Stardust (2007 film)

For other uses, see Stardust.

Stardust
Promotional poster
Directed by	Matthew Vaughn
Written by	Novel: Neil Gaiman Screenplay: Jane Goldman Matthew Vaughn
Starring	Charlie Cox Claire Danes Ricky Gervais Rupert Everett Jason Flemyng David Walliams Mark Strong Peter O'Toole Michelle Pfeiffer Robert De Niro
Narrated by	Ian McKellen
Cinematography	Ben Davis
Edited by	Jon Harris
Music by	Ilan Eshkeri, Rule the World by Take That
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 10, 2007
Running time	128 min.
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$70 million
Box office	$135,553,806

Stardust is a 2007 fantasy film from Paramount Pictures, directed by Matthew Vaughn. The film is based on Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name, illustrated by Charles Vess, originally published by Avon Books, and stars an ensemble cast including Charlie Cox, Ben Barnes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais, David Walliams, Nathaniel Parker, Peter O'Toole, David Kelly, Robert De Niro, and Mark Heap. Narration is by Ian McKellen.

In 2008 it won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

Plot Summary

In the village of Wall (so called because of the stone wall that is a border with another world), Dunstan Thorn (Ben Barnes) sneaks past the guard at the hole in the wall. On the other side he meets a witch's slave (Kate Magowan). The couple meet for only one night. Nine months later the wall guard arrives at Dunstan's door with a baby named Tristan.

Eighteen years later, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) is infatuated with Victoria (Sienna Miller). But Tristan has a rival whom Victoria prefers. Tristan convinces Victoria to come to a night time picnic to look at the stars.

On the other side of the wall in Stormhold, the king (Peter O'Toole) is on his deathbed, in the company of his sons. The king throws the Power of Stormhold, a large ruby, into the night sky, declaring that "he of royal blood" who finds the ruby will become the next ruler of Stormhold. The stone collides with a star, which falls to Earth.

Tristan claims he will bring Victoria the fallen star by her birthday, in exchange for her marrying him. After Tristan fails to slip past the guard at the wall, his father gives him a Babylon Candle his mother left to him. Tristan lights the Babylon Candle to go to her, but accidentally thinks about the star and is magically transported to the star's impact area in Stormhold. Tristan learns that the star is a beautiful woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes).

Determined to win Victoria's heart, Tristan uses the enchanted silver chain his father obtained trying to free the slave girl to link Yvaine to himself. He promises to use the last of the magic candle to send her back to the sky after taking her to Victoria. However, three witches — Mormo, Empusa and the eldest and the most powerful, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) — also want Yvaine so they can recover their beauty and youth by devouring her heart. Additionally, the sons of the king are looking for the Power of Stormhold, which Yvaine is wearing.

The witches select Lamia to seek the star. After using runes to locate the star, Lamia meets Ditchwater Sal, the witch who is keeping Tristan's mother captive tied by a silver thread to a yellow Romany style wagon. Sal drugs Lamia's food, which causes her to reveal the story of the fallen star. Sal plots to find the star first, but Lamia curses her to never perceive the star.

File:Yvaineonunicorn.jpg

Yvaine rides a unicorn which takes her to safety

Yvaine is weary from her injured leg and from being unaccustomed to daytime travel. Tristan ties her to a tree with the magic chain and promises to return with food. A unicorn frees Yvaine and takes her to an inn. Tristan discovers Yvaine gone and lies down to rest. The stars warn Tristan of Yvaine's danger, begging him to save her. Tristan awakes just as Prince Primus is passing in his stagecoach, and together they travel to the inn where the unicorn brought Yvaine, which is actually a trap created by Lamia. Lamia kills Primus, but Tristan and Yvaine escape using the Babylon candle.

Prince Septimus arrives and determines he is the last surviving son of the king, but he still needs the stone to become king. Septimus learns that it is in the possession of the fallen star and that the heart of a star grants immortality.

The candle takes Tristan and Yvaine into the storm clouds. (Tristan told Yvaine to "think of home"; he thought of his home, she thought of hers, and they ended up half way between.) They are captured by pirates in a flying ship who are collecting lightning bolts. Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro) interrogates them, and ultimately grants them safe passage. Tristan and Yvaine begin to fall in love with each other.

Captain Shakespeare sets them down by the road to Wall, with only one day left until Victoria's birthday. Walking along the road, the two encounter Ditchwater Sal driving her caravan to Wall, the same caravan at which Tristan's father had purchased a glass flower eighteen years earlier. Tristan trades the flower for safe passage to Wall, but Sal transforms him into a dormouse. Sal is unable to perceive Yvaine because of the curse Lamia placed upon her. Yvaine passes the journey to Wall unnoticed in the witch's caravan, and reveals her love to Tristan, not realizing that he can understand her.

