Hook (film)

Hook

Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by
Based on Characters created 
by J. M. Barrie
Starring
Music by John Williams
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Edited by Michael Kahn
Production
company
Distributed by TriStar Pictures
Release dates
  • December 11, 1991 (1991-12-11)
Running time
 141 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $70 million[2]
Box office $300.9 million

Hook is a 1991 American fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg[3] and written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, Robin Williams as Peter Pan/Peter Banning, Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell, Bob Hoskins as Smee, Maggie Smith as Granny Wendy, Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning, and Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning. The film acts as a sequel to J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy focusing on an adult Peter Pan who has forgotten all about his childhood. In his new life, Peter Pan is known as Peter Banning, a successful but unimaginative corporate lawyer with a wife (Wendy's granddaughter) and two children. However, when the old enemy of his past, Hook, kidnaps his children, Peter once again returns to Neverland in order to save them. Along the journey Peter reclaims his youthful spirit that unlocks the memory to his past.

Spielberg began developing the film in the early 1980s with Walt Disney Productions and Paramount Pictures, which would have followed the story line seen in the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film. Peter Pan entered pre-production in 1985, but Spielberg abandoned the project. James V. Hart developed the script with director, Nick Castle and TriStar Pictures before Spielberg decided to direct in 1989. Hook was shot almost entirely on sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and while it was a commercial success, its box office intake was lower than expected. Hook was nominated in five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. It also spawned merchandise, including video games, action figures, and comic book adaptations.

Plot

Peter Banning is a successful, middle-aged corporate lawyer living in San Francisco but spends more time at work in the office with his coworkers than at home with his wife Moira and two young children Jack and Maggie. Although Peter is able to see Maggie's school play production of Peter Pan, he misses Jack's baseball game, breaking his promise. The Bannings fly to London to visit Moira's grandmother, Wendy Darling, to celebrate her charity work for orphans, which once included Peter. During the visit, Peter is distracted by phone calls from his business partner. On one occasion, he shouts at his children when they interrupt him and in frustration, Moira throws his cellphone out a window.

Later, while Peter, Moira, and Wendy attend a banquet ceremony hosted by Great Ormond Street Hospital, a strange presence abducts Jack and Maggie from their beds in the nursery. The senile Tootles, another one of Wendy's orphans who lives at her house, insists that Captain Hook has kidnapped the children as revenge and has taken them to summon Peter back to Neverland. Peter dismisses Tootles' warning and calls the police instead. Late that night Wendy tells Peter that the stories about Neverland are all true and he is actually the real Peter Pan but has lost all his childhood memories when he decided to stay in London with her several decades ago. In a state of denial, Peter gets drunk in the nursery where Tinker Bell arrives. After failing to convince Peter about Neverland, she knocks him unconscious and carries him into the night sky and towards the second star to the right.

Confused and disoriented, Peter wakes up in Neverland with a hangover where he encounters Captain Hook and his pirates, who are holding his children hostage. Hook is disgusted by Peter's adult self and becomes disillusioned by his foe who is no longer capable of providing a good fight. Tinker Bell and Hook make a deal to give Peter three days to be trained to his former self for a climactic battle. After a brief encounter with a group of mermaids in the lagoon, Peter stumbles upon the new generation of Lost Boys, led by a new leader Rufio, who possesses Pan's legendary sword. Tinker Bell convinces the boys to give Peter a chance and they agree to help and train him. During this process Peter begins to rediscover his inner child and sense of imagination. Meanwhile, Mr. Smee suggests to Hook that he manipulate Jack and Maggie into loving him in order to break Peter's spirit. Maggie despises Hook, but Jack begins to see Hook as a father figure.

In a disguise, Peter sadly witnesses Jack playing baseball with Hook, who treats him as a son. Knowing that he must learn how to fly again to prove himself and retrieve his children, Peter unsuccessfully tries to remember how until he encounters his own shadow, which leads him to the old tree home of the original Lost Boys. He reunites with Tinker Bell and remembers his past, recalling how he came to Neverland as an infant, how he met Wendy and how he fell in love with Wendy's granddaughter Moira and chose to grow up. Realizing being a father is his new happy thought, Peter rises up in the sky and dons his childhood outfit. He regains leadership of the lost boys who launch an attack on Hook and the pirates on the third day. During the battle, Peter rescues Maggie and promises to be a better father to Jack.

