{"id":9111,"date":"2016-10-29T16:22:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T08:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/?p=9111"},"modified":"2016-10-28T16:31:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T08:31:28","slug":"visually-spectacular-drama-based-on-award-winning-novel-a-monster-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/2016\/10\/29\/visually-spectacular-drama-based-on-award-winning-novel-a-monster-calls\/","title":{"rendered":"Visually Spectacular Drama Based on Award-winning Novel ‘A Monster Calls’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renowned actors Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell and talented young actor Lewis MacDougall star in the entrancing drama \u201cA Monster Calls\u201d based on the novel by Patrick Ness of the same title.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"_MG_5971.CR2\"<\/p>\n

Lewis Mcdougall and Felicity Jones<\/em><\/p>\n

Directed by acclaimed and award-winning J.A. Bayona, best known for his nightmare-inducing \u201cThe Orphanage\u201d and the catastrophic \u201cThe Impossible,\u201d his latest movie \u201cA Monster Calls\u201d is a deeply-felt coming-of-age story of a young boy who must come to terms with her mother\u2019s impending death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA Monster Calls\u2019\u201d screenplay adaptation is by the book\u2019s author, Patrick Ness. Mr. Ness wrote the novel from an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd.\u00a0 The story had originated with Dowd but she succumbed to cancer soon after starting it. Ness reflects, \u201cSiobhan wrote magnificent books, ones that teenagers deeply responded to; A Monster Calls was to have been her fifth. She had an opening; 1,000 words; an idea for a structure; and a few characters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"lewis-macdougall-and-sigourney-weaver-in-a-monster-calls\"<\/p>\n

Lewis Macdougall and Sigourney Weaver<\/em><\/p>\n

Bayona feels that \u201cthe book speaks about death in a direct and darker way. For the film, I wanted to transcend what we know is coming \u2013 the death of Conor\u2019s mother \u2013 and be able to fuse the boy\u2019s need to draw with the strength of legacy. There is light at the end of the story, resulting from the idea that art heals. Patrick\u2019s screenplay has added themes while still being faithful to the novel; in making the movie, there are some elements of the book that we have taken further.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Young lead actor Lewis MacDougall as Connor was brought to the production\u2019s attention; he had only just finished filming his first movie, \u201cPan.\u201d Ness was shown MacDougall\u2019s audition video and saw that \u201che was such a find, so true and so focused. You could read everything on that face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Academy Award nominated-actress Sigourney Weaver was sought for the role of Conor\u2019s maternal grandmother. \u201cI\u2019m a huge admirer of Bayona\u2019s earlier films; I found them so powerful,\u201d she reveals. \u201cIn the book and in the script, Conor says she doesn\u2019t really look like a grandmother, so that was a wonderful place for me to start!<\/span><\/p>\n

When Bayona saw Felicity Jones in her breakout role in \u201cLike Crazy\u201d \u2013 as her Academy Award-nominated portrayal in \u201cThe Theory of Everything\u201d had not yet been screened \u2013 he knew he had found the actress to play the role as Lizzie, Connor\u2019s mom. \u00a0\u00a0Jones took her character to heart. She states, \u201cLizzie is a vibrant, active woman who has never stopped loving art. In her home, there are arts and crafts that reveal her creative spirit. She has loved being a mother to Conor, although she\u2019s a little unconventional.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of Bayona\u2019s approach, Neeson (who voices the Monster) worked alongside Lewis MacDougall so that both actors could share ownership of their scenes together. Neeson reflects, \u201cI\u2019ve worked with children who\u2019ve been swamped by the industry, and they\u2019ve lost a kind of childlike innocence. Lewis has all that intact. He\u2019s still a real kid \u2013 but also a powerful young actor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Further in the production, the director chose not to give his young lead the script page for the very last scene in \u201cA Monster Calls,\u201d so that MacDougall would be able to convey the most natural, authentic response as the events unfolded. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just what Lewis gifted us with,\u201d says Bayona.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA Monster Calls\u201d opens November 2 in cinemas nationwide from Pioneer Films.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is a press release.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renowned actors Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell and talented young actor Lewis MacDougall star in the entrancing drama \u201cA Monster Calls\u201d based on the novel by Patrick Ness of the same title. Lewis Mcdougall and Felicity Jones Directed by acclaimed and award-winning J.A. Bayona, best known for his nightmare-inducing \u201cThe Orphanage\u201d and the catastrophic \u201cThe Impossible,\u201d his latest movie \u201cA Monster Calls\u201d is a deeply-felt coming-of-age story of a young boy who must come to terms with her mother\u2019s impending death.\u00a0 \u201cA Monster Calls\u2019\u201d screenplay adaptation is by the book\u2019s author, Patrick Ness. Mr. Ness wrote the novel from an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-story"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2016\/10\/lewis-macdougall-and-felicity-jones-in-A-MONSTER-CALLS-e1477643406953.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9116,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9111\/revisions\/9116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}