HER LATEST YOUNG ADULT MOVIE PROJECT “THE BOOK THIEF”
From Karen Rosenfelt, producer of blockbuster young adult movies such as the
“Twilight” saga, “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,” “Alvin and the
Chipmunks” and “The Devil Wears Prada” bring another potential hit among the
young and the young at heart in the upcoming endearing movie “The Book Thief,”
starring Sophie Nelisse with acclaimed award-winning actors Geoffrey Rush and
Emily Watson.
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| Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
Based on the beloved bestselling novel, “The Book Thief” tells the inspiring
story of a spirited and courageous young girl named Liesel, who transforms the
lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a foster family in
World War II Germany. For Liesel, the power of words and of imagination
becomes a means of escape – and even joy – from the tumultuous events
enveloping her and everyone she knows and loves. She is “The Book Thief’s”
heart and soul. Indeed, it is heart and soul – as well as triumph
and perseverance—that drive the film, which is rich in themes and characters that
will resonate for every generation. A moving and poignant portrait of the
resiliency of the human spirit, this life-affirming tale contrasts innocence
(as embodied by Liesel) with the pervasive tyranny that marked the times and
her homeland.
It’s the culmination of a journey that began in a coffee shop, with producer
Karen Rosenfelt. Having shepherded the blockbusting “Twilight” and “Percy
Jackson” franchises to the big screen, her interest in “The Book Thief” was
piqued by an article she’d read in the Wall Street Journal.“It sounded
immediately interesting,” says Rosenfelt.
She sought out the book, and charged through it in a single weekend. Within
weeks, she had brought the book to Fox and the project had been optioned. “It
was then a seven year journey to get to where we are today,” she reflects. “We
wanted to be very careful because it was such a special book. We only had one
writer and one director on board during the entire process.”
Finding the right director to do justice to the material was crucial. Brian
Percival’s work will be familiar to any of the millions of viewers worldwide
hooked on the period television drama “Downton Abbey.” Percival says he was
attracted to “The Book Thief” because it didn’t reflect every other film about
this period in history. “We didn’t want to set out to make another Holocaust
story,” he insists. “This is about a young girl growing up and it’s about our
human experience. One of the most heartwarming things I felt while reading it
was this overwhelming sense of the human spirit and just what that can
overcome.”
It also, he suggests, provides a new perspective on death. “Because death is
portrayed in a rye, slightly humorous way, and it’s not the terrifying vision
of almost-hell that we’re sometimes given, a lot of people have approached
Markus after reading the book to say, ‘I’m no longer quite so scared of Death
as I was before.’”
With the film focusing ever more centrally on the titular Book Thief, it was
essential that the filmmakers found the right young actress to play Liesel. In
the end, the suggestion came from the man that had created the character in the
first place, Markus Zusak. “I’d seen Sophie Nélisse in the film MONSIEUR
LAZHAR,” he remembers, “and I remember saying to my wife, ‘Hey, that’s Liesel.’
You look at Sophie and you can’t imagine anyone else playing the
character.” But with the highly experienced actors Geoffrey Rush
and Emily Watson on set, playing Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Nélisse has the
benefit of a master class in performance to fall back on. They were the
filmmakers’ first choices, and both admit they were swept up in Zusak’s
narrative.
Says Rush, “Markus Zusak, who’s a Sydney boy, based it on the stories that he
was told when he was in his adolescence by his grandparents. I had never heard
of it, and I’m sort of surprised, because I subsequently learned from my
17-year-old daughter that all her friends had said, ‘Oh, is your dad going to
be in THE BOOK THIEF? That book changed my life.’ It’s one of those phenomena.”
“I’m so thrilled to be doing this,” says Watson. “When I read the script I
thought it was one of the best I’d read in years, and I really thought this was
a character to get my teeth into. There wasn’t really much debate in my head.”
It
was this moment that grabbed Watson. “You start by perceiving the story from a
child’s point of view, and Rosa is the wicked stepmother. She’s an archetype.
But then there’s a really interesting moment where it tells the story of the
war from the point of view of very, very ordinary German people who are not
buying the Nazi ideology, even though they’re caught up in it. For Rosa, it’s
not because she’s particularly radical, she’s just getting on with her life
when this moral choice lands on her doorstep. She has a split second to make a
decision about which way to go.”
Rush
recognized immediately that the story of THE BOOK THIEF is an uplifting one.
“It shouldn’t be all dour and dark,” he insists. “From Liesel’s point of view,
it’s like she’s entered a Grimm’s fairytale. She’s going into the dark forest
of young adulthood and she meets a nice woodcutter, and a rather mean
stepmother. And then, the more the film goes on, hopefully we’re rounding out
those characters so that they have bigger dimensions.”
But for all the artists involved in putting THE BOOK THIEF together, the story
remains rested on the shoulders of one little girl, who goes for another take on
the Babelsberg back-lot. As Percival calls “cut”, Rush reflects on just how
much talent he sees in Nélisse. “She’s sparky off-camera, but on-camera she
looks almost as if she’s this cool existential philosopher, taking life as it
comes. They’re very tiny little threads she plays with, but she has so much
subtle, beautiful, engaging stuff going on in her mind. “The camera just
loves her.”
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