Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:06, 15 April 2007

Big Fish
File:Big Fish movie.jpg
Directed by	Tim Burton
Written by	John August & Daniel Wallace (novel)
Produced by	Bruce Cohen Dan Jinks Richard D. Zanuck
Starring	Ewan McGregor Billy Crudup Albert Finney Jessica Lange Alison Lohman Matthew McGrory Helena Bonham Carter Steve Buscemi Danny DeVito
Music by	Danny Elfman
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	December 10 2003
Running time	125 mins
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70 million

Big Fish is a 2003 film directed by Tim Burton and written by John August, starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup and Jessica Lange. It is loosely based on the novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace.

Big Fish received four Golden Globe nominations and one Oscar nomination for Danny Elfman's original score. The film is much less gothic than some of Burton's other works such as Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Edward Bloom tells his son Will the same tale over the years: on the day he was born, he was out catching an enormous uncatchable fish with his wedding ring. By the time he tells this at his Will's wedding reception, their relationship has become strained with numerous tall tales. They do not speak to each other for three years, as Will becomes a journalist in Paris. When his father's health starts to fail, Will and his wife Josephine return to Alabama. On the plane, Will recalls his father's tale of how he braved a swamp as a child, and met a witch who showed him his death in her glass eye. With this knowledge, Edward knows there are no odds he cannot face.

Edward still has a knack for tall tales. He says that as a child, he spends the better part of three years confined to a bed, with his body growing incredibly fast. He becomes a successful sports player but still finds the town of Ashton too small for his ambition. Finding a kindred spirit in the misunderstood giant Karl, they set off. He takes an abandoned path down a supposedly haunted forest, feeling he never wishes to return to Ashton anyway. He discovers the tiny town of Spectre, where the missing poet Norther Winslow has settled with people so friendly they don't wear shoes. Bloom still feels he doesn't want to settle anywhere yet and leaves, but promises to the young girl Jenny that he will return. At the circus Karl signs up with Amos Calloway, and time stops as Will sees the love of his life. As time speeds up again and he loses her, he promises to work for Amos day and night without pay to learn who she is. Every month for three years he learns something new about her, but never her name or address. Edward discovers Amos is a werewolf but instead of killing him, plays fetch. For his kindness, Amos says her name is Sandra Templeton and she is at Auburn University.

Edward learns from Sandra that she is engaged to Don Price, a loser from Ashton. He makes many attempts to show his love for her, getting five companies to plant a field of daffodils for her, to make her fall for him. Don appears and beats up Edward, forcing Sandra to force over her engagement ring. During his recovery in hospital, Edward is conscripted by the army, and goes to Korea. Instead of taking his assigned mission, he instead parachutes into a theater entertaining troops, and convinces conjoined dancers Ping and Jing to help him get back to America, where he'll make them stars. Believing him to be dead, the army tells Sandra Edward is dead, leaving her in grief, but Edward returns. Being legally dead means that his work choices are limited, and he becomes a travelling salesman. Meeting Winslow again, he is forced to help him rob a bank, which is bankrupt. Winslow decides to instead head for Wall Street, and becomes successful, sending $10,000 to his "career adviser" to buy a house.

Still unimpressed by his father's stories, Will demands to know the truth. Edward tries to explain that is who he is: he tells stories. Will, feeling that his father had another family during his travels, looks through Edward's old office, and finds letters of when he supposedly died, and a letter of interest to Spectre. Going there, Will meets an older Jenny, now a widowed piano teacher. She explains that like many towns Spectre went bankrupt, and Edward bought it at an auction after being delayed by a flood. He then helped the town repair itself with money from his previous acquaintances. She also explains that she tried to cheat with Edward, but Sandra was the only woman for him.

