If ever a movie should have had its ducks in a row, it would be Elton John and David Furnish's pet project Gnomeo and Juliet. A G-rated adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, it featured rising stars James McAvoy and Emily Blunt as lovers caught between two rival gangs of garden gnomes.
Despite its star-studded cast - that included Patrick Stewart, Hulk Hogan, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith and Ozzy Osbourne - nine writers working on the script, plus a score featuring both new and classic songs from producer Elton John, the film earned mixed reviews and a modest return of $176 million.
To promote the film's Blu-Ray and DVD release on May 24th, Suite 101 sat down in a roundtable interview with director Kelly Asbury.
"It sounded like a funny idea," Asbury said about his initial attraction to the film. "Elton was the one who got in touch with me. His company Rocket Pictures teamed with Disney to make this film. I was invited to join the party! Lucky me!"
The movie had been in development by London-based Rocket Pictures for a while, based on a spec script by Rob Sprackling and John Smith.
Once Asbury accepted the role of director, he swiftly dropped original leads Ewan McGregor and Kate Winslet for James McAvoy and Emily Blunt. "I wanted to start with a clean slate," he explains.
"I was able to have complete input regarding the actors who were cast in the movie," he said. "The casting director, Gale Stevens, would send me several choices of voice samples for each character - and I would ask her not to tell me who the actor was."
Together with his producers, Asbury then listened to the voices while looking at pictures of the characters - watching and listening for the perfect fit.
"Fortunately," says Asbury, "the studio agreed with all my ultimate choices and I got the cast I wanted."
As for the film's look, he says, ""I wanted Gnomeo and Juliet to look as "real" as possible and CGI provided that best."
Asbury was well acquainted with CGI animation, having directed the mega-hit Shrek 2. He also didn't need much convincing to have Gnomeo and Juliet rendered in the latest technique du jour: 3-D.
"I don't believe in doing a film in 3-D just for the sake of 3-D," he says. "Gnomeo and Juliet took place at very low, steep angles and the scale of the gnomes world was enhanced by 3-D, therefore I always felt it was a story that would be better told that way."
But even before the animators turned on their computers, serious changes needed to be made to Sprackling and Smith's script. A staggering 9 writers (ten if you include original playwright William Shakespeare) ended up leaving their prints on the script before it was completed.
As one of those writers, Asbury emphasized the importance of storyboarding to make sure a film was in place before the animators went to work.
"(Developing a screenplay) as much about the storyboards as it is the script," he says. "While a screenplay certainly is the starting point, the visual story reel - a temporary version of the movie told in real time using still drawings, temporary voices, sound and music - becomes the blueprint. That story reel is in a constant state of revision and is the tool used to test whether a movie is working.
"Animated movies are fully planned and edited BEFORE they are actually put into production. We make the movie twice: Once as a story reel and once as the finished, animated, rendered movie."
(In Part 2 of our interview, Kelly Asbury delves more into making Gnomeo and Juliet.)
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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