Stardust (2007 film)
Stardust is a 2007 romantic fantasy adventure film directed by Matthew Vaughn and co-written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. Based on Neil Gaiman's 1999 novel, it features an ensemble cast led by Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, with narration by Ian McKellen.
The film follows Tristan, a young man from the fictional town of Wall in England. Wall is a town on the border of the magical fantasy kingdom of Stormhold. Tristan enters the magical world to collect a fallen star to give to his beloved Victoria, in return for her hand in marriage. To his surprise, he collects the star, a woman named Yvaine. Witches and the Princes of Stormhold are also hunting for Yvaine. Meanwhile, Tristan tries to get her back to Wall with him before Victoria's birthday, the deadline for her offer.
The film was released to positive reviews and grossed $137 million on a $70–88.5 million budget. In 2008 it won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. It was released on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD on 18 December 2007.
Plot
The English village of Wall lies near a stone wall that borders the magical kingdom of Stormhold. A guard prevents anyone from crossing. Dunstan Thorne tricks him and crosses over the wall to a marketplace. He meets Una, an enslaved princess who offers him a glass snowdrop in exchange for a kiss. They spend the night together. Nine months later, the guard delivers a baby named Tristan to Dunstan.Eighteen years later, the dying King of Stormhold throws a ruby into the sky: his successor will be the first of his sons to recover it. The gem hits a star, and both fall out of the sky, landing in Stormhold. The princes Primus and Septimus independently search for the stone.
In Wall, Tristan and Victoria see the falling star. He vows to retrieve it in return for her hand in marriage. Despite his mother being from beyond the wall, he cannot get past the guard. He receives a Babylon candle that she left for him, which can take the user to any desired location. Tristan lights it and is transported to the fallen star, personified as a woman named Yvaine. He uses a magic chain to claim her and take her to Victoria.
Three ancient witch sisters resolve to eat the fallen star's heart to recover their youth and replenish their powers. Their leader, Lamia, eats the remnants of an earlier star's heart and departs to find Yvaine. She conjures up a wayside inn as a trap.
Yvaine becomes tired, so Tristan chains her to a tree and promises to bring food. In his absence, a unicorn releases her but unwittingly takes her to Lamia's inn. Tristan discovers that Yvaine is gone, but the stars whisper that she is in danger, telling him to get on a passing coach, which happens to be Primus's. They stop at the inn, interrupting Lamia's attempt to kill Yvaine. Lamia kills Primus, while Tristan and Yvaine use the Babylon candle to escape into the clouds, where they are captured by pirates in a flying ship. The leader, Captain Shakespeare, tells his crew that Tristan is his nephew and Yvaine is a friend. He gives them new clothes and teaches Tristan how to fence and Yvaine how to dance.
Septimus, being the last surviving son, needs only to find the stone to claim the throne. He learns that Yvaine has it and realizes that her heart grants immortality.
After leaving Captain Shakespeare, Tristan and Yvaine confess their love for one another and spend the night together at an inn. The next morning, Tristan leaves the sleeping Yvaine and leaves with a lock of her hair to tell Victoria that he has fallen in love with Yvaine. When the lock turns to Stardust, he realizes that Yvaine will die if she crosses the wall, and rushes back to save her.
Yvaine finds Tristan gone, and, thinking that he has abandoned her for Victoria, despondently walks toward the wall. Una notices Yvaine walking to her doom and takes the reins of Ditchwater Sal's caravan to stop her. Lamia kills Sal, and captures Una and Yvaine, taking them to the witches' manor. Septimus and Tristan pursue Lamia, agreeing to work together. Barging into the castle, Septimus recognizes Una as his long-lost sister, and Una tells Tristan that she is his mother.
Septimus and Tristan kill two of the witches, but Lamia uses a voodoo doll to kill Septimus. Lamia is about to kill Tristan when she appears to break down over the loss of her sisters. Lamia frees Yvaine, but her feigned defeat is a ruse and she tries to kill both. As Tristan and Yvaine embrace, their love allows her to shine once again, killing Lamia.
Tristan retrieves Yvaine's gem, and Una reveals that, as her son, Tristan is the last male heir of Stormhold. He becomes king with Yvaine as his queen, and Dunstan and Una are reunited. Since Tristan has Yvaine's love, he metaphorically has her heart and gains eternal youth. After eighty years of rule, they use a Babylon candle to ascend to the sky, where they live together as stars.
