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Wild Child (film)

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For the 1970 French film, see The Wild Child.
Wild Child
Promotional film poster
Directed byNick Moore
Written byLucy Dahl
Produced byTim Bevan
StarringEmma Roberts
Natasha Richardson
Aidan Quinn
Shirley Henderson
Kimberley Nixon
Linzey Cocker
Juno Temple
Lexi Ainsworth
Shelby Young
CinematographyChris Seager
Edited bySimon Cozens
Music byMichael Price
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
August 15, 2008 (UK)
September 18, 2008 (AU)
Running time
98 min.
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
France
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million
Box office$20,273,551[1]

Wild Child is a 2008 teen comedy film starring Emma Roberts and Alex Pettyfer. The film also marks the final performance of the late Natasha Richardson.

Plot

The film starts with Poppy Moore (Emma Roberts) and her so called "friends" trashing all her dad's girlfriend's stuff in a wild prank. When her father angrily arrives, he tells her he is sending her to boarding school in England.

Arriving at the school, called Abbey Mount, Poppy meets the headmistress Ms. Kingsley (Natasha Richardson), prefect Harriet (Georgia King), and her 'buddy' Kate (Kimberley Nixon). Standing out from the other pupils, she alienates herself and gradually becomes miserable with her new life. When she reveals that her mother had died several years ago, her roommates decide to help her get expelled. Together, they carry out several pranks which gradually brings them closer together. When none of their plans work they decide to seduce the headmistress's son Freddie who is strictly forbidden to fraternize with any of the girls. After dancing with Freddie at the school dance, Poppy trips and hits her head which leads Freddie to take the concussed girl outside for air, where he asks her out on a date.

The next day, Poppy discovers her talent for lacrosse and whips the school's team into shape, getting them into the finals. On the date Poppy finds herself falling for Freddie. They kiss before Poppy returns to school, where she finds her roommates reading an email supposedly sent by Poppy stating that she thought all of her new friends were losers. She then finds that Freddie has been given a similar email and is thereafter ignored by her friends. Poppy, with no one else to turn to, sneaks down to the cook's room and rings Ruby who accidentally reveals how she dislikes Poppy. Feeling even more alone, Poppy starts playing with her lighter, accidentally setting a curtain alight. Hearing footsteps, she quickly puts out the fire and runs off. A few minutes later, she looks out her window to see a fire, and wakes the school. When they find that Drippy is missing, Poppy runs into the burning school to rescue her. After the fire is put out, Freddie finds her lighter and gives it back to her, refusing to listen to what happened. Just as she realizes that she no longer wants to leave, Poppy goes to the headmistress and confesses.

While Poppy waits for the Honour Court, who will decide if she should be expelled, Freddie finds her crying and becomes convinced that Poppy is innocent. During the Court, Poppy tells her story while her roommates find out that Poppy didn't send the emails. Going to the court, they stand up for Poppy and Harriet accidentally confesses to restarting the fire after Poppy had put it out. The movie is left off at the lacrosse finals. Poppy's father comes to the game and is shocked by Poppy's dramatic change of appearance and how much she looks like her mother. Abbey Mount win the Lacrosse finals and the film ends with Poppy and her friends (including Freddie) in Malibu.

Cast

Production

The film was filmed at Cobham Hall, Kent, Balls Park, Hertford, and the centre of Haworth, England and on location in Los Angeles, California. Children from surrounding schools were selected to be extras in scenes on location at Balls Park, Hertford. Oxford University Lacrosse and Cranbrook Lacrosse Club provided a group of lacrosse playing extras and some referees for the film. Emma Roberts dyed her hair dark brown for this role, however for the beginning part of the film she wears a long, blonde wig. The wrap party was held on September 4, 2007 in London, before some of the cast went to Los Angeles to finish filming.

To celebrate the release of Wild Child, Universal Pictures staged the Wild Child Pink Premiere at the Braehead Xscape in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday 30 July. Both stars of the film Emma Roberts (Poppy) and Alex Pettyfer (Freddie) attended.

