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 1997 novel of the same name, the film 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 Great Britain. 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. He collects the star who, to his surprise, is 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 of 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. Stardust was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD on December 18, 2007.

Plot

A stone wall separates the borders of the English village of Wall and the magical kingdom of Stormhold. One night, Dunstan Thorn double-crosses the wall guard and crosses over the wall’s gap and into a Stormhold marketplace. He meets a princess named Una, enslaved by the witch Ditchwater Sal, who offers him a glass snowdrop in exchange for a kiss. Nine months later, the wall guard delivers a baby to Dunstan, saying the baby's name is Tristan.
Eighteen years later, the dying King of Stormhold throws a ruby pendant into the sky, decreeing that his successor will be the first of his fratricidal sons to recover it. The stone hits a star and causes it to fall out of the sky, landing in Stormhold. The remaining princes, Primus, Septimus and Tertius, independently search for the stone.
In Wall, Tristan sees the falling star and vows to retrieve it for the object of his infatuation, Victoria, in return for her hand in marriage. Tristan learns that his mother is from beyond the wall, and 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 beautiful woman named Yvaine. He chains her to 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 sets off 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 Yvaine gone, but the stars whisper that she is in danger, telling him to get on a passing coach, which happens to be Primus'. At the inn, they interrupt Lamia's attempt to kill Yvaine. Lamia kills Primus, but 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, befriends Tristan and Yvaine, teaching Tristan how to fence and Yvaine how to dance.
Septimus discovers that as the last surviving son, he needs only find the stone to claim the throne. He learns it is in the possession of the fallen star and realizes that the heart of a star grants immortality.
After leaving Captain Shakespeare's ship, Tristan and Yvaine confess their love for one another and spend the night together at an inn at the marketplace. Come morning, Tristan leaves Yvaine sleeping and goes to Wall with a lock of her hair, to tell Victoria he will not marry her, having fallen in love with Yvaine. When the lock turns to stardust, he realizes Yvaine will die if she crosses the wall, and rushes back to save her.
Yvaine finds Tristan gone, and–thinking 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 both pursue Lamia, agreeing to work together for the time being. Barging into the castle, Septimus recognizes Una as his long-lost sister and she informs 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 finish Tristan off, when she appears to break down over the loss of her sisters. Lamia frees Yvaine, but her feigned defeat was a ruse, and she tries to kill them both. As Tristan and Yvaine embrace, their love allows her to shine once again, vaporising Lamia.
Tristan retrieves the stone from Yvaine. Una explains that, as her son, Tristan is the last male heir of Stormhold. He becomes king with Yvaine as his queen while Dunstan and Una are reunited. After eighty years of ruling Stormhold, 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, 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 to 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 became the director for the first time on that project. After Vaughn withdrew from helming the film , 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 direct and produce Stardust with a budget estimated at 70 million.

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 humour. 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 realised 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. The character Captain Shakespeare was expanded extensively from the novel, and the character Ferdy the Fence was created for the film.
Vaughn and Goldman decided that the witches needed names as in the book they were collectively the Lilim. They chose names from classical sources which 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.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the role of Yvaine but turned it down to spend more time with her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.. Other actresses that were considered for the part were Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johannson, & Jessica Alba, but they all turned it down.
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 fellow comedian Adam Buxton.

Filming

The production started filming in mid-April 2006, with principal photography taking place at Pinewood Studios in London. Location filming started in Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands followed immediately by filming on the Isle of Skye. The scene where Prince Septimus consults the soothsayer was shot in Iceland. The film makers had wanted to use more locations in Iceland but were unable to get the horses they needed.
Several weeks of location filming also took place in the woods and the Golden Valley near Ashridge Business school, Hertfordshire in the village of Little Gaddesden in June and July. In mid-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.
Another 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, but their request was refused.
Filming also took place in Wales, at the Brecon Beacons National Park.
The design of the witches' lair was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in the palace of Versaille, France, but with black instead of white and silver instead of gold.
Filming was finished by 13 July 2006.

Visual effects

The film required 830 visual effects shots which were supervised by Peter Chiang and produced by Tim Field. Double Negative supervised 350 shots, and other work was shared out among six other companies including LipSync Post, Cinesite, The Senate, Baseblack, Machine and Rushes. Mattes & Miniatures provided miniatures. The pirate skyship set was shot against a 360 degree greenscreen, required fully CG backgrounds and digital extending the size and the bow of the ship. Some distance shots of ship were entirely CG. Yvaine required a star glow effect for more than eighty shots. Two of the witches required a signature magical effect, Lamia had a green fire effect created using a combination of particle animation and joint-driven soft body ribbons, and Sal had a black smoke effect, created by turning animated geometry into a target-driven fluid simulation. The age transformation of Lamia was achieve using composite of multiple motion control plates, including a pass in the full prosthetic makeup, the transformed youthful Lamia, and a pass where the hair was pulled through a dummy head, played in reverse to give the appearance of hair growing, composited and blended with a procedural glow effect. Twenty feet of The Wall was built on location as a practical effect and extended into the distance using digital painting. VFX were completed by February 2007.

Music

Pre-release

Stardust was well received by test audiences. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was surprised when the film was well received across all demographics, despite the film not having been designed for everyone, expecting instead for parts of the audience to feel the film was not for them. In their feedback audiences agreed it was not a fairy tale, giving various descriptions of it, such as an adventure with magical elements. A March release had been planned but when Paramount saw its commercial potential it was pushed back to a later date.

