King of the mountain

Under the Mountain director Jonathan King hopes his version of the Kiwi classic will be as much loved as the original book and TV series, writes JAMES CROOT.

Like most Kiwi kids of a certain vintage, Jonathan King was spellbound and inspired by Under the Mountain.

But unlike most of the others, he has had the chance to live out the fantasy - twice.

"I got to play Theo in the Radio New Zealand adaptation of the book with the girl [Kirsty Wilkinson] who had played Rachel in the TV series, just a year or so after it screened."

Now he is the driving force behind the big-budget adaptation of Maurice Gee's much-loved 1979 book about twins battling an alien force that wants to turn the world into mud.

"I first read the book when I was 10, and like many New Zealanders, I kind of grew up with the story," says King. However, he admits it was writer Matt Grainger who first had the idea of turning it into a film. "When I met him six or seven years ago, he was actually writing a treatment with some other producers. That didn't turn out and after we wrote The Tattooist together, and he was the script editor on my film Black Sheep, we had the opportunity to say what we wanted to do next. We thought, 'Let's have a go at Under the Mountain', so we picked up the option and moved quite quickly from there."

King says the appeal of the story for him was that like Star Wars or Brazil - formative films for him when he was growing up - it had the potential to transport people to a different world. "And one of the great things about Under the Mountain is that it takes place in our corner of the world."

However, he warns older fans of the book and the television series that there are quite a few changes to the story.

"We've deliberately made the twins older [around 15 rather than 11] and we've made the backstory a bit darker.

"We didn't want it to be, 'Oh gosh, we're having an adventure on our holidays'. We wanted it to be scarier and the stakes a bit higher - a personal life or death thing."

Likewise, the phrases "Go down, you people of the mud!" and "We bring you the gift of oblivion!" have been excised from the film.

"When we were looking at the mechanics of the story, we asked ourselves: 'What is the greatest challenge these kids have?' " says King. "Is it to remember some magic words? That's been so well explored in Harry Potter, and magic was an idea that we wanted to step back from."

Equally important to King was that the film presented a "real" New Zealand.

"Funnily enough, that's something we don't see much of. We did a bit of research into Auckland's volcanic history, which unfortunately doesn't quite jibe with the story, but you do hear about people's back gardens in Mt Eden having lava tunnels."

When it came to casting, Sam Neill's agreement to play the mysterious mentor Mr Jones was key, says King.

"It was important to get Sam onboard both from a business sense and for the character. We wanted to get a star of a certain stature and Sam is the only New Zealander who fits that bill. We were thrilled when he said yes.

"With Mr Wilberforce [the book's chief bad guy] being described as being two-metres tall, Oliver Driver was an obvious local option to play him.

"I've worked with him before and he's such a delight. He had the most gruelling makeup regime, which he hated, but he was so professional and so great."

Although King thought finding suitable actors to play the twins would be difficult, it didn't turn out that way.

"We planned for extensive auditions and did actually see 500 kids from throughout New Zealand in the three main centres. However, the two we've got [Sophie McBride and Tom Cameron] emerged very quickly."

In preparation for the shoot, King deliberately avoided the 1981 television series, instead drawing inspiration from the likes of John Carpenter's The Thing, the 1970s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers ("the paranoia and sliminess of it"), Alien and the stories of HP Lovecraft. "We wanted to create organic horror with visceral ickiness."

To help add to the foreboding atmosphere, King hired Victoria Kelly, with whom he had worked on Black Sheep, to come up with the score. "The films I grew up on, like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, had scores by John Williams that were such a big part of the movie. We wanted something on that kind of scale, presence and role in setting the mood. I don't think Victoria realised how much music there would be in the film and got a bit daunted. Fortunately, we were able to get the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra involved at a much reduced rate, which really helped create a great vibe."

King says the toughest part of the shoot was dealing with the weather. "It rained solidly for two or three weeks at the start. It was just brutal. It meant we were thrown deep into the indoor talky stuff early on. Another challenge was shooting on the water, which is always physically and logistically demanding, and over at Rangitoto. It was a harsh environment and we slept out there overnight with the gear.