Coming home, Will discovers his father has had a stroke and is at the hospital. There, Will tells Edward a story of his own: escaping from the hospital, they go to the river where everybody in Edward's life shows up, some unaged, to greet him on his last journey. Carrying his weightless father, Will puts him into the river where he becomes a big fish. Edward then peacefully remarks "The story of my life" before dying. At his funeral, Will sees many of his father's friends, and that there was some grain of truth in his tales. He sees Amos, Karl, Ping and Jing and Norther Winslow amongst others, although Karl, while very tall, is not a giant and Ping and Jing are not conjoned. When he has his own son, Will passes on his father's stories, remarking that his father became his stories after telling them for so often. Template:Endspoiler

Cast

• Ewan McGregor as the young Edward Bloom
• Albert Finney as the older Edward Bloom
• Billy Crudup as Will Bloom
• Alison Lohman as the young Sandra Bloom
• Jessica Lange as the older Sandra Bloom
• Helena Bonham Carter as Jenny. Carter also played an elderly Witch who gives Bloom a vision of his death as a child.
• Robert Guillaume as Dr. Bennett
• Marion Cotillard as Joséphine: Will's pregnant wife from France.
• Matthew McGrory as Karl the Giant
• David Denman as Don Price aged 18-22
• Missi Pyle as Mildred
• Loudon Wainwright III as Beamen
• Ada Tai and Arlene Tai as Ping and Jing: Siamese twins from Korea (though they spoke Cantonese).
• Steve Buscemi as Norther Winslow: A poet/bank robber/Wall Street stockbroker.
• Danny DeVito as Amos Calloway: A circus ringmaster and a werewolf.
• Perry Waltson as Edward Bloom age 10
• Hailey Anne Nelson as Jenny age 8
• Miley Cyrus as Ruthie age 8

Production

Following the death of his father, screenwriter John August read a manuscript of the novel Big Fish in 1999, and had Columbia Pictures option the book on his behalf. Steven Spielberg signed on to direct in August 2000, and he had August write two drafts, with Jack Nicholson in mind to play the older Edward Bloom. August worked hard to make the episodic book into a cohesive story, deciding to have several narators, and then wrote a third draft after Spielberg was becoming distracted with other projects. Producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen sent the third draft to Tim Burton, who signed on in April 2002 to direct.

Burton had never been particularily close to his parents, but his father's death in October 2000 and his mother's in March 2002 affected him deeply. Following Planet of the Apes' production, he wanted to get back to making a smaller film. Burton enjoyed the script, feeling that it was the first completely under the radar story he was offered since Beetlejuice. Burton also found appeal in the story's combination of an emotional drama with exaggerated tall tales. Burton met up with Jack Nicholson, and briefly discussed using computers to allow him to play a younger version of himself. After that, Burton began the difficult process of casting two actors as the same character, which meant filming was pushed from October 2002 to January 2003.

Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney were cast first as the younger and older Edward Bloom respectively on August 1 2002. The combination was suggested by producers Jinks and Cohen who were working with McGregor on Down with Love, and Burton got on with him, finding him quite similar to regular colleague Johnny Depp. Viewing Finney's performance in Tom Jones, Burton found him similar to McGregor, and ironically he found a People article comparing the two. Most of the cast were assembled by November. As with her character's introduction, Alison Lohman had to stand still for two minutes during her audition.

Filming on Big Fish began on January 13 2003 and ended in early May. Production was based in Montgomery, Alabama. All of Albert Finney's scenes as the elder Edward Bloom were shot first due to the emotional difficulty of his scenes. McGregor was on set from the beginning and observed Finney. Afterward, shooting took on a livelier, more enjoyable state as Burton and McGregor shot scenes of varying genre. Shooting in Alabama finished in April, and moved to Paris for a single week before wrapping.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

Soundtrack

• See: Big Fish (soundtrack).

References

1. ^ Mark Salisbury (2006). "Big Fish". Burton on Burton. Faber and Faber. pp. 203–22. ISBN 0-571-22926-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
2. Brian Linder (2000-08-10). "Spielberg Reels in Big Fish". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. Steven Awalt (2002-04-30). "'Big Fish' dead on the hook for Spielberg". SpielbergFilms. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. ^ Greg Dean Schmitz. "Big Fish - Greg's Preview". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
5. Stax (2002-08-01). "Two Big Fish Caught". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. Fred Topel (2003-12-09). "Tim Burton Reels in Big Fish". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Stax (2002-10-15). "More Big Fish". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official homepage at Sony Pictures
• Big Fish at IMDb
• Big Fish at Rotten Tomatoes
• Big Fish at Box Office Mojo
• Big Fish at Metacritic
• A Father's Myth: The Meaning of Big Fish]

• 2003 films
• Drama films
• Fantasy-comedy films
• Comedy-drama films
• Films based on fantasy books
• Films directed by Tim Burton
• Werewolves in film and television
• English-language films