Mildred (Nell Fisher, EVIL DEAD RISE) is a precocious eleven year-old old Kiwi, an only-child raised by a solo mother, who escapes her humdrum existence by immersing into literary adventures. Her long-dreamed quest is to capture proof that the mythological beast known as The Canterbury Panther exists, proof that would result in a substantial cash reward. When an accident occurs leaving her mother hospitalised, her long absent father and washed up illusionist Strawn Wise (Elijah Wood, LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) flies down to look after Mildred whom he’s never met. This unlikely pair agree to go camping together while mum recuperates. A child who has read every outdoor guide but never been camping, and a magician more comfortable inside Las Vegas bars, are thrown together in the ultimate test of family bonding in the New Zealand wilderness.
With Bookworm hitting Australian cinemas on August 29, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s director, Ant Timpson, about his favourite adventure films, good fart jokes, and working with Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher.
Nick: This film genuinely reminded me of the adventure films that I grew up watching. One of my favourite films is The Goonies, and I love that it doesn’t feel safe or pandering. And I felt the same way watching Bookworm! What were some of the films you watched, or perhaps inspired, that feeling in this film?
Ant Timpson: I mean, it’s a really low stakes The Goonies, that’s for sure! I wish we had the budget to play on that film. But yeah, I grew up in the “wilderness” era of film. The Wilderness Family and Sea Gypsies. There was a whole string of these pretty big hits from the early 70s onwards that were kind of like family in jeopardy movies. Family against nature, kind of vibe.
The first one I remember seeing was The Swiss Family Robinson, which has some wild, crazy animal footage which PETA would probably explode if they saw it today! I just got obsessed with these types of films. I just loved that idea of escaping suburbia and just roaming around. Having the freedom as a kid to roam around.
When I was younger, I had a couple of adventures with my cousins’ way down in the South Island of New Zealand, and it’s kind of a tribute to that era, where kids weren’t sort of helicopter parented or cotton wooled completely. Like, the radius of the protection circle that parents had for their kids back then was miles and miles. Whereas now, it’s literally the home boundary where they feel their kids are safe.
So, this is a tribute to that freedom that we used to have as kids. We felt like there was an adventure over the hill every day, you know? And technology has kind of taken away the mystery of that sense of adventure. You can just Google what’s around the next hill! You don’t need to go look anymore.
Nick: I think extending that adventurous boundary extends the films we watched growing up too! I have somewhat of a chicken-or-egg questions – but Bookworm is a film that deals with a few storylines and themes. We have the desperate dad trying to redeem himself. We have the daughter trying to save her mother. And all of that is tied together by the search for this Canterbury panther. What was the initial genesis of the film, and how did you interweave all of this plot points together?
Ant Timpson: Toby Harvard, the guy I work with in the UK, we just have a really similar sensibility in terms of a lot of literature and film and TV history growing up. We’re both heavy on nostalgia. So, we mine that a lot for inspiration.
But in terms of that sort of kernel of the idea really came from a singular fear from us as parents just not stepping up in a time of crisis, right? We call it “shitting the bed”. I don’t know what you guys call it…
Nick: We’d call it “shitting the bed” as well!
Ant Timpson: Yeah, so I had a specific family vacation where it was supposed to be a really lovely outing with my kids when they were a lot younger that ended with an emergency call out, and just crazy craziness. But also seeing my kids looking to me to be the movie hero in that situation, and just me having a total freak out because all you do is be so concerned that you just can’t hide it.
So, I thought, as we do with all stuff, we deal with minor trauma with humour. Later on, it becomes a great story around the pub or whatever. So, Toby and I kind of use our personal, minor traumas to mine for comedic effects. And we just thought about how we could amplify that kind of feeling, that sort of singular idea and catch it in the framework of a genre film.
We worked even on how we could emasculate the dad even more; you know? Let’s make him like a has been illusionist from LA, and then his daughter being a really smart, very capable, precocious kid. Which is a trope, but how could we do our spin on it? So, Elijah [Wood], for good or bad, has become kind of an avatar for Toby and myself to hang all our neuroses on. We’ve done it for two films [this and Come to Daddy], now we’re probably going to do another one with him as well.
Nick: You’ve gotta round out the trilogy, right?
Ant Timpson: We’ve got to! It’s called the “Trembling Man Trilogy”!
Nick: I love that this trilogy has the dark comedy thriller not for kids, and now a family friendly film. I’m excited for what’s next! You mentioned the “precocious daughter”, and Nell Fisher is absolutely brilliant in the role. What was it about Nell that you found early on that worked for the role?
Ant Timpson: Look, she’s special on screen and off screen. She’s just incredible, super confident. We did look at 300 children for the part, so it wasn’t like Nell was just plucked out of a lineup. She went through the hard yards, and there was a lot of great talent. But, honestly, she was just perfect for the role.
