The interracial component of “Come Away,” a family film merging classic fairy tales “Peter Pan” and “Alice in Wonderland,” wasn’t in the original script, director Brenda Chapman remembers.
Like the bulk of beloved characters from classic fairy tales, Alice and Peter Pan, who are siblings here, were white.
Mill Valley’s Chapman changed that and, in the process, expanded the scope of Marissa Kate Goodhill’s enchanting screenplay. The film, which received a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, opens Nov. 13 in limited theatrical release as well as on various streaming platforms.
Chapman says the main impetus for the change came when a particular actor’s name — “Selma’s” David Oyelowo — got bandied about for the part of the siblings’ dreamer (and gambler) of a father, Jack. She first dismissed the idea.
“I thought, ‘Oh that’s too bad, he’s a really good actor. In my head I thought I needed to find a white actor.”
Then the light bulb went off: Did she really need to make the dad white?
“I went through the whole story in my head and I thought, ‘Well this could still work,’ and we didn’t have to change a word in the script.”
Chapman realized that by making Peter and Alice the children of parents played by Oyelowo and Angelina Jolie, a closed, antiquated door would fling open, allowing for diversity on-screen in children’s fairy tales.
“What I loved was opening up this story for kids who can now relate to these characters and see themselves within these characters and open this world for them that was exclusive for too long,” she said in a recent interview. “It wasn’t your traditional whitewashed period film anymore … not that the story was a typical film.”
That revision also upped the authenticity to “Come Away,” accurately reflecting Victorian England’s populace, Chapman says.
“London was a melting pot and actually our depiction of this family isn’t unrealistic,” she says.
While producers embraced Chapman’s choice, the shoot itself wasn’t an easy one and turned into a learning experience for the director, who had worked exclusively on animated features before — including Pixar’s “Brave,” which won her an Oscar in 2013, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. Previous to that Chapman became the first woman to co-direct a major studio’s animated film, DreamWorks’ “The Prince of Egypt” (1998). She also worked on a number of Disney productions: “The Lion King,” “The Rescuers Down Under,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
What she particularly missed about working on an animated feature while directing “Come Away” was the pre-editing process, “where I could just work the story over and over again.”
The hardest adjustment, though, was coping with “behind the scenes politics.”
“It was a completely different animal and I was just not prepared for that,” she says.
“Things would happen that I would have assumed they would have included me in (conversations) that they didn’t,” she adds. “I don’t know if it was just me being a first-time director and not knowing I had to stay on top of it. Or it was an independent film so we just had to go fast on a shoestring budget.”
Far more fulfilling was working with the cast, including Oyelowo, Jolie, Michael Caine, Anna Chancellor and Gugu Mbatha Raw, among others.
“That part was just wonderful,” she said. She was also exhilarated watching the talented youngsters in the cast acting just like kids.
“It was just great to let them just play and not have to design every single movement that they made,” she said. “They were just free. That was a big difference. In animation, you plan out absolutely everything. Letting what happens in the day happen was a little bit freeing in some ways.”
Chapman fell in love with the screenplay when she read it. Like some of her favorite animated features, “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid,” the story whisked audiences into a fairy tale world.
As for directing another live-action feature, it’s not at the top of her to-do list. For now, she’s concentrating on writing a book — a fable, of course — that was inspired by her older sister. She hopes to animate it as well.
In between that, Chapman and her husband Kevin Lima — who directed Amy Adams in “Enchanted” and made Disney’s “Tarzan” — will continue to pursue family-friendly entertainment under their ‘Twas Entertainment production company.
During a period normally decked out with family films with the approaching holidays, this pandemic era has limited the release of family-friendly offerings. Exceptions include Come Away,” “The Croods: A New Age” (Nov. 25) and “Soul” (Dec. 25 on Disney+).
Fewer family films, particularly live-action ones, are getting made. Even though some are popping up on streaming channels.
“I don’t know if they’ve gone out of fashion or what,” Chapman said. “We have what we feel are so many wonderful projects but studios don’t feel that interested. They want the next ‘Hamilton!’ or the next ‘Star Wars.’ It’s kind of laughable. We have some room for other things.”
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
‘COME AWAY’
Live-action drama drawn from “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan”
Rating: PG
Cast: Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jordan Nash, Anna Chancellor, Clarke Peters, Michael Caine
Director: Brenda Chapman
Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes
When & where: Opens Nov. 13 in limited theaters and on streaming platforms