When Hook slays Rufio, Peter and Hook face off in a final duel, ending in Peter's victory. Refusing to leave honorably, Hook attempts to attack Peter when his back is turned, but the stuffed crocodile that once tormented him mysteriously comes back to life one final time and consumes him. Peter gives the lost boy called Thud Butt his sword, knighting him as the boy's official new leader before departing from Neverland with his children. Peter finds himself in Kensington Gardens, where he says a final goodbye to Tinker Bell who confesses her unrequited love for him. Returning to Wendy's house, Peter reunites with his family and hands a bag of marbles to Tootles, who discovers they contain pixie dust and flies off out the window to return to Neverland. Wendy suggest that Peter's adventures are over, but Peter replies, "To live would be an awfully big adventure."

Cast

Production

Inspiration

Spielberg found close personal connection to the film. The troubled relationship between Peter and his son echoed Spielberg's relationship with his father. Previous Spielberg films that explored a dysfunctional father-son relationship included E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Peter Banning's "quest for success" paralleled Spielberg starting out as a film director and transforming into a Hollywood business magnate.[4] "I think a lot of people today are losing their imagination because they are work-driven. They are so self-involved with work and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and family almost become incidental. I have even experienced it myself when I have been on a very tough shoot and I've not seen my kids except on weekends. They ask for my time and I can't give it to them because I'm working."[5] Like Peter Banning at the beginning of Hook, Spielberg has a fear of flying. He feels that Peter Pan's "enduring quality" in the storyline is simply to fly. "Anytime anything flies, whether it's Superman, Batman, or E.T., it's got to be a tip of the hat to Peter Pan," Spielberg reflected in a 1992 interview. "Peter Pan was the first time I saw anybody fly. Before I saw Superman, before I saw Batman, and of course before I saw any superheroes, my first memory of anybody flying is in Peter Pan."[5]

Pre-production

J. M. Barrie considered writing a story in which Peter Pan grew up; his 1920 notes for the latest stage revival of Peter Pan included possible titles for another play: The Man Who Couldn't Grow Up or The Old Age of Peter Pan.[6] The genesis of Hook started when director Steven Spielberg's mother often read him Peter and Wendy as a bedtime story. Spielberg explained in 1985, "When I was eleven years old I actually directed the story during a school production. I have always felt like Peter Pan. I still feel like Peter Pan. It has been very hard for me to grow up, I'm a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome."[7]

In the early 1980s, Spielberg began to develop a film with Walt Disney Pictures that would have closely followed the storyline of the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film.[5] He also considered directing Peter Pan as a musical with Michael Jackson in the lead.[8] Jackson expressed interest in the part, but was not interested in Spielberg's vision of an adult Peter Pan who had forgotten about his past.[9] The project was taken to Paramount Pictures, where James V. Hart wrote the first script with Dustin Hoffman already cast as Captain Hook.[8] Peter Pan entered pre-production in 1985 for filming to begin at sound stages in England. Elliot Scott had been hired as production designer.[5] With the birth of his first son Max in 1985, Spielberg decided to drop out. "I decided not to make Peter Pan when I had my first child," Spielberg commented. "I didn't want to go to London and have seven kids on wires in front of blue screens. I wanted to be home as a dad."[8] Around this time, Spielberg considered directing Big, which carried similar motifs and themes with Peter Pan.[8] In 1987, Spielberg "permanently abandoned" Peter Pan, feeling he expressed his childhood and adult themes in Empire of the Sun.[10]

Meanwhile, Paramount and Hart moved forward on production with Nick Castle as director. Hart began to work on a new storyline when his son, Jake, showed his family a drawing. "We asked Jake what it was and he said it was a crocodile eating Captain Hook, but that the crocodile really didn't eat him, he got away," Hart reflected. "As it happens, I had been trying to crack Peter Pan for years, but I didn't just want to do a remake. So I went, 'Wow. Hook is not dead. The crocodile is. We've all been fooled'. In 1986 our family was having dinner and Jake said, 'Daddy, did Peter Pan ever grow up?' My immediate response was, 'No, of course not'. And Jake said, 'But what if he did?' I realized that Peter did grow up, just like all of us baby boomers who are now in our forties. I patterned him after several of my friends on Wall Street, where the pirates wear three-piece suits and ride in limos."[11]

