable resource was Dr. Gary Miller, a renowned Antarctic bird and penguin expert who gave pointers during early penguin lessons on how, for instance, the beak of an Emperor Penguin outlines a ‘figure 8’ as they waddle-walk.
“The casting of dancers was key to the motion capture process for the dance, as well as the drama scenes,” Coleman comments. “Because of the way we built up a scene by blending the best parts of many different motion capture takes, the dancers’ keen sense of where they were relative to each other helped us put it all together. And because our dancers came from a musical theatre background, their movement was always expressive…always telling a story.”
Abbey states, “Savion adds another dimension to the movie. He’s so unique. He’s always expressing himself with his feet. When Savion enters the building, you know it. You can hear him!”
The collaboration was a success on both sides. “Kelley’s no longer human,” jokes Glover. “She became a penguin on this movie. Working with her was great. She guided me, she had my back…I actually started calling her ‘my right-hand penguin.’”
To achieve the larger dance sequences, Abbey and her dancers would employ many different styles of dance. “In the finale of the movie, when everyone finally lets themselves go, the penguins are expressing themselves in different ways, so we have some flamenco, some tango, some riverdancing. Then there’s Zulu, gumboot, Navajo and Samoan slap dancing,” details Abbey. “When the penguins come together in this universal language of dance, it becomes part of the larger message of the film.”
The belief that there is value in the diversity of artistic forms of expression was a unifying idea on-set. “As dancers, we need to be thankful for our musicians, our lyricists, and our songwriters,” attests Glover. “I think music and dance are some of the most important cultural investments we have. I don’t care what type of a person you are; everyone has a song that makes them say, ‘This is me, this is how I feel.’ It moves them. Whether you’re a singer, a dancer or something else entirely, music is rhythm, it’s our heartbeat. Music is life.”
CREATING A WORLD OF RHYTHM
“In making ‘Happy Feet,’ it was one thing to make a few penguins dance, but George envisioned grand musical sequences in the film, with tens of thousands of penguins moving at once. And since dance is a very personal form of expression, he was explicit in his desire to have those moves look as individualized as possible,” states producer Doug Mitchell.
“I had to think with a very different level of my brain,” says Abbey. “Dance doesn’t usually involve complex mathematical equations.”
To produce the thousands of penguins and the various dancing styles in the film, a relatively small number of dancers needed to be replicated many times. “Before ‘Happy Feet’ went into production, we were able to gather the motion capture information for maybe five dancers on one set,” says digital supervisor Brett Feeney. “By the time we wrapped, we tripled that number. We could have up to 17 dancers on stage wearing the motion capture suits.”
To achieve the mass of penguins dancing on the vast Antarctica-based virtual sets, Abbey had to divide her soundstage dance floor into a defined grid. Each grid-block was roughly the size of a tennis court, which would represent a section of the penguin habitat in the equivalent computer-animated world. She estimates that it took approximately 50 “tennis courts” to fill those virtual sets with thousands of penguin extras for a particular sequence. Abbey would choreograph one grid at a time and the dancers would move within the limited space.
“The way the motion capture technology works, the dancers and I were essentially driving the penguin model,” states Abbey. “So I had dancers arriving at one part of the music on specific marks of longitude and latitude in the grid, almost like a street directory or a reference map. I’d tell them, ‘By the end of this bar, you need to land on nine and eleven.’ Then in the next number, they’d pick up from nine and eleven and continue into the next court section. The action was taking place on the same physical stage, but in the computer-generated world, it’s being placed somewhere in Emperor Land.” The information provided by Abbey’s dancers was then manipulated and enhanced by various digital artists (including motion editors, animators, surfacers and lighters) at Animal Logic. The resulting effect looked like thousands of penguins dancing at once.
“Despite their numbers, the extras dancing in the larger production pieces needed to look like they were moving individually,” says executive producer and managing director of Animal Logic Zareh Nalbandian. “And since you can’t realistically choreograph many thousands of performances in detail on a production schedule, we developed a system we called ‘Horde.’”
“Horde essentially took the information from the smaller blocks of dancers Kelley was choreographing and randomized their movement,” explains Feeney. “It’s a retiming trick that organically offsets the motions. Using a key piece of software, you can assemble 30 or 40 pieces of motion capture and replicate it to represent upwards of half a million pieces. The effect is such that the penguins look like they are doing the same dance steps with their own individual style. Initially, we were quite proud of producing around 10,000 penguins. Once George saw that sequence he asked us to double the number. Then, in each subsequent viewing, he asked us to double and double again…basically the more penguins George saw, the more he wanted.”
Not only does “Happy Feet” have a cast numbering in the tens of thousands, but “that cast is essentially made up of black and white birds that potentially look very much the same,” notes Miller.
Character supervisor Aidan Sarsfield offers, “It became apparent that one of our first hurdles was going to be how we create distinct characters and personalities out of a cast that, if we stayed true to life, would all look somewhat identical. It was here that the process of characterizing our penguins began.”
