Blaine: The idea for “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” was inspired by old photographs. Ransom Riggs found old photographs to be fascinating and they gave him this idea for a story. Riggs’ book hadn’t been out that long and already someone was interested in making a film adaptation, and that someone was Tim Burton. Tim Burton himself is a big fan of old photographs and collects them. He was already fond of Riggs’ book before reading through it because it came with photographs of the characters. It blew Ransom Riggs away when he was informed Tim Burton wanted to turn his book into a movie.
Tim Burton had collaborated with Jane Goldman as she was writing the screenplay. Jane Goldman is known for her work on “Kick-Ass,” “Kingsman: Secret Service,” and two “X-Men” movies “First Class,” and “Days of Future Past.” I think one of the reasons she was hired was because she has experience in writing screenplays where characters have special abilities. As a matter of fact Ella Purnell described the Peculiar children as Tim Burton’s X-Men. Tim Burton would tell Jane Goldman how he wanted the story to go, what things should be added into it that weren't in Riggs’ book, how the characters should be written. Tim Burton has always been described as a man whose head is full of ideas. When writing a screenplay you’re reinventing the material it is based on and turning it into something else. When Ransom Riggs read the screenplay, he was jealous because Tim Burton and Jane Goldman had added in and thought up clever stuff that made him wish he had thought of it when he wrote the book.
Tim Burton adds his own personal life into the movies he makes. Usually it’s the part about being an outsider. That’s something he feels strongly about I think. In a Tim Burton film, outsiders get to do things no one else gets to do. They explore magical worlds or have special abilities. Jake Portman is the main character of the story and he is not only exploring the impossible, but figuring out where his place is in life. He doesn’t have any friends, and he’s not that close with his own parents, they hold him back. Tim Burton has said he wasn’t that close with his folks.
The only person in the world Jake is close with is his grandfather Abe Portman. Ransom Riggs’ grandmother would drag him to a lot of flea markets that had the old photographs he was fascinated with, and because she was the one who helped draw him to those photographs it made him want to add a relationship between a boy and his grandparent to the story. Tim Burton himself had a great relationship with his grandmother, and he thought of her as a magical person. Terrence Stamp had worked with Tim Burton on his previous film “Big Eyes,” and he played an art critic who was doubtful, and in “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” he's a more open minded person who knows anything is impossible. Tim Burton thinks of Terrence Stamp as a powerful presence, and even though he doesn’t have much screen time, his character is mentioned a lot because he meant a lot to Jake, Miss Peregrine and the Peculiar children, mainly Emma. So he is in your thoughts as you are watching the movie. For years, Abe has been telling Jake stories about the Peculiars, their home, and the Hollow monsters, and that’s another reason Terrence Stamp was chosen for the role because he’s good at playing a storyteller.
Everyone was saying Abe wasn’t right in the head because the stories he told were believed to be a fantasy, but it was all true. Jake believed him growing up, but after being made fun of he started to believe it was false too. After Abe’s death, Jake finds a card sent from Miss Peregrine not long ago, and he is now curious. He looks for answers and those answers end up finding him. The Peculiars were informed Jake was going to be in the neighborhood and they escorted him to a cave that would lead him to their time in 1943. Jake’s father said everything has been discovered but he’s about to discover something that has been kept hidden. Miss Peregrine and her children were believed to be dead when a bomb hit their house, but they’ve been in hiding. The bomb did hit the house, but they weren’t there because they went back in time. Miss Peregrine has the ability to reverse time, which is called a loop, and they’ve been reliving the same day over and over for years. As long as they are in the loop, they can’t age. It’s like Neverland.
Abe has told Jake so much about Miss Peregrine and the children that he basically knows them, but now that he is meeting them in person, he’s going to get to know them even better. Miss Peregrine is always keeping track of time and everything to her is predictable I would say. For example, when the villain Barron shows up to the front door, Miss Peregrine already knows what his plan is, she explains it to everyone without him having to say it, and Barron seems impressed.
There was only one actress Tim Burton had in mind to play Miss Peregrine and that was Eva Green who he had worked with on “Dark Shadows.” He called her up and wasn’t sure if she would be interested in the part, but she would never turn down an offer from Tim Burton. This is something she said that I’ll never forget, “I would play a mop for him.” Tim Burton loves working with Eva Green and working with him is a treat for her.
