Taglines: If you think you know the story, you don’t know Jack.
Taglines: If you think you know the story, you don’t know Jack.
Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack (Nicholas Hoult) into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.
Jack the Giant Slayer (previously titled Jack the Giant Killer) is an American fantasy adventure film based on the English fairy tales “Jack the Giant Killer” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”. The film is directed by Bryan Singer with a screenplay written by Darren Lemke, Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney and stars Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy and Ewan McGregor. The film tells the story of Jack, a young farmhand who must rescue a princess from a race of giants after inadvertently opening a gateway to their world.
About the Production (2013)
Fee… Fye… Foe… Fumm.
Ask not whence the thunder comes.
Between Heaven and Earth is a perilous place,
home to a fearsome giant race.
Like people of all ages the world over, director/producer Bryan Singer grew up on thrilling tales of adventure, of good and evil, and bold voyagers seeking fortune or fighting for their lives in worlds ruled by beasts and monsters.
Among them was the story of a young man named Jack who confronts a gruesome giant bent on grinding his bones into bread. “What appealed to me about the story then, as now, was how deceptively simple it was, and yet how fantastic and full of potential,” Singer says.
It’s a tale that has endured for generations. Known by different names in myriad cultures dating at least as far back as the 12th century, its details have evolved with local lore and various retellings, but its power always lay in the way it played upon our love of heroes and our deepest fears. It was this fertile ground from which sprung the big-screen adventure “Jack the Giant Slayer,” a familiar tale given new dimension, with freshly rendered characters that draw audiences into a larger world of peril and destiny.
“The impetus for me was to bring a legend to life in a big, physical way. To take what was a childhood abstraction or some illustrations in a storybook and make them real in their full scope and scale, with action and drama and a beanstalk five miles high,” says Singer, who applied the most advanced filmmaking technology available to the task, graphically depicting the interaction of man and giant, and creating the story’s rich terrains with the fullness and impact they deserve.
“We’re telling our own tale, loosely based on stories like Jack and the Beanstalk and the older and darker Jack the Giant Killer, which grew up around the legends of King Arthur,” he continues, “combining elements of both and introducing our own lore to give it a context and history and to bring these characters and this world to life in a dynamic way, with a kind of heightened realism.”
Notes producer Neal H. Moritz, “We knew we had something special with the script, but that’s only one part of it. We were lucky to have someone of Bryan’s skill and vision to take it to the next level and elevate it from the perception of being just a children’s story. When people see these images I believe they will realize this is a big, epic journey with huge giants and huge themes, humor and romance, amazing action and spectacular visual effects that anyone can enjoy.”
“Essentially, it’s everything you remember — and more,” says Nicholas Hoult, who first worked with Singer on “X-Men: First Class,” and stars in the title role. “We’re firing crossbows, zip-lining across huge divides, swinging from vines and dodging flaming trees that the giants uproot and hurl at us. You never know what to expect.”
Singer’s version begins faithfully with the classic arc of a poor, ordinary farmhand who accepts the unlikely barter of a handful of beans for his horse and soon finds himself in possession of a mighty beanstalk — a living, vertical highway that leads him into a land where giants roam. Though unprepared for the dangers that await him there, he rises to the challenge, relying not only on his strength but also on his wits and courage to face the man-eating monsters of nightmare.
“It’s important that Jack be someone who the audience can identify with,” says producer David Dobkin, who also shares story credit with screenwriter Darren Lemke, and has long been a fan of the what he calls “the David and Goliath element of the tale. I think most people see themselves as the underdog. We all share the feeling that forces in life are bigger than us and that we often have little control. Jack is not a super-hero, he’s an everyman; he has dreams and some idea of what he’s capable of, but until now he’s never been tested. So we root for him because we want him to succeed and show us it’s possible.”
“Overcoming the obstacles in his path, Jack proves, time and again, that heroes aren’t born, but made, and that — much like the beanstalk, itself — from small beginnings, big things can come,” adds Lemke.
But who exactly is Jack; where does he come from and what does his future hold even if the giants are vanquished? What would motivate a man to climb a precarious bridge into the sky? Addressing these questions takes us into the fictional medieval hamlet of Cloister, his home. Here, he fatefully crosses paths with the fiery Princess Isabelle, one of several newly introduced characters, played by Eleanor Tomlinson. The two forge a powerful and immediate connection, so that when Isabelle is taken into the giants’ world, Jack doesn’t hesitate to join with Ewan McGregor’s gallant Elmont to rescue her.
“Bryan is truly an actors’ director,” says Moritz. “He really gets in there and helps them get the soul and spirit of the characters onto the screen. I think the relationship between Jack and Isabelle — and the chemistry between Nick Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson in those roles — is an essential element and that’s something Bryan is very good at bringing out.”
Likewise central is Jack’s relationship with his would-be mentor, Elmont, which follows its own comical and ultimately rewarding path. It begins by offering Jack a glimpse of what Ewan McGregor describes as “the kind of job he would have aspired to, if he’d ever had the opportunity to achieve that kind of status in his world,” and ends with the promise of true friendship, after the two have been to hell and back together.
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Warwick Davis, Bill Nighy, Caroline Hayes
Screenplay by: Mark Bomback, David Dobkin
Production Design by: Gavin Bocquet
Cinematography by: Newton Thomas Sigel
Film Editing by: Bob Ducsay, John Ottman
Costume Design by: Joanna Johnston
Set Decoration by: Richard Roberts
Music by: John Ottman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense scenes of fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief language.
Studio: New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Visits: 63