Crowd director Greg Van Borssum adds, “When it came to the background penguins, we only varied their look slightly. In terms of their physical appearance and actions, we really tried to stay within the normal range that you would find in nature. The real differentiation came in animating the faces of our main characters in close up.”
Many of the characters have certain subtle distinguishing characteristics, such as Mumble’s faint bow tie, or his blue eyes, or the feathers on top of Ramon’s head. The key frame animation is what gives the characters their fine nuances and creates the facial performances. Miller was meticulous about every detail, which allows the audience to follow individual characters, even with a large cast.
Another device that was employed to ensure the movie’s “stars” didn’t get lost in the crowd involved the camera work for the film. “We used a style of cinematography that was different from most animation, because the shots in this film are comparatively quite long in duration,” notes animation director Daniel Jeannette.
Layout and camera director David Peers elaborates, “The average feature has about 2,000 edits; we have around 800. Our film plays in longer shots designed to experience the story with the characters and to help keep track of them as they mingle in the essentially monochromatic crowds.”
Animal Logic developed another motion capture tool called “lattice terrain adaptation,” which allowed Miller to direct how the characters interacted with their environment in real time.
“Because of the lattice terrain adaptation tool, even as I was seeing the actors on a flat black stage, on the computer screen they were appearing on an ice shelf in Emperor Land or Adelie Land,” Miller illustrates. “The computer could create the set’s virtual hills and valleys, so I got the best performance within the specific landscape. I was able to see the characters on the monitor walk up a hill, or even fall off it.”
“No one anticipated that jump in the technology when the production began,” adds Feeney. “We had to keep innovating every day. The challenge for us was keeping up with George and making his vision a reality.”
“It’s an extraordinary thing for a director,” enthuses Miller. “You’ve got this real world right in front of you and then you’ve got a virtual world, and the two are happening simultaneously. You can manipulate it however you want. I feel so lucky to be alive and working as a filmmaker when this technology is available. I cannot imagine doing this movie any other way.”
THE PHOTO-REAL LOOK OF “HAPPY FEET”
As they did with the characters, the filmmakers incorporated a combination of artistry and technology to achieve what Miller calls a “photo-reality” for the computer-animated world of “Happy Feet.”
“I was always aware of Antarctica, given that we live in the southern hemisphere.” The director recalls, “Way back when I was doing ‘Road Warrior’, I was in the Australian desert and a grizzly old cameraman turned to me one day in a bar and said, ‘Antarctica! You gotta make a film in Antarctica.’ Well, twenty years later, here I am making a film in digital Antarctica.”
Miller adds, “Ten to fifteen years ago the ‘white continent’ became more accessible to documentary crews. The logistics improved, the equipment and cameras were able to endure the extreme conditions, so we saw for the first time some brilliant footage on the natural history of the Emperor Penguins.
“From the get-go, we decided to make a film that was as photo-real as possible, given that the landscape of Antarctica was so majestic, and the penguins themselves were so magnificent.” Miller goes on to describe the process: “We consulted with Dr. Gary Miller and, with the help of the New Zealanders, sent two research expeditions down to the Antarctic. Visual effects and camera crews captured the textures, light and landscapes, which would be fodder for our computers and help create the world of our story.
“I talked to all of our digital artists about the look of the film. I wanted it to seem so real that I’d be compelled to walk up to the screen and touch it. I felt that if we could achieve a look that would create that impulse—if it could send me to the computer screen to actually reach up and try to rub the fuzzy belly of a baby penguin—then we would have succeeded. I’m happy to say I’ve tried to scratch quite a few virtual penguin bellies since we began production.”
“Happy Feet” took almost four years to make, and Miller observes, “Over half that time was spent in creating the digital pipeline. Miller goes on to reveal that Doug Mitchell and a team from Kennedy Miller literally moved into the Animal Logic facility. Working with Zareh Nalbandian and the accomplished technical and creative staff of Animal Logic, “Doug spearheaded the company’s ambitious transformation from a conventional visual effects house into a CGI animation studio, capable of delivering a full-length animated feature.”
“Working in this digital realm is a revelation,” says Miller. “Hundreds of very skilled and talented people came from all over the planet to give their best efforts to this film. Their average age was 26. There were artists from all over the Americas—California, Alabama, Texas, Quebec, Paraguay, Mexico; amongst many others. There were French, Italians, New Zealanders, Germans, British, and people from Africa, China, Iran, Estonia, India, Israel and Spain. It felt like the UN.”
“A large proportion of them were math wizards as well as artists,” Miller offers. “What surprised me was that so few were your cliché ‘computer geeks.’ They are body builders, martial artists, motor cycle racers, bull riders, serious rock and classical musicians, and so on. One was even an Olympic level gymnast.”
