| Wild Child | |
|---|---|
Promotional film poster |
|
| Directed by | Nick Moore |
| Produced by | Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Diana Phillips |
| Written by | Lucy Dahl |
| Starring | Emma Roberts Alex Pettyfer Natasha Richardson Linzey Cocker Aidan Quinn Shirley Henderson |
| Music by | Michael Price |
| Cinematography | Chris Seager |
| Editing by | Simon Cozens |
| Studio | StudioCanal Relativity Media Working Title Films |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 15, 2008 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States United Kingdom France |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $21,972,336 |
Wild Child is a 2008 American/British/French teen romantic dramedy film starring Emma Roberts, Alex Pettyfer and Natasha Richardson. The film made its American television premiere on ABC Family on August 8, 2010.[1]
Contents |
In a wild prank with her friends, Poppy Moore (Emma Roberts), an affluent California teenager, ruins all her father's (Aidan Quinn) girlfriend's belongings. When her father angrily arrives, he tells her that he is sending her to boarding school in England.
Arriving at the school, called Abbey Mount, Poppy meets the headmistress, Mrs. Kingsley (Natasha Richardson), head girl, Harriet Bentley (Georgia King), and her 'big sister', Kate (Kimberley Nixon). She is miserable in her new life as she does not fit in and has no friends. After two weeks, Poppy sneaks out after lights-out and writes an email to Ruby, her former best friend, complaining about her new school. She sees one of her roommates, Drippy (Juno Temple) walking through the hall, and follows her to the kitchen, where she sees her indulging on ice cream.
Disgusted, Poppy walks back. As she is, however, there is a fire drill, and she sneaks out the window to avoid being caught in the halls without permission. She ends up in the bathroom of an unknown man, who she assumes is a teacher, and tells him her name and is directed on how to get out. During a fight that ensued with Harriet, she learns that the person was actually Freddie Kingsley (Alex Pettyfer), the headmistress's son, and Harriet becomes embarrassed and angry when Poppy exposes her crush on Freddie.
After getting dirty water on her by Harriet's "maid" (really an intimidated Year 7), Poppy and Kate become semi-friends. Revealing that the girls' dinosaur cell phones were decoys meant to be confiscated, Kate lets Poppy use hers to call Ruby. When Ruby sees Poppy's message, she is disgusted at Poppy's appearance and it is revealed that Poppy's boyfriend, Roddy, has been cheating on her with Ruby. After Poppy reveals that her mother died several years ago, her roommates decide to help her get expelled. Together they carry out several pranks which gradually brings them closer together. When none of their plans work, they decide to seduce Freddie, who is strictly forbidden to fraternize with any of the girls. After dancing with Freddie at the school dance, Poppy trips and hits her head which leads Freddie to take the concussed Poppy outside for air where he attempts to kiss her, but is caught by Harriet's Followers. Before she leaves, however, he asks her out on a date. The next day, after being scolded by Mrs. Kingsley for her behaviour and drinking the previous night, Poppy discovers her talent for lacrosse and whips the school's team into shape, getting them into the finals (to the annoyance of Harriet, who was the former captain of the team). On the date, Poppy finds herself falling for Freddie. They kiss before Poppy returns to school.
In her room, Poppy finds her roommates reading an email supposedly sent by Poppy, stating that she was only pretending to be friends with them so they would help her get expelled. She then finds that Freddie has been given a similar email and is thereafter ignored by her friends. With no one else to turn to, Poppy sneaks down to the cook's room and calls Ruby, who accidentally reveals how much she dislikes Poppy and that she is seeing Poppy's boyfriend.
Feeling even more alone, Poppy starts playing with her lighter and accidentally sets a curtain on fire. Hearing footsteps, she quickly puts out the fire and runs off. A few minutes later, she looks out her window to see a fire and wakes the school.
When they find that Drippy is missing, Poppy runs into the burning school to rescue her in the freezer (indulging her ice cream craving). After the fire is put out, Freddie finds her lighter and gives it back to her, refusing to listen to what happened and assuming that Poppy was the one who lit the building on fire.
