UNITED KINGDOM: CHARITY PREMIERE OF CHILDREN'S FILM "THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD"

Record ID: 389731

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: CHARITY PREMIERE OF CHILDREN'S FILM "THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD"
  • Date: 9th July 2000
  • Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 9, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALLCROFT SAYING: "I think there is a hunger for family films, for films that you can take little children to see and their older brothers and sisters and other members of the family won't get bored and they won't get embarrassed about going along to see the movie so I think it's a good
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA9K27AKDJFN78VC1K6VLU4L3MY
  • Story Text: London's Leicester Square could have been mistaken for Waterloo station this weekend, when the world's most popular steam engine, Thomas the Tank Engine pulled in for the World Charity Premiere of "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", written, produced and directed by Britt Alcroft.
    Attending the premiere alongside the director were two of the stars from "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", American child actress Mara Wilson and British actor Michael Rodgers.
    Instead of the usual set of glamorous guests, approximately 2000 children were invited to the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square to watch the film.
    The children were also treated to a real-life Thomas the Tank Engine outside the cinema in the form of a 46- tonne, 12-foot long (3.6 metre) steam locomotive which usually spends its days working in Wales.
    Britt Allcroft who is based in California, is the driving force behind Thomas the Tank Engine. Since re-discovering "The Railway Series" of books in the 1980's, Allcroft brought the stories to life in "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" on British television in 1984. The phenomenon quickly spread all over the world and Thomas the Tank Engine became a firm favourite with children, as well as a multimillion-dollar business.
    Fifteen million videos, a Japanese theme park and mountains of cups, train sets, bedspreads and lunchboxes later, Thomas and his smiley-faced engine playmates are off on their biggest adventure yet, as stars of a $20 million feature film, "Thomas and the Magic Railroad," which opened in London on Sunday (July 9).
    But Allcroft talks gently of Thomas, Bertie the Bus, Harold the Helicopter and the Fat Controller as good friends who help interpret the world for 2- to 5-year-olds with an unusual blend of fantasy and reality.
    Allcroft wrote, produced and directed the movie, her first feature film. It brings humans, some of them Americans, into the quaint animated world of talking trains originally created by the late British vicar Rev. Wilbert Awdry for his sick son.
    Alec Baldwin and 1960s icon Peter Fonda are the movie's flesh-and-blood stars, both enjoying being cast against type.
    "I've worked with Alec, a couple of years back because he became in America, Thomas' storyteller for the films on television and we just had a great time and he loves working on this project. His own daughter is a big fan and so when he first heard that I was getting involved with making this movie, he wanted to be involved so that was great," she said.
    The film also stars American child actress, Mara Wilson who is well known for her roles in "Mathilda", "Mrs Doubtfire"
    and "Miracle on 34th Street". Speaking to Reuters with her co-star, actor Michael Rodgers, Wilson confessed that a lot of her friends are very envious of her opportunities to meet and work with great names in cinema.
    "My friends can be pretty jealous, oh yes, they're all in love with him yes. They want to come to the L.A. premiere so they can see him....."Yeh Mr Stud..no it's been great but they are kind of jealous of me meeting all these people when I was so little," she revealed.
    A huge party was thrown for the children who attended the screening and one little boy chose an interesting word to describe the film..
    "It is excellent, it was flabbergasting..... Well, a Thomas film you would never expect actual live people to actually take part in the actual film so I just thought that was amazing how they could put the graphics together," he said.
    "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" goes on general release in the United Kingdom on July 14. It premieres in the United States later this month.
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