The effort to create a photo-reality applied to every level of production. “We used every technique at our disposal, often in unique ways and combinations,” states Nalbandian. “We had to develop processes for rendering fur and feathers, and then the moisture of the fur and the feathers and the way they reacted to light. We knew they had to look wet underwater and slowly dry over the course of a scene once the characters were on land. We also had the characters interact with their environment. We created interaction tools to allow for the penguins to create footprints in the snow as they walked, or for them to kick up powder as they danced. We art directed every aspect because George didn’t want anything to take you out of the film.”
Doug Mitchell explains, “The little, fluffy penguin, Mumble, has six million feathers on him. The amount of processing dedicated to this project—only a few years ago would have been impossible to achieve. We pushed the computers to breaking point. We are, as they say, on ‘the bleeding edge’ of the technology.”
Fellow producer Bill Miller observes, “When I'm asked who plays the lead character, I try to explain that it’s Elijah’s voice, Savion’s tapping and Matt Lee’s motion-captured acting, as well as the efforts of a small army of dialogue and motion editors, layout and animation artists, surfacers, lighters and the technical crew. Multiply that over the many characters and environments in our 90-plus-minute movie, and it’s little wonder that the credits run to over 1,000 names.”
“Something I love about going to the movies is the idea that I’m being transported. I want to experience something for the first time,” states the director. “Antarctica itself is extraordinarily beautiful, full of incredible colors and fantastic formations in the ice; it’s part of our planet, but it also seems like a world unto itself.”
Prior to the start of production on “Happy Feet,” producer Bill Miller embarked on a six-week expedition on a hulking Russian ice-breaker to East Antarctica. “Once I’d experienced for myself what the real thing looked and sounded like, I knew the benchmark for the look and feel of our movie. When final shots began to flow through the digital pipeline, I was thrilled to see that, collectively, we had found the mark.”
To fully realize the stunning visuals of this distant frozen world Miller and the production team actually organized two expeditions to the Antarctic continent: One was ship-based to the Antarctica Peninsular with it’s glorious icebergs; the other, with the support of Antarctica New Zealand, was by air to the ‘deep ice’ of the Ross Sea.
“While gorgeous, Antarctica is one of the most inhospitable places in the world,” notes production designer Mark Sexton. “It’s practically all ice and rock. So we knew we were going to have very fresh, clean, barren environments. To stay true to the beauty of the place, we needed the best reference materials.”
When Brett Feeney heard there was going to be a trip to Antarctica to acquire photo-real references for the complex environment, he immediately volunteered. “Originally, we did tests to see how the light played on the glacial ice in New Zealand, but then George decided he wanted to really authenticate Antarctica. We took two trips to create a bible of reference material. We gathered over 80,000 images on the treks.”
After several months in the field, Feeney returned with images that would go on to become the universe of “Happy Feet.” “The photo reference materials were hugely important in generating matte paintings,” adds Sexton. “We were excited by the incredible shapes and formations Brett and the expedition crew members harvested. We took all of these amazing ingredients and blended them, so that they seamlessly merged with the textured surfaces we created.”
The result is a carefully designed depiction of a world that moved Feeney from his first step onto the ice. “Getting off the plane at the bottom of the world, you just have tears streaming down your face. It’s awe inspiring…and a magnificent place to work.”
Miller hopes that by bringing the natural beauty of Antarctica to movie audiences in “Happy Feet,” he might inspire them to think about how to protect it. The filmmaker wanted the audience to connect how we treat our environment with its effect on wildlife, both locally and globally.
The idea resonated with cast members. “The world can’t dump its garbage in the ocean because it simply can’t absorb it all,” comments Robin Williams. “It’s a mess out there. If you get out on the open ocean, you’ll see garbage floating all over. We’re poisoning the food chain, and that’s a big deal.”
“There are some real issues we have to face,” adds Elijah Wood. “It’s a beautiful world, and we’re supposed to be living in harmony with these animals and with nature. So it’s important that we take all life into consideration as we share this planet.”
Brittany Murphy echoes her co-star’s sentiments. “One of the many things that I adore about George Miller’s film is that he’s done an extraordinary job of weaving a much-needed environmental message throughout ‘Happy Feet.’ It’s such an important topic, and this film addresses it in spades while keeping its focus on the audience’s entertainment.”
“So many of us worked on this film for so long—what sustained us were the characters, the story and our desire to make something special. When I’m asked what this movie is about, I say that, at the end of the day, it’s for each individual to take whatever meaning they can from any story. For me, ‘Happy Feet’ is about belonging.”
“HAPPY FEET: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE”
“Happy Feet: The IMAX Experience” will be released in IMAX® theatres worldwide, beginning November 17, 2006, simultaneously with the film’s debut in conventional theaters. The film has been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. “Happy Feet” marks the 14th IMAX film release from Warner Bros. Pictures to date.
IMAX Theatres deliver images of unsurpassed clarity and impact, and will enable audiences to experience the toe-tapping music and heart-warming humor of “Happy Feet” on the world’s largest screens, surrounded by state-of-