When we started chatting initially, I just felt she inhabited some of the character naturally. She just got it. She’s such a clever kid. It’s such an old hack saying, but she is an adult crammed into the body of an 11-year-old. She has the wisdom of an adult. She’s just so confident.
Even on the first chemistry read with Elijah, there was just no intimidation at all. She was very chill with him. She even had a similar look to Elijah, so you could buy them as father and daughter, which certainly helps.
She was even giving me script notes after a few days of filming, which I thought was pretty cool. And she was the only kid on set! She was surrounded by adults but still had that ability to take time to ask questions. She’s on her way to be massive.
Nick: I loved the opening credits of this film, which kind of tells a whole story in itself to set up the journey the audience is about to go on. What was the process in not just having a really creative opening credits sequence, but one that also gives information to the audience?
Ant Timpson: Honestly, it was just to set up her enclave and make it feel sort of like this boxed in environment. Because when we blow up to anamorphic later, we wanted her world to really kind of feel big all of a sudden. But in her study, we wanted it to feel like an old man’s study. It’s got a very grandpa nature to it. Like, someone has designed it so they want to spend all their time in that world.
So, the title sequence is really honing in on all of these objects that kind of show that she’s an odd kid. She’s an outlier. She’s got all of these adult pursuits and interests and curiosity. You get the sense of someone who wants to know a lot about the world, but also has a little jungle in her room. Which was kind of cool, like this little biosphere that you would buy.
Then it was just fun to have the world open up for her. We go out to this big, Western style canvas and anamorphic shot when the title drops. That was just a great transition. It was like a The Wizard of Oz moment, blowing out her world. Suddenly, we’re in an adventure zone, and one the audience really feels in that moment as much as she does.
Nick: One thing I’m a big advocate for in cinema is a great fart joke, of which Bookworm does have. So, I always have to ask filmmakers who do feature fart jokes in their films – what’s the difference between a good fart joke, and a bad fart joke?
Ant Timpson: [laughs] I mean, it’s all about the reaction. It’s not the fart itself. To be honest, my editor wanted to kill me because we went through thousands of unnecessary fart sounds before choosing the right one. But it’s more about the reaction of either the farter or “fart-ee”.
Nick: I’ve never heard it put that way, but I think that’s how I will phrase it from now on!
Ant Timpson: Look, it’s low hanging fruit, but we’re aiming for audiences from 8 to 80, so we wanted to have all these things that would play to everyone. Farts are a great community builder.
And they work. It’s the same reason why they’ve always worked from Blazing Saddles on through. One of my icons in Leslie Neilsen, and he took fart gags to a new level. Not just in his films, but in his real life! He had a fart box he would use in interviews. I miss that dude so much! Look, we could talk about farts all day.
But, Elijah, to be honest, he was like, “Really? Do we have to do a fart gag?” Of course we do! It’s for the 8-year-olds, mate, not you! And his apologetic response really makes me laugh. I really love that moment in the film.
Nick: As did I! As we close out Ant, I read that you have an incredible collection of 35mm prints in a secret vault cinema. I’d love to know how that collection started, and why preserving film is so important to you?
Ant Timpson: Yeah, I mean, I don’t recommend it for anyone else to get into! It’s like a really bad virus to get. They’re not like records, man, which are slight and thin, versus 35mm prints which really become a problem in terms of storage and maintaining.
But I got hooked in the late 80s. I think I got my first print, and just loved the analogue nature of it. The texture of it, handling film. You just feel a part of cinema history just handling film. Then you get the addicted to the flicker, threading it up, the whole shebang of it.
16mm is a lot easier for most people to step into, but once you get up to 35… man. And it’s also about preservation. There was a lot of stuff being junked, and I just started honing in on really obscure titles, exploitation and genre stuff, and then built it up from there.
There’s also not point in having it just housed away. You’ve got to be able to show audiences, and that’s why I got behind the Incredibly Strange Film Festival. Starting that was really just about that communal nature of watching wild stuff with an audience, you know?
Nick: And honestly, if there was two films that I feel like would look awesome on film, it would be Bookworm and Come to Daddy…
Ant Timpson: Oh, man, don’t rub it in! We wanted to shoot both on film! I’m such a cinephile and I really wanted them to be these analogue films. They were that in my head. We did do some nice post work to try and get that sort of look, but its not the real deal.
Nick: I still think they invoke that spirit though! Thank you so much for your time, man! I’m a fan of your work. I watched The ABCs of Death way too young! So chatting with you has been a pleasure.
Ant Timpson: Thank you! I mean, Deathgasm 2 is being shot in Canada as we speak! And Toby and I have been talking about doing another horror film for ages. So, we might end up back here.
Nick: I’ll be there opening day, and I hope we get to talk about it when it pops up!
Thank you so much to Ant for his time, and to Rialto Distribution and NedCo PR for organsing the chat. Bookworm is in cinemas August 29.
