Early this year I went to London to do some New Line set visits. The one for The Golden Compass was, much like the movie, not very good. But the other set I visited was a movie I had never even heard of – Inkheart. In it Brendan Fraser and his cinematical daughter have the power to read things out of books into reality. Unfortunately they read a particularly nasty bad guy out of one book and then have to spend the film’s running time trying to get him back there.
I was impressed with the sets that we saw, and I liked the basic concept of the story. Also, they let us see a trained dog and a trained ferret in action, and I’m a big sissy for that stuff. We also had a chance to meet the film’s great cast, which includes Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany and Andy Serkis (a big improvement over The Golden Compass where we got to talk to pretty much nobody). I had a great time on that set, and the energy that I saw was promising.
Now the first trailer for Inkheart is out and I think that energy may have translated. The film is obviously aimed at a young audience, so don’t judge it like you would every other geek movie – think about this as one for the kids. If you have kids. If you don’t have kids, don’t find some to take to this. You know what they do to kiddie feelers in prison?
Click here to see the trailer. I kind of got psyched when I saw the Andy Serkis duct tape bit – we were on set when they were filming that.