Miss Potter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Miss Potter | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Chris Noonan |
| Written by | Richard Maltby, Jr. |
| Starring | Renée Zellweger Ewan McGregor Bill Paterson Emily Watson |
| Cinematography | Andrew Dunn |
| Distributed by |  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) The Weinstein Company Momentum Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 3 December 2006 10 December 2006 1 February 2007 |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Miss Potter is a 2006 Chris Noonan film. It is a biopic of children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, and combines stories from her own life with animated sequences featuring characters from her stories, such as Peter Rabbit.
Scripted by Richard Maltby, Jr., the director of the Tony-winning Broadway revue, Fosse, the film stars Renée Zellweger in the title role; Ewan McGregor as her publisher and fiancé, Norman Warne; and Lloyd Owen as solicitor William Heelis. Emily Watson stars as Warne's sister, Millie. Lucy Boynton also stars as the young Beatrix Potter.
It was filmed in Cecil Court, Osterley Park, Covent Garden, the Isle of Man and the Lake District. Miss Potter was released on 29 December 2006 so that the film could compete for the 2007 Academy Awards. The film was intended to be released generally on 12 January 2007, however Variety.com reported that the Weinstein Company had decided to push a wider release date until after the Academy Awards on February 25, 2007.[1] It was felt that this strategy would give the film a chance to shine in what was already a very crowded movie season. The date seemed to fluctuate a number of times, but the Weinstein Company website ultimately listed its release date as March 9.
The film received generally positive reviews[2] and earned Zellweger her sixth Golden Globe nomination.
Early buzz was overall positive by those few who had been able to see the film during numerous sneak preview showings, but occasionally sprinkled with discussions regarding some of the historical inaccuracies in the film. There also have been both praise and criticism of the casting of this important figure in British literature with American actress Zellweger. These discussions are reminiscent of the initial uproar when Zellweger was cast in the British film role of Bridget Jones, which was developed into a sequel. Zellweger previously had co-starred with McGregor in the 2003 film Down with Love.
[edit] Historical inaccuracies
The film contains some historical inaccuracies about Potter's life. What follows is a list of accurate facts:
- The Warne brothers finally decided to publish Peter Rabbit after Potter successfully had printed and sold several editions herself, and the story originally had been written for a little boy named Noel who was ill. Noel was a child of Potter's favourite governess with whom she remained friends.
- The Tale of the Two Bad Mice was inspired by a doll's house that Norman Warne built for one of his nieces.
- Jemima Puddleduck was a real duck at Hilltop Farm that kept hiding her eggs, and that story was written after Warne's death.
- After Mr Warne dies, his sister describes his symptoms as mainly having consisted of coughing. Yet he died of a virulent form of leukaemia, the manifestations of which do not include coughing [3].
- William Heelis had been neither a groundskeeper nor a childhood acquaintance of Potter's, and she was older than he.
- The books are published out of order. Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit was the first published, the book published next in the film was The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, which was the twelfth book published in real life, long after the third book of the film, The Tale of Two Bad Mice.
[edit] References
- ^ Variety.com, "TWC moves 'Potter' after Oscars", January 31, 2007
- ^ Review: Miss Potter. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-01-21.
- ^ Beatrix Potter, A Life in Nature :: by Linda Lear