Filming

By 1989, Ian Rathbone changed the title of Peter Pan to Hook, and took it from Paramount to TriStar Pictures, headed by Mike Medavoy, who was Spielberg's first talent agent. Robin Williams signed on, but Williams and Hoffman had creative differences with Castle. Medavoy saw Hook as a vehicle for Spielberg and Castle was dismissed, but paid a $500,000 settlement.[11] Dodi Fayed, who owned certain rights to make a Peter Pan film, sold his interest to TriStar in exchange for an executive producer credit.[12] Spielberg briefly worked together with Hart to rewrite the script[5] before hiring Malia Scotch Marmo to rewrite Captain Hook's dialog and Carrie Fisher for Tinker Bell's dialogue. The Writers Guild of America gave Hart and Marmo screenplay credit, while Hart and Castle were credited with the story. Fisher went uncredited. Filming began on February 19, 1991, occupying nine sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.[2] Stage 30 housed the Neverland Lost Boys playground, while Stage 10 supplied Captain Hook's ship cabin. Hidden hydraulics were installed to rock the setpiece to simulate a swaying ship, but the filmmakers found the movement distracted the dialogue, so the idea was dropped.[13]

Stage 27 housed the full-sized pirate ship Jolly Roger and the surrounding Pirate Wharf.[13] Industrial Light & Magic provided the visual effects sequences. This marked the beginning of Tony Swatton's career, as he was asked to make weaponry for the film. Hook was financed by Amblin Entertainment and TriStar Pictures, with TriStar distributing the film. Spielberg brought on John Napier as a "visual consultant", having been impressed with his work on Cats. The original production budget was set at $48 million, but ended up between $60–80 million.[2][14] The primary reason for the increased budget was the shooting schedule, which ran 40 days over its original 76 day schedule. Spielberg explained, "It was all my fault. I began to work at a slower pace than I usually do."[14]

Soundtrack

Hook: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by John Williams
Released November 26, 1991 (1991-11-26) (original)
March 27, 2012 (2012-03-27) (reissue)[15]
Length 75:18 (original)
140:34 (reissue)
Label Epic Records (original)
La-La Land Records (reissue)
John Williams chronology
Home Alone Hook JFK

The film score was composed and conducted by John Williams. Williams was brought in at an early stage when Spielberg was considering making the film as a musical. Accordingly, Williams wrote around eight songs for the project at this stage. The idea was later abandoned. Most of Williams' song ideas were incorporated into the instrumental score, though two songs survive as songs in the finished film: "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" and "When You're Alone", both with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.

The original 1991 issue was released by Epic Records.[16] In 2012, a limited edition of the soundtrack, called Hook: Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released by La-La Land Records and Sony Music. It contains almost the complete score with alternates and unused material. It also contains liner notes that explain the film's production and score recording.

Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack

Video games

Several video games based on the film and bearing the same name were released between 1991 and 1993. An Arcade beat 'em up produced by Japanese company Irem was released in 1992, that allowed for single player and co-operative gameplay between four players. The player(s) can select to play as Peter Pan or one of four Lost Boys. A side-scrolling home console game was also released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega CD, Sega Genesis and the handheld Sega Game Gear. The game was originally developed by Ukiyotei for the SNES before being ported by Core Design (Sega CD and Sega Genesis) and Spidersoft (Game Gear). All versions were published by Sony Imagesoft. The Sega CD version received a European release in 1993. The adult Peter Banning is the only playable character.

Another side-scrolling platformer was released in 1992 for the NES and Nintendo Game Boy. The game was developed by Ocean Software and published by Sony Imagesoft. Ocean Software also developed and published a separate point and click adventure game in 1991 for the Commodore 64 and Amiga followed by Atari ST and PC versions in 1992. The game's main objective was to escape the Pirate City, reach the Lost Boys' hideout and try to become Peter Pan in order to fight once more with Captain Hook.

Reception

Box office

Spielberg, Williams and Hoffman did not take salaries for the film. Their deal called for the trio to split 40% of TriStar Pictures' gross revenues. They were to receive $20 million from the first $50 million in gross theatrical film rentals, with TriStar keeping the next $70 million in rentals before the three resumed receiving their percentage.[2] Hook was released in North America on December 11, 1991, earning $13,522,535 in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $119,654,823 in North America and $181,200,000 in foreign countries, accumulating a worldwide total of $300,854,823.[17] It is the fifth-highest-grossing "pirate-themed" film, behind all four films in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.[18] In North America totals, Hook was the sixth-highest-grossing film in 1991,[19] and fourth-highest-grossing worldwide.[20] While Hook ended up making a profit of $50 million for the studio, yet it was still declared a financial disappointment,[21] having been overshadowed by the release of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and a decline in box-office receipts compared to the previous years.[22]