Arriving in the village, Sal restores Tristan to his human form. Tristan and Yvaine spend the night at an inn, and Tristan tells Yvaine that he returns her love. The next morning, while Yvaine is still asleep, Tristan cuts off a piece of her hair and crosses the wall to tell Victoria that he no longer wishes to marry her. Yvaine wakes up, but the innkeeper garbles Tristan's message to her so she believes Tristan has left her for Victoria. When Tristan tries to give Victoria the lock of Yvaine's hair, he finds that it has turned into stardust. He realizes that if Yvaine crosses the wall she will die, and hurries back to find her.

The slave girl, having seen Yvaine solemnly heading towards the wall, takes over Ditchwater Sal's caravan and races after her to prevent her from crossing. She stops Yvaine just in time, but then Lamia arrives in Primus' stagecoach. Lamia confronts Sal and kills her, setting the slave girl momentarily free, before Lamia takes both Yvaine and the slave girl captive and takes them to the witches' castle; Yvaine to be killed and the other to be a servant. Tristan arrives too late to intervene.

Septimus and Tristan pursue Lamia, encountering each other outside the castle; they agree to attack the witches together. Septimus confronts the slave girl first, but recognizes her as his long lost sister, Una, daughter of the King of Stormhold. Septimus attacks Empusa, impaling her with a sword. Tristan confronts Una, and she convinces him that she is his mother. Septimus attacks Lamia, who uses a voodoo doll to drown him.

Tristan defeats Mormo by releasing the caged animals in the castle, and she is mauled to death. Lamia uses the voodoo doll to reanimate Septimus' corpse to attack Tristan, but Tristan traps the corpse under a chandelier. Lamia disarms Tristan, and is about to kill him when she has a change of heart and releases both him and Yvaine. It is merely a ruse, intended to restore Yvaine's broken heart to make it more powerful for Lamia's purposes. Before Tristan and Yvaine can leave Lamia attacks them again. Yvaine, now knowing that Tristan loves her, unleashes a wave of starlight that disintegrates Lamia.

Tristan retrieves the jewel that Yvaine was wearing. Una explains that Tristan is the last male heir of Stormhold. The jewel is restored to ruby red by Tristan's touch, and Tristan becomes the new king with Yvaine as his queen. After eighty years of ruling Stormhold they use a Babylon candle to ascend to the sky, where they become twin stars. Since Yvaine "gave her heart" to Tristan, the two will live forever in the sky.

Cast

• Charlie Cox as Tristan Thorn
• Claire Danes as Yvaine
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Lamia
• Robert DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare of the Caspartine
• Mark Strong as Septimus
• Nathaniel Parker as Dunstan Thorn
• Ben Barnes as Young Dunstan Thorn
• Kate Magowan as Una
• Sienna Miller as Victoria Foresster
• Peter O'Toole as King of Stormhold
• Jason Flemyng as Primus
• Joanna Scanlan as Mormo
• Sarah Alexander as Empusa
• Rupert Everett as Secundus
• Ricky Gervais as Ferdy the Fence
• Mark Heap as Tertius
• Adam Buxton as Quintus
• Julian Rhind-Tutt as Quartus
• David Walliams as Sextus
• Melanie Hill as Ditchwater Sal
• David Kelly as Guard
• Mark Williams as Billy
• Dexter Fletcher as Skinny Pirate
• Henry Cavill as Humphrey
• Ian McKellen as Narrator
• Jake Curran as Bernard

Production

Optioning

The 1998 fantasy novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman was first optioned for the movies by Miramax in 1998-9. According to Gaiman, the film went "through an unsatisfactory development period", and he recovered the rights after they expired. Eventually, discussions about a film version of Stardust began taking place between Gaiman, director Terry Gilliam and Matthew Vaughn. After Gilliam dropped out following his involvement with The Brothers Grimm, Vaughn left the talks to direct Layer Cake. Gaiman and Vaughn resumed talks after the director walked away from helming the film X-Men: The Last Stand and in January 2005, Vaughn acquired the option to develop the film adaptation. In October 2005, the director entered final negotiations with Paramount Pictures to direct and produce Stardust with a budget estimated at $70 million (US).

