“This isn’t exactly the Neverland story you know,” director Joe Wright told EW this week about his live-action adaptation of “Pan.” Yep, we’re in for another go at the Peter Pan story, albeit from another angle. That’s almost as cliché as saying, “This isn’t your daddy’s Peter Pan story.” Wright is no stranger to fairy tales and swinging for the fences. The filmmaker turned a coming-of-age action film (“Hanna”) into a fairy tale allegory complete with a wicked witch, and his version of “Anna Karenina” was an audaciously bold and visually striking adaptation of a classical piece of Russian literature.
Given that we’ve seen the first look image and posters of “Pan” already, one can obviously tell that Wright isn’t shy about making a daring visual presentation once again. While Steven Spielberg‘s "Hook" was a sequel a sequel to J. M. Barrie‘s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, “Pan” is, of course, an origin story.
In the picture, Garrett Hedlund plays the man who will become Captain Hook, relative newcomer Levi Miller plays Peter Pan, Hugh Jackman plays the pirate Blackbeard, and Rooney Mara takes the on the role of Tiger Lily. The movie also stars Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Burke, Leni Zieglmeier and Cara Delevingne. But apparently in this version even Captain Hook is more of an dashing Indiana Jones figure, so apparently the script, which topped the Blacklist a few years ago, has really been flipped.
Will audiences take to what appears to be a radical reinvention of the Peter Pan story where Blackbeard’s ship flies through the clouds? Hey, it is a fairy tale after all. “Pan” is due in theaters July 17, 2015. Watch the first trailer below and let us know what you think.