Reception

Wild Child was released in the U.K on August 15 taking 5th place at the box office with $2,196,366 from 359 theatres with an average of $6,118. In its 4th weekend, it dropped to 12th place. As of November 2, 2008, Wild Child has made an unexpected $8,235,794. In Australia, Wild Child was released September 18 taking 4th place with only 93 theatres, making $426,066. The following week, it made a 60% increase with $680,188 but still slipped to 6th place. On the October 16, Wild Child fell to 11th. As of November 14, 2008, Wild Child's release in Australia has yet again surprised officials with its success making $3,272,241. The film has been released in many other countries, proving popular in some: Netherlands ($1,553,825) and not so popular in others. As of January 4, 2008, the film has grossed $19,786,125 worldwide but is expected to reach $20 million once released in bigger markets: France, Germany and Russia around December/January.

Wild Child has a 33% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews with the consensus that "More mild than wild. This tween comedy mess falls flat on its face due to poor characters, poor direction and poor jokes".[2] The Sun Online gave the film 2/5 saying "WILD? More like mild, unless you think short skirts and “horse face” put-downs are outrageous." Though Urban Cinefile gave Wild Child a much more favourable review stating "The film has an energy and honesty about it: it's lively, funny and smart and the characters are appealing." It was put on the Thearters of Lima, Perú in 02/26/09 , After Hotel For Dogs

DVD Release

Wild Child was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on December 8 2008. In Australia it was released on January 15 2009.

Editing

Wild Child was reportedly written to be classified R by the MPAA but was edited to a 12A for some coarse and suggestive content, sex references and language - all involving teens. People have speculated which scenes may have been cut due to a lapse in the story, such as Poppy retrieving a 'mystery' bag from a bottleshop which was then drunk by the girls before the dance. It is also expected that some scenes may have either been re-shot or dubbed to eliminate coarse language. Words/phrases such as 'biatch' and 'what the eff?' could have possibly been their coarses counterparts. However, Wild Child did keep some of its 'wild' content keeping some 's**t' and when Poppy gives Harriet the finger. Other scenes could have possibly been extended including the scene with Ruby and her boyfriend going to the pool. Many fans of the movie are waiting to see what will be released in the DVD releases and if Universal plans to release a special 'Unrated' cut of the movie.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Wild Child: The Movie Soundtrack Party Album is the soundtrack for the film of the same name, Wild Child. The soundtrack was available on United Kingdom and Australia on August 18, 2008. On United States the soundtrack hasn't been released and it's expected for early 2009.

Tracklisting

  1. Wild Child - W.A.S.P.
  2. Shut Up and Drive - Rihanna
  3. Let Me Think About It - Ida Corr Ft. DJ Fedde le Grand
  4. About You Now - Sugababes
  5. Say It Right - Nelly Furtado
  6. I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me - Annie
  7. If This Is Love - The Saturdays
  8. Heartbreaker - will.i.am ft. Cheryl Cole
  9. Sweet About Me - Gabriella Cilmi
  10. Can't Speak French - Girls Aloud
  11. Murder on the Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
  12. Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club
  13. Kiss With A Fist - Florence And The Machine
  14. Foundations - Kate Nash
  15. You Think I Don't Care - Jack McManus
  16. Come Around - Timbaland ft. M.I.A.
  17. Tambourine - Eve
  18. Real Wild Child - Sarah Harding
  19. Chasing Pavements - Adele

Songs not on the soundtrack but in the movie and trailers :

Trivia

  • Wild Child was written by Lucy Dahl, the daughter of Roald Dahl.
  • The song "Road Kill Morning" by Children of Bodom is used in one part of the film. This could possibly be due to Children of Bodom's front man Alexi Laiho is nicknamed Wildchild. In the credits his name was spelt wrong calling him Aleksi Laiho.
  • This is the last film that Natasha Richardson appeared in before her death.

References

  1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=wildchild.htm
  2. ^ "Wild Child (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
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