Kicking off the festivities for the live-action presentation this past Saturday at Disney's D23 event was director Ava DuVernay, who is in the midst of editing her huge adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's 1963 children's tale A Wrinkle In Time. She brought some of her cast (including Oprah Winfrey, who conducted an Oprah-style hand out of posters for the audience) and also showed the first teaser trailer for the movie. Find that below, and an image of the poster lower down in the story...The ambitious project is an adaptation of the 1963 children’s classic by Madeleine L'Engle. The film stars Storm Reid as Meg Murry, a young girl whose scientist father (played by Chris Pine) has been missing after disappearing years earlier. The sprawling cast also includes Oprah Winfrey (Mrs. Which), Reese Witherspoon (Mrs. Whatsit), Zach Galifianakis (The Happy Medium) and Mindy Kaling (Mrs. Who).
DuVernay, Reid, Pine, Winfrey and Witherspoon came out to big applause.
They showed off the film's first trailer, which begins with Pine's character in voiceover.
"What if we are here for a reason? What if we are part of something truly divine? Imagine, 91 billion light-years traveled like that," says Pine, before he is shown trapped in a strange room.
The trailer, set to a cover of "Sweet Dreams," features ambitious set pieces and ambitious designs.
From the looks of the trailer, DuVernay has pulled off a massive, magical and complex tale, launching the characters into a weird world and a wider universe. Speaking exclusive to Empire after leaving the stage, DuVernay explained how she approached the adaptation. "It's a re-interpretation of the book, which was a banned book. Madeleine L'Engle's imagination was such that they said, 'ugh... too much, too radical.' So we really just stepped into that and said, we're going to reach into our own imaginations as well and try to move it into a new century. And Disney let us do it. It's different, but hopefully makes you feel the same."
And how was her learning curve, diving into such a complicated, effects-heavy movie? "It was fantastic. There are so many resources and so many talented people that I could say an idea and there was someone that could make it happen! I want to do it again!"
Winfrey also feels that despite the book being best known in the States, it will connect with audiences around the globe. "I think you're going to get wonderful, worldwide reactions, that's what we're hoping for," she told Empire. "Because Ava's re-envisioning of the story allows it to be expanded it to a world of people who might not have read the book, or might not have related to the characters. The level of diversity represented feels inclusive and feels like we are reflecting what the world looks like."
"I saw myself in it, and I saw so many different kinds of people in it," said DuVernay. "A family story wrapped in an epic adventure where you see worlds you've never seen before."
She said of the film's diverse cast that she wanted to assemble a group of people "that looked like you, that looked like the real world."eid, the young star of the film, admitted she was nervous to be at D23 and charmed the audience by referring to her director and co-star by Ms. and Mr., respectively.
"Ms. Ava, of course, is so patient and so hands-on. She made me really feel like Meg. She let me put my creative position in it," said Reid.
"Me and Mr. Chris, we had some intense scenes," she said.
Speaking of Pine, he got applause after being congratulated on the success of Wonder Woman. He admitted he wasn't too familiar with A Wrinkle in Time before being cast in the film, but he was sold after meeting the director at her home.
Witherspoon said she was a huge fan of the book growing up.
"I just thought it was so magical that Ava chose to put her beautiful direction toward this material," said Witherspoon. "She sees the whole world and the beauty of the world."
"When Ava told me it is a character who is one of the wisest women in the universe," Winfrey started, to big laughs, "who wouldn't say yes to that?"
They showed off a new poster for the film, and Winfrey got huge applause by parodying her famous car-giveaway line, yelling, "Everybody gets a poster! And you get a poster! And you get a poster!"
A Wrinkle in Time features a script written by Frozen's Jennifer Lee.
Young actress Storm Reid stars as Meg Murry, with an all-star cast of adult actors backing her up, including the cosmic trio of Oprah Winfrey as Mrs. Which, Reese Witherspoon as Mrs. Whatsit, and Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Who. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Chris Pine play Meg’s parents, Dr. Kate Murry and the mysteriously-missing Dr. Alex Murry. Newcomer Deric McCabe plays Meg’s gifted little brother, Charles Wallace.
We’re so excited for this movie, we’re gonna overlook the fact that the trailer contains yet another use of an edgy remake of a familiar pop song as its background music. A Wrinkle in Time will be out March 9, 2018.
Post a Comment