Eva Green is such a professional. Miss Peregrine is detailed in words, and when she meets Jake for the first time, she explains to him how she knows he was at the pub before anyone told her, and at the speed Eva Green is saying it, she managed to do it very professionally.
Miss Peregrine is mysterious in a sort of way. When Emma leaves to escort Jake to the cave, it looked like something was up. I think she’s concerned, and can sense something is coming their way. She cares for her children and will protect them in any way. One Peculiar, Victor, lost his life when a Hollow invaded their home, and she’s trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Because Miss Peregrine can transform into a Peregrine falcon, Eva Green studied their movements and brought that into the character. You can tell by the way she grabs that piece of chicken during the dinner scene.
The way Eva Green looks as Miss Peregrine is like she came out of a painting. There’s the way she looks and dresses, and the way she positions herself while smoking a pipe, or holding a crossbow. There’s a headshot of Eva Green when she’s explaining to Jake she is an Ymbryne and the reflection of the sun is making her face look as if it is glowing.
Miss Peregrine and the peculiar children are colorful characters. With the help of costume designer Colleen Atwood and the make up artists, Tim Burton has turned Eva Green an accomplished actress, and the Peculiar children into works of art, which made it look good for the camera, both still and cinematography. Abe used old photographs of the Peculiars as he told stories to Jake, and Tim Burton had hired a still photographer named Leah Gallo to take the photographs you see in the movie. They were recreating the old photographs you see in the book, but giving it more of a cinematic approach. Abe shows Jake a photograph of Miss Peregrine and she’s a silhouette. She’s a mysterious figure. Then later on when the Peculiars take Jake to the house, Miss Peregrine opens the doors and she’s a silhouette, then she comes into the light and you can see what her face looks like. Emma’s introduction was silhouetted too when she was at the damaged house of 2016 to look for Jake.
Bruno Delbonnel was the cinematographer on “Miss Peregrine.” He’s known for his work on “The Darkest Hours,” "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” “Amelie” and my favorite “A Very Long Engagement.” This was the 3rd project he had worked on with Tim Burton after “Dark Shadows,” and “Big Eyes.” Photos are one of the main subjects of “Miss Peregrine” and a lot of the cinematography shots have a photographic approach. Both the cinematographer and the visual effects department have helped Tim Burton create shots he wanted to see. There are scenes that show Jake and Emma in a sunken ship underwater, and they shot those in a tank with greenscreen. One of my favorite shots they have created is when Emma is spreading air to raise the ship, and she is spinning slowly as if she is in a Ballerina box.
Colors also have a way of representing the mood. Jake is in his own time in 2016, and when he arrives at Whales, it is pale and boring. As I said before, Jake doesn’t fit in with anyone in his own time, and they don’t accept him. The paleness shows how dull things are for him. When he visits 1943, it’s more bright, colorful, and he is with people who are unaverage like him. Emma and the other Peculiars tell Jake he belongs with them, and I agree, but he’s not sure about that. Why would he be unsure of living at the Peculiar house? He’s not so happy in the future, where everyone teases him and thinks something is wrong with him. His dad and him are totally different from each other. His dad is a doubter and a loser. He needs to be with people who are more acceptive.
Emma’s powers were fire in the book, but for the movie, Tim Burton felt they should switch her power with Olive, whose power is air. She can float like a balloon, which is why she wears lead boots so she can stay on the ground. Emma’s an angel and I would say she knows Jake better than himself. She was in love with Abe when he was around, but he left and it took her a while to get over him. Now she’s developing romantic feelings for his grandson. Everyone can clearly see that Emma and Jake have feelings for each other, and they’re trying to avoid it, especially Emma. She doesn’t want to go through the same thing again. They are both trying to hold back how they feel about each other. Holding back your feelings is one thing they have in common. The other thing they have in common is being Peculiar.
The way Jake holds Emma as she is floating is almost as if he is flying a kite, especially when they are on the beach, which is another favorite shot of mine.
Ella Purnell plays Emma and I was familiar with her because she was in “Kick-Ass 2.” It was a small part, and she was friends with the mean girl who is obsessed with herself. I saw her as a part of the popular club, then I saw her as peculiar with heart.