Cast
Production
Development
The illustrated fantasy story Stardust was created by Neil Gaiman, with art by Charles Vess. It was first published by DC Comics in 1997 as a prestige format four-issue comic mini-series. Encouraged by publisher Avon, Gaiman decided to adapt Stardust, and in 1999, it was republished as a conventional novel in hardback without illustrations. Gaiman has compared the story to a fantasy version of the 1934 romantic comedy film It Happened One Night.In 1998, Stardust was optioned for a film adaptation by Bob Weinstein at Miramax. Gaiman wrote a treatment, and then Ehren Kruger wrote a treatment. Gaiman described the process as "an unsatisfactory development period", and he recovered the rights after they expired. For years, Gaiman refused offers to develop the film. Having seen the disappointing results of the hands-off approach taken by Alan Moore, Gaiman preferred to retain control and influence the development of the film.
Eventually, discussions about a film version of Stardust took place between Gaiman, director Terry Gilliam, and producer Matthew Vaughn. Gilliam dropped out following his involvement with The Brothers Grimm and not wanting to do another fairy tale. Vaughn left to produce Layer Cake but then became the director for the first time for that project. After Vaughn withdrew from helming the film X-Men: The Last Stand, talks resumed, and in January 2005, Vaughn acquired the option to develop Stardust. In October 2005, the director entered final negotiations with Paramount Pictures to write, direct, and produce Stardust with a budget estimated at $70–88.5 million. Vaughn said half the financing for the film was British.
Adaptation
The adapted screenplay was written by Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, who had been recommended by Gaiman. When asked how the book inspired his vision for the film, Vaughn said that he wanted "to do Princess Bride with a Midnight Run overtone". One of the difficulties with adapting the novel was its earnest and dark nature: an adult fairy tale in which sex and violence are presented unflinchingly. With Gaiman's blessing given to the screenwriters, the movie version has a greater element of whimsy and humor. Gaiman did not want people to go to the theatre to see a film that attempted but failed, to be completely loyal to the book. After creating the audiobook version of the novel, Gaiman realized that there were 10½ hours of material in the book. This led him to acknowledge that the film would have to compress the novel, leaving out portions of the work. Budgetary concerns also factored into the adaptation, even with the level of 2006 technology. Gaiman understood the need to move the plot along faster: "In the book, Tristan crosses the wall, meets a strange creature, goes through the wood of vampire trees and, as his reward, gets the Babylon candle. Now we skip that. He gets the candle and just lights it and gets to Yvaine earlier. Otherwise, that would take an hour." Also, the newly created character of Ferdy the Fence was used to push people together faster. Vaughn acknowledges the changes from the book were substantial. The character of Captain Shakespeare was expanded extensively from the novel, where Captain Alberic is only briefly mentioned, and the last half hour of the film is almost entirely different from the book.Vaughn and Goldman decided that the witches needed names, as in the book they were collectively the Lilim. They chose names from classical sources that coincidentally included names found in Gaiman's The Books of Magic and Neverwhere.
On the film's differences from the novel, Gaiman commented, "I sort of feel like my grounding in comics was actually very useful because, in my head, that's just the Earth-Two version of Stardust. It's a parallel Earth version of Stardust, which has Robert De Niro and stuff. And I get people who come to the book from having loved the movie who are really disappointed at some of the stuff that isn't there that Matthew brought". Responding to a fan's statement about preferring the film's climax compared to the book, Gaiman clarified that he in fact had suggested the different ending that the film ended up using and liked it better for the film but liked the book ending better for the book.
Casting
In March 2006, the studio cast Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, and Sienna Miller. Production began in the United Kingdom and Iceland in April 2006, with the majority of filming taking place in the UK. Vaughn picked Danes, Cox, and Pfeiffer for their roles. He intended Captain Shakespeare to be played by either De Niro or Jack Nicholson. Stephen Fry was pitched as a possible Shakespeare, but Vaughn eventually picked De Niro.Vaughn insisted on an unknown actor for the part of Tristan. Cox was tentatively cast as Tristan, but to ensure the leads had chemistry on screen Vaughn would not confirm the casting until both leads were cast. Vaughn had Cox audition alongside the prospective leading actresses until the female lead was cast. Cox had worked alongside Miller before, and played a small supporting as her brother in the 2005 film Casanova.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the role of Yvaine but turned it down, not wanting to be apart from husband Freddie Prinze Jr. while he was filming in the U.S.
The role of Quintus was originally given to comedian Noel Fielding, but due to health issues he had to drop out and was replaced by another comedian Adam Buxton.