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The following are two interviews with Penelope director Mark Palansky and Penelope screenwriter Leslie Caveny. Mark and Leslie guide viewers through the process of directing and writing for the live action film Penelope. This is a great video to show in your classroom to learn more about the different roles involved in producing a film and the process of producing a film from idea to fruition.
Penelope is a picture-perfect romantic fable featuring a wonderful cast, a great sense of humour and a generous heart.
Fables have a habit of starting with a curse from the past, and Penelope is no exception. Centuries ago, a witch proclaimed that the next girl born to the aristocratic Wilhern family will have the nose of a pig. Generations pass, until Jessica (Catherine O'Hara) and Franklin (Richard E. Grant) lose the sorcery lottery. Their otherwise lovely daughter, Penelope (Christina Ricci), has a porcine snout. After the London gutter press, led by ferocious cub reporter Lemon (Peter Dinklage), gets a misleadingly scary photo of the sweet thing, her parents lock her away in a beautiful mansion.
The curse can be lifted, it is said, if Penelope marries a man of her own class but, despite their enormous wealth, her parents cannot find a suitor. Bewildered gentlemen end up flinging themselves through windows the second they see her - until Max (James McAvoy) comes along. He is a blue-blood addicted to gambling, with a sad heart and a devil-may-care attitude. Though he has a dastardly ulterior motive for meeting Penelope, the two become unlikely friends.
Penelope trades charmingly on familiar storytelling traditions, but it is also briskly modern in unexpected ways. The film is as much about celebrity culture and media manipulation as it is a princess story. Its second half also features a marvellous detour into a girl buddy movie when Penelope, now out in the world, meets tough-as-nails delivery girl Annie, played with hilarious aplomb by Reese Witherspoon. Last year's Academy Award® winner for best actress is a producer of Penelope, and much of the film's charm reflects her charmingly old-fashioned, playful persona.
While the rest of the cast is also superb, it is Ricci who leaves the longest-lasting impression: playing the shy, unsure and hesitant Penelope challenges her to go against her swaggering image. The result is glorious, revealing an inspirational heroine who, one hopes, can in turn inspire a new canon of life- and love-affirming stories.
Mark Palansky - Born in Toronto and raised in Los Angeles, Mark studied fine art and philosophy at the University of California at San Diego. He has directed and produced the short films Shutter (98) and The Same (01). Penelope (06) is his first feature film.
Executive Producer: Robin Greenspun, Danny Greenspun, Andrew Molasky, Chris Curling, Christian Arnold-Beutel, Dylan Russell, Michael Roban
Producer: Reese Witherspoon, Scott Steindorff, Jennifer Simpson
Screenplay: Leslie Caveny
Cinematographer: Michel Amathieu
Editor: Jon Gregory
Production Designer: Amanda McArthur
Sound: Matthew Collinge, Danny Sheehan
Music: Joby Talbot
Principal Cast: Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon, Richard E. Grant, Peter Dinklage
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