Writing

The adapted screenplay was written by Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman. When asked how the book inspired his vision for the movie, he 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. As a result of changes, the movie version has a greater element of whimsy and humor, with Gaiman's blessing given to the screenwriters. Gaiman did not want people to go to the theater to see a film that attempted to be completely loyal to Stardust the book and failed. After creating the audiobook version of the novel, Gaiman realized that there was 10 1/2 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.

Vaughn and Goldman decided that the witches needed names (as in the book they were collectively Lilim); their Classical decisions included a reference to The Books of Magic (Empusa) and Neverwhere (Lamia).

Locations

Locations used in Scotland included the area surrounding the Quiraing, on the Isle of Skye.

In mid-April 2006, principal started on Stardust. The production was filmed at Pinewood Studios in London. Location filming started in Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands followed immediately by filming on the Isle of Skye. Some parts of the film were also shot in Iceland.

Several nights and days of location filming also took place in the woods near Ashridge Business school, Hertfordshire in June. In summer 2006, there was some filming at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire and in the village of Castle Combe, Wiltshire. Some of the scenes requiring wide open spaces for riding and coach scenes were filmed at Bicester Airfield in Oxfordshire. Filming was finished by July 13, 2006.

One film location was on Elm Hill in Norwich. The area, with a mixture of Tudor and medieval buildings dating as far back as the 11th century, was transformed into the streets of Stormhold. The Briton's Arms tea house became the Slaughtered Prince public house. The owners were so enthralled with the new look - including a spectacular mural and new thatching - that they appealed to the local council and English Heritage to keep it. However, their request was refused.

Casting

In March 2006, the studio cast Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, and Sienna Miller. Production began in the UK and Iceland in April 2006, with the majority of filming taking place in the UK. Vaughn himself 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. Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the role of Yvaine but turned it down to spend more time with her husband, Freddie Prinze, Jr.

Reception

Box Office

Stardust was released on August 10, 2007 in the United States in 2,540 theaters, earning US $9,169,779 in its opening weekend (an average of $3,610 per theater). The film also opened the same day in Russia and the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States, earning $8,118,263 as of October 14 2007. Stardust has earned a total of $135,553,760 worldwide. Its biggest markets were the US where it made $38 million, and the UK where it made $31 million (approx. £16 million GBP).

Reviews

The film rates 66% at the movie review aggregator Metacritic based on 33 reviews. On another aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 76% rating. The film has received Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop rating of 65% from major news outlets. Stardust was released in the UK and Ireland on October 19, 2007, where it enjoyed particularly strong reception and box office success.

Associated Press film critic David Germain named the film the #7 best film of 2007. The New Yorker’s Bruce Diones called it “more surprising and effective than the usual kiddie-matinée madness.” But while Roger Ebert noted it a "fun" movie, he criticized the pacing as being cluttered and unfocused.

DVD release

The film was released on both Region 1 DVD and HD DVD on December 18, 2007. The DVD was released in both Fullscreen and Widescreen aspect ratios. The HD DVD and DVD special features include:

1. Good Omens: The Making of Stardust
2. Deleted scenes
3. Blooper reel
4. Theatrical trailer

The film and special features on the HD DVD version are presented in 2.35:1 Widescreen high definition 1080p and feature a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio soundtrack.

The film was released for Region 2 DVD and HD DVD on February 25, 2008.

Aditional Information

It was the movie that David and Kerrianne saw on their first date :)

Music

• British pop band Take That wrote (after watching an early cut of the movie) and recorded a song for the film titled "Rule the World", featuring Gary Barlow on lead vocals. The song features in the end credits to the film and was released as a single on October 22, 2007 in the UK where it peaked at no.2 on the UK singles chart.
• U.S. record label Decca Records released a soundtrack album featuring Ilan Eshkeri's score on September 11, 2007. However, the song "Rule the World" was not included on the album.
• Dimmu Borgir's song "Eradication Instincts Defined" is featured in both the UK and USA trailers.
• Prelude 2 in C Minor from the first book of the "Well-Tempered Clavier" by Johann Sebastian Bach was adapted for use in the first part of the scene at Lamia's inn.
• Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 3 in D Major by Antonín Dvořák was adapted for use for the dancing scene aboard the flying ship.
• "The Galop Infernal" from Jacques Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld", more commonly known as the "Can-Can", was used for the fight on the pirate ship.

External links

• Official movie page
• Stardust at IMDb
• Stardust at Metacritic
• Stardust at Box Office Mojo
• Stardust at AllMovie
• Stardust at Rotten Tomatoes
• MetaphysicalSF: Why I Recommend Stardust the Film Over the Novel