So far King has been delighted with how the film has been received on its few screenings overseas.

"I sat with audiences at the Toronto Film Festival and they jumped and laughed in the right places. It is aimed at a new generation, but it would be really cool if that older generation go and say, 'It was great to revisit that story'."

He says that while Gee was waiting until this week's New Zealand premiere to see the film, his daughter, Abby, to whom the book is dedicated, worked on the film in the visual-effects department.

"He has read the script and gave us his blessing on what we've done to the story."

Tourism Auckland have also expressed delight with the film and are planning ways of marketing the city around the movie, says King.

"Auckland does look great in the movie, although we wanted it to look scary. We're also hoping that the Wilberforce house becomes like New Zealand's version of the Psycho house. It would be cool if people started going to look for it."

He is it pains, however, to point out that Under the Mountain isn't just an Auckland film.

"This is a New Zealand film, and after all, Auckland gets blown up at the end, which we're sure the rest of country would love to see."

Aboutface

Oliver Driver admits the original Under the Mountain TV series had a profound effect on him.

"I was the absolute target market for it. I was about seven at the time, lived in Takapuna and had a friend who lived right on Lake Pupuke. I used to believe there were tunnels and I was absolutely petrified of swimming in the lake."

So when he was offered the role of Mr Wilberforce in the big budget cinematic version, 35-year-old Driver jumped at the opportunity.

"For our generation it was one of the truly great shows and the chance to play New Zealand's only true film and television villain? I mean who else is there - Count Homogenised and Jake the Muss?"

However, his delight quickly turned to horror when he discovered how much time he'd be spending in the makeup chair.

"It was the first time I'd done that amount of prosthetic stuff, although I did a little bit in Black Sheep. It was horrible. I'd get there at 4am, two hours before the crew, and spend three or four hours in the makeup chair and come out of it not being able to speak, see or hear and have to stay like that for 16 hours. It's very isolating. I'm normally a very social person on set. I like to make jokes, have fun and interact with people. I wasn't able to do that, I just had to sit in the trailer so nothing fell off or broke down. Having said that, I'd probably do that again, but it is a hugely draining and taxing procedure."

It also made preparation for the role rather tricky, says Driver.

"There wasn't a lot I could do until the makeup was on. It became a memory game, 'oh when I do this, my face looks like this'. I'd check the monitor to see what I thought I was doing was what I was doing."

Regular watchers of Driver on TV3's Sunrise will barely recognise the lanky actor under the copious amounts of silicon designed to age and alien-ate him.

"I hardly recognised myself," he says. "It's going to do nothing for my future career prospects. Directors are going to go, 'give me that old guy'."

Under the Mountain marks Driver's second collaboration with director Jonathan King (Black Sheep was the first). He says he enjoys working with him because "he's got a really strong picture in his head of what he wants and he isn't precious".

"He makes the set fun and an enjoyable process and you trust him. He tells you what he wants but lets you have input into it as well.

"I would love to be his Bruce Campbell," Driver adds in reference to the chisel-jawed actor who is the muse of Spider-Man director Sam Raimi and appears in all his films.

What really impressed him about Under the Mountain was the scale of the project.

"Normally when you turn up to do a New Zealand movie you kind of expect it to be done on a wing and a prayer for $4. This had a bit of money behind it. I turned up and they'd built a house and used big crane shots."

He likens the new version of Under the Mountain to the noughties update of Dr Who.

"It's got more special effects and they have taken the story and put a new twist on it while still paying homage to the original."

Although quite happy splitting his time between TV, theatre and film, he says he would love to do a picture a year: "Some friends of mine are trying to develop The Halfmen of O [another Maurice Gee story] and I'd really like to see an Edmund Hillary movie, with me playing Hillary. Actually, I've got a couple of projects in development which I would like to direct. I don't know much about camera and shots but I do know a hell of a lot about how to get great performances out of actors. You have to pick what you do really carefully because you've got to nail your first one so you get an opportunity to do a second."

* Under the Mountain is now screening.

- © Fairfax NZ News