Tim Burton has a list of actors he wants to work with and one of them was Samuel L. Jackson, an actor who you see in everything. It's interesting to have those two collaborate with each other. Samuel L. Jackson was working with Quentin Tarantino on “The Hateful Eight” when he got the call that Tim Burton wanted him to be in his next movie. Samuel L. Jackson was so excited that he couldn’t wait for “The Hateful Eight” to wrap because he’s been wanting to work with Tim Burton as well.
Samuel L. Jackson is the villain of this movie Mr. Barron. He’s a Peculiar who has done dark deeds, and through an experiment that didn’t go quite as planned, he turned himself and others into monsters known as Hollows. The reason for that experiment was to have everlasting life without having to be quarantined in a loop all the time and because headmistresses like Miss Peregrine have a way of controlling time they used one for the experiment. Barron managed to switch himself and a few others from Hollows back to Peculiars by eating eyeballs of other Peculiars. There are two ways I can describe Mr. Barron. One, he has a piranha’s approach because of the way he stares at you and those sharp teeth of his. He also reminds me of the T-1000 from “Terminator 2” because he can turn his hands into sharp objects, and he can disguise himself as anyone. Plus he is tracking down children.
The Hollows are the monsters of the movies. Their looks are like sea creatures, a shark mixed with an octopus. They are these really tall skinny creatures, which reminds of Jack Skeleton, and they have no eyes, no ears, no nose, but they do have mouths with sharp teeth and they can spread tentacles out of it to grab their prey. The only thing they like to eat is eyeballs. No one can see a Hollow because they are invisible. A lot of the creepiest things can be invisible because it makes it easy for them to sneak up on you and attack. Miss Peregrine and other headmistresses around the world are responsible for looking after their children and making sure they stay hidden and safe, while Abe was in charge of dealing with the threat. Abe’s peculiarity was being able to see the Hollows, and he hunted them down for years. He passed his ability on to Jake.
Some directors like Tim Burton will have A-list actors playing small parts. Judie Dench plays another headmistress, but it’s not much of a part. It’s very small. Barron takes on two forms while following Jake. One is a psychiatrist Jake sees played by Allison Janney. Photography is a huge subject for this film, and another one of Barron’s disguises is a professional bird photographer played by Ruppert Everett. I felt suspicious about Ruppert Everett’s part before he revealed himself to be Barron. Tim Burton has a cameo appearance in the film, which he hardly does. He plays a guy on a ride at the amusement park.
There are a few parts to “Miss Peregrine” that remind me of something out of a Ray Harryhausen movie. Harryhausen was the stop-motion king, and he’s a role model of Tim Burton’s. He used his stop motion techniques to bring giant animals and fantasy creatures to life, and also raise the dead back to life, such as skeletons. One of the Peculiars, Enoch, has a way of bringing things to life by inserting hearts into them, and when the children go up against the Hollows, he uses skeletons from their ship to fight them. It reminds me of Ray Harryhausen. The Twins of the Peculiar children griup are mysterious because their faces are covered with these masks, and they look like Pierrot clowns. Their peculiarity has to be covered because if you see their faces you turn to stone, which reminds me of Medusa the snake haired lady from “Clash of the Titans.” They use their power on one of the bad Peculiars Miss Edwards, who’s looks sort of remind me of Medusa. Digital effects were used to bring all the fantasy to life in “Miss Peregrine,” but there’s one scene that looks like it was done in stop-motion. Enoch is showing Jake his technique by using these weird looking dolls, and the way they move looks like stop motion.
Jake finally admits to himself that he does belong with Emma and the other Peculiars, and he gets to be an explorer, which is what he has wanted to be all his life. The ending makes it look like there is more ahead, and Ransom Riggs did write 3 more books to continue the story of “Miss Peregrine.” Of course it’s too late to make film adaptations of the sequels because the kid actors have aged, unless they decide to re-cast the parts.
This was more than what Ransom Riggs could have asked for. When he wrote the first book he never would have expected a legendary and artistic director like Tim Burton to be the one to transform it into a film. Tim Burton visualized it in a way that made Riggs feel like it was walking into an art exhibit. Riggs hung around the set a lot and had his camera with him to take pictures of his own creation brought to life. He would even pose with Eva Green dressed as Miss Peregrine.
My rating on “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is four and a half out of five stars.