While Poppy waits for the Honour Court to decide whether or not she would be expelled, Freddie finds her crying and becomes convinced that the fire was an accident. During the hearing, Poppy tells her story, and at the same time, her roommates find out that Poppy did not send the emails. Going to the court, they stand up for Poppy and Harriet accidentally confesses to restarting the fire after Poppy had put it out.
The movie is left off at the lacrosse finals. Poppy's father comes to the game and is shocked by Poppy's dramatic change in appearance and how much she looks like her mother, who was also captain of the lacrosse team at Abbey Mount. Abbey Mount wins the lacrosse finals and Harriet is expelled.
Some months later, Poppy and her friends (including Freddie) are in the process of relaxing in Malibu. Poppy ignores Ruby's phone calls, now fully aware that she was not the friend she thought she was. The film ends as they prepare to jump off the cliff that helped her towards finding herself and making proper friends.
The film was filmed at Cobham Hall, Kent, Balls Park, Hertford, Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire and the centre of Haworth, England and on location in Los Angeles, California. Children from surrounding schools were selected to be extras in scenes on location at Balls Park, Hertford. Oxford University Lacrosse and Cranbrook Lacrosse Club provided a group of lacrosse playing extras and some referees for the film. Emma Roberts dyed her hair dark brown for this role, however for the beginning part of the film she wears a long, blonde wig. The wrap party was held on September 4, 2007 in London, before some of the cast went to Los Angeles to finish filming.
To celebrate the release of Wild Child, Universal Pictures staged the Wild Child Pink Premiere at the Braehead Xscape in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday 30 July. Both stars of the film, Emma Roberts and Alex Pettyfer, attended.
This film features actress Natasha Richardson's final on-screen performance.
Wild Child was reportedly written to be classified 15 by the BBFC but was edited to a 12A for "moderate language and sex references" and by the MPAA to a PG-13 by for "some coarse and suggestive content, sex references, and language - all involving teens". Because of lapses in the story, such as Poppy retrieving a 'mystery' bag from a bottle shop which was then drunk by the girls before the dance, people have speculated as to which scenes may have been cut. It is also expected that some scenes may have been either re-shot or dubbed to eliminate coarse language. Other scenes could have possibly been extended including the scene with Ruby and Poppy's boyfriend going to the pool.
The film is rated PG in Australia, however the rating was later changed to M in New Zealand.
Wild Child was released in the United Kingdom on August 15 taking fifth place at the box office with $2,196,366 from 359 cinemas with an average of $6,118. In its fourth weekend, it dropped to twelfth place. As of November 2, 2008, Wild Child has made an unexpected $8,235,794. In Australia, Wild Child was released September 18 taking fourth place with only 93 cinemas, making $315,114.[2] The following week, it made a 60% increase with $566,918[3] but still slipped to 6th place. On October 16, Wild Child fell to 11th. As of November 14, 2008, Wild Child's release in Australia has yet again surprised officials with its success making US$3,268,424[3] (AUD$4,236,579.[4] The film has been released in many other countries, proving popular in some: the Netherlands ($1,553,825) and not so popular in others. As of January 4, 2008, the film had grossed $19,786,125 worldwide but was expected to reach $20 million once released in bigger markets: France, Germany and Russia around December or January. Universal had planned a North American release in the summer of 2009, but canceled it and chose to release the movie directly to DVD.
Wild Child has a 42% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews with the consensus that "More mild than wild. This tween comedy mess falls flat on its face due to poor characters, poor direction and poor jokes".[5] The Sun Online gave the film 2/5 saying "WILD? More like mild, unless you think short skirts and “horse face” put-downs are outrageous." Though Urban Cinefile gave Wild Child a much more favourable review stating "The film has an energy and honesty about it: it's lively, funny and smart and the characters are appealing."
Wild Child was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2008. In Australia, it was released on January 15, 2009. In the United States, it was released directly to DVD on November 17, 2009.
The "Movie Soundtrack Party Album" is the soundtrack for the film of the same name. The soundtrack was available in the United Kingdom and Australia on August 18, 2008. In the United States, the soundtrack has not been released and it was expected for early 2009.
The following songs appeared in the movie and in trailers, although they were not included on the soundtrack for the film.