Box office

Stardust was released on 10 August 2007 in the United States in 2,540 theatres, opening at No. 4 and earning US$9,169,779 in its opening weekend. The film also opened the same day in Russia and the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States, earning $8,118,263 as of 14 October 2007. In the UK and Ireland, the film was released on 19 October 2007 and spent 8 weeks in the box office top ten. Stardust was blocked from release in China due to additional restrictions on foreign films on top of the existing quota system limiting non-Chinese films.
Stardust earned a total of $137,022,245 worldwide. Its biggest markets were the US, where it made $38 million, and the UK, where it made $31 million.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was judged "Certified Fresh" given 76% rating, based on reviews from 193 critics. The critics' consensus reads: "A faithful interpretation that captures the spirit of whimsy, action, and off-kilter humor of Neil Gaiman, Stardust juggles multiple genres and tones to create a fantastical experience." On Metacritic the film has a score of 66/100 based on 33 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A-" on scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert called it a "fun" movie and gave it a positive rating of 2.5 out of 4 stars, he criticised the pacing as being cluttered and unfocused, and concluded "It's a film you enjoy in pieces, but the jigsaw never gets solved." The New Yorkers Bruce Diones called it "more surprising and effective than the usual kiddie-matinée madness." John Anderson of Variety wrote: "Sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek humor, fairly adult jokes and some well-known faces acting very silly, this adventure story should have particular appeal to fans of The Princess Bride, but in any event will never be mistaken for a strictly-for-kids movie." Anderson praised Pfeiffer for her comedic timing, and calls De Niro's performance "as engrossing as a car crash". He says the romance is the least interesting part of the film, but the sweep of the story and the humor keep the film together. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "Michelle Pfeiffer is Lamia, as deliciously evil a witch as the movies have ever invented" and suggested she should be the center of the film. Holden says Danes is miscast, and describes De Niro's performance as "either a piece of inspired madcap fun or an excruciating embarrassment." Michael Dwyer of The Irish Times described the film as "diverting in its whimsical way, but burdened with nonsequiturs, and it ought to have been subjected to more rigorous pruning in the editing suite". Dwyer criticized the cameos of Gervais and De Niro as unsubtle, jarring, and self-indulgent, and said Danes was miscast. He praised Pfeiffer by saying she gave the film "the kiss of life". Dan Jolin of Empire magazine called it "Patchy but great fun, peppering plenty of black humour into a sweet if silly fairy-tale romance." Glenn Kenny of Premiere called it "an eye-poppingly elaborate fantasy that's shot through with action-movie adrenaline and attitude." Time Out London compared the film to Time Bandits or The Princess Bride "but it lacks the former's originality and the latter's heart". Tim Robey of The Telegraph wrote: "There's a shameless romantic streak here, quite welcome in a boy-targeted genre that usually insists battles are cool and love is for wimps."
Philip French of The Observer said the film "fails on every level" and referring to a scene with Robert De Niro said it "plumbs new depths of camp embarrassment".
Deborah Ross of The Spectator called the film "a grindingly familiar huge pile of nothing which may please six-year-olds and fantasy nerds, but that's about it".

Accolades

film critic David Germain named the film the No. 7 best film of 2007. Rule the World was also submitted for consideration at the 80th Academy Awards for Best Original Song but was not nominated.
AwardCategoryRecipientResult
34th Annual Saturn Awards 2008Best Fantasy FilmStardustrowspan="3"
34th Annual Saturn Awards 2008Best Supporting ActressMichelle Pfeiffer-
34th Annual Saturn Awards 2008Best CostumeSammy Sheldon-
Empire Awards 2008Best Sci-Fi/FantasyStardust
GLAAD Media Awards 2008Outstanding Film - Wide ReleaseStardust
Hugo Awards 2008Best Dramatic Presentation - Long FormJane Goldman,
Matthew Vaughn,
Neil Gaiman,
Charles Vess
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2007Overlooked Film of the YearStardust

Home media

The film was released on both Region 1 DVD and HD DVD on 18 December 2007. The DVD was released in both and Widescreen aspect ratios. The HD DVD and DVD special features include a documentary entitled Good Omens: The Making of Stardust; deleted scenes from the film; the film's blooper reel; and the film's theatrical trailer.
The film and special features on the HD DVD version are presented in widescreen high definition 1080p and feature a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio soundtrack.
The film was released on Region A Blu-ray Disc on 7 September 2010.

Sequel

Vaughn had an idea for Stardust 2 but the first film was not financially successful enough.

Legacy

On the 10th Anniversary of the film's release Vanity Fair interviewed Charlie Cox, who is frequently recognized by fans for the role early in his career. Cox is unsure why the film is so popular but notes that Vaughn wanted to make a film with broad appeal, and Goldman did a great job cutting out extraneous detail, and focusing on the heart of the story.
Vanity Fair notes that the film gets replayed frequently in syndication and describes it as "endlessly likable", with a great cast, special effects that aren't too dated, and "the best adaptation of Gaiman's work, capturing his unique blend of darkness and whimsy perfectly."
Vaughn was critical of the marketing of the film, saying it had been promoted like it was Lord of the Rings when it had been much more influenced by The Princess Bride. He noted that although the film didn't do well in cinemas it became an "evergreen title" on DVD.