USA: ANTHONY HOPKINS STARS IN LATEST STEPHEN KING FILM ADAPTATION, "HEARTS IN ATLANTIS"

Record ID: 547465

  • Title: USA: ANTHONY HOPKINS STARS IN LATEST STEPHEN KING FILM ADAPTATION, "HEARTS IN ATLANTIS"
  • Date: 21st September 2001
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 21, 2001) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) ANTHONY HOPKINS SAYING OF HIS GRANDFATHER He kept himself very much to himself. He was a very proud man. Always dressed well. He wasn't a rich man. He was quite, actually, came from poverty row. Worked in the steelworks in Port Talbot, but he always kept himself clean-looking and as immaculate-looking as he could and he gave me a lot of advice. He was a mentor. His youngest daughter died in 1928 of dipherea and I think I replaced his young daughter's, my mother was the only survivor, and I think I became a replacement. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) ANTON YELCHIN SAYING OF THE FIRST DAY ON THE SET WITH HOPKINS Yeah, well, my eye was twitching. It had been twitching for the whole day and then, well, as soon as I started to do the scene with Sir Anthony, everything went away and I was Bobby, he was Ted and that's it. But, when I met him, it was a bit different. I was very nervous and I sat down and I was like this. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) SCOTT HICKS SAYING That's really what I like to do in a movie is create a world that's almost like a waking dream, if you like, that people can believe in that world so they can connect with the emotional life of those characters and, so that's what I've tried to do with "Hearts in Atlantis."
  • Embargoed: 6th October 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAABNEBCWWU3MNID1AMD90GFIFA
  • Story Text: Anthony Hopkins sheds his sinister, diabolical Hannibal persona for the sake of his latest film, "Hearts in Atlantis," where he plays a mysterious stranger who forms a unique friendship with an 11-year old boy.
    "Shine" filmmaker Scott Hicks directs this latest big screen adaptation of a Stephen King story.
    Based on a book by acclaimed author Stephen King, "Hearts in Atlantis" tells the story of a boy whose friendship with a mysterious stranger forever changes the way he sees the world. Although the film opens with fifty year old Bobby Garfield being played by actor David Morse, it soon flashes back to Bobby's 11th year, and young newcomer Anton Yelchin takes over from there.
    Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins plays Ted Brautigan, the mysterious traveller who rents an upstairs room in the house of Bobby's mother, played by Hope Davis. Soon, Bobby and Ted are spending all their days together, the boy helping Ted read the newspaper and the older man teaching Bobby lessons in life.
    The film maintains some of the book's supernatural content, as Brautigan turns out to be a psychic who's on the run from some shadowy government agents. But director Scott Hicks, who previously brought "Shine" and "Snow Falling on Cedars" to the big screen, toned down the other-wordly elements in favour of more time spent developing the relationship between Ted and Bobby. He calls the characters Stephen King's greatest gift as a writer.
    Hicks had a challenge finding a young boy who could hold the screen opposite an actor of Hopkins' stature. He found now 12-year old Anton Yelchin after an exhaustive search that included auditioning hundreds of children. Yelchin's biggest challenge was getting over his intimidation at the thought of acting opposite Hopkins, who, to this day, he still insists on referring to only as "Sir" Anthony.
    But once both actors were on the set and the cameras were rolling, that intimidation factor was gone, replaced by what Hopkins describes as incredible talent on the part of the young newcomer.
    Besides the chance to work with Hicks, Hopkins also relished the chance to deliver dialogue written by screenwriter William Goldman, who previously adapted the Stephen King story "The Body" into the Rob Reiner feature film "Stand By Me."
    "Hearts in Atlantis" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, September 28.
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