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 30% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 40 reviews, certifying it "Rotten", with an average rating of 4.4/10. The site's consensus states: "The look of Hook is lively indeed but Steven Spielberg directs on autopilot here, giving in too quickly to his sentimental, syrupy qualities."[23] On Metacritic, the film has a 52 out of 100 rating, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews", and it's also Steven Spielberg's first critical failure response.[24] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated that "The sad thing about the screenplay for "Hook" is that it’s so correctly titled: This whole construction is really nothing more than a hook on which to hang a new version of the Peter Pan story. No effort is made to involve Peter’s magic in the changed world he now inhabits, and little thought has been given to Captain Hook’s extraordinary persistence in wanting to revisit the events of the past. The failure in Hook was its inability to re-imagine the material, to find something new, fresh or urgent to do with the Peter Pan myth. Lacking that, Spielberg should simply have remade the original story, straight, for the '90s generation."[25] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine felt Hook would "only appeal to the baby boomer generation" and highly criticized the sword-fighting choreography.[26] Vincent Canby of The New York Times felt the story structure was not well balanced, feeling Spielberg depended too much on art direction.[27] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post was one of few who gave the film a positive review. Hinson elaborated on crucial themes of children, adulthood and loss of innocence. However, he observed that Spielberg "was stuck too much in a theme park world".[28]

Hook was nominated for five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. This included Best Production Design (Norman Garwood, Garrett Lewis) (lost to Bugsy), Best Costume Design (lost to Bugsy), Best Visual Effects (lost to Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Best Makeup (lost to Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and Best Original Song ("When You're Alone", lost to Beauty and the Beast).[29] Hook lost the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film to Aladdin, in which Williams co-starred,[30] while cinematographer Dean Cundey was nominated for his work by the American Society of Cinematographers.[31] Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (lost to Williams for The Fisher King).[32] John Williams was given a Grammy Award nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media;[33] Julia Roberts received a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress (lost to Sean Young as the dead twin in A Kiss Before Dying).[34]

In 2011, Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly: "There are parts of Hook I love. I'm really proud of my work right up through Peter being hauled off in the parachute out the window, heading for Neverland. I'm a little less proud of the Neverland sequences, because I'm uncomfortable with that highly stylized world that today, of course, I would probably have done with live-action character work inside a completely digital set. But we didn't have the technology to do it then, and my imagination only went as far as building physical sets and trying to paint trees blue and red."[35] Spielberg gave a more blunt assessment in a 2013 interview on Kermode & Mayo's Film Review Show: "I wanna see Hook again because I so don't like that movie, and I'm hoping someday I'll see it again and perhaps like some of it."[36]

References

  1. ↑ "HOOK (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. January 17, 1992. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Joseph McBride (1997). Steven Spielberg: A Biography. New York City: Faber and Faber. p. 411. ISBN 0-571-19177-0.
  3. ↑ "Hook". TCM database. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  4. ↑ McBride, p. 413.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Ana Maria Bahiana (March 1992). "Hook", Cinema Papers, pp. 67—69.
  6. ↑ Andrew Birkin (2003). J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09822-8.
  7. ↑ McBride, p.42—43
  8. 1 2 3 4 McBride, p. 409.
  9. ↑ http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2011/12/04/michael_jackson_was_steven_spielbergs_
  10. ↑ Myra Forsberg (1988-01-10). "Spielberg at 40: The Man and the Child". The New York Times.
  11. 1 2 McBride, p. 410.
  12. ↑ Medavoy, Mike and Young, Josh (2002). You're Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot (p. 230). New York City: Atria Books
  13. 1 2 DVD production notes
  14. 1 2 McBride, p. 412.
  15. ↑ "HOOK 2CD Set Includes ‘Over 65 minutes of Music Previously Unreleased’". JWFan. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Hook - John Williams". AllMusic. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Hook". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  18. ↑ "Pirate Movies". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  19. ↑ "1991 Domestic Totals". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  20. ↑ "1991 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  21. ↑ Dretzka, Gary. "Medavoy's Method." Chicago Tribune (December 8, 1996).
  22. ↑ Medavoy, Mike and Young, Josh (2002). You're Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot (p. 234-235). New York City: Atria Books
  23. ↑ "Hook". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2011-07-12.
  24. ↑ "Hook reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2016-01-09.
  25. ↑ "Hook". Roger Ebert.com. 1991-12-11. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  26. ↑ Peter Travers (1991-12-11). "Hook". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  27. ↑ Vincent Canby (1991-12-11). "Hook". The New York Times.
  28. ↑ Hal Hinson (1991-12-11). "Hook". The Washington Post.
  29. ↑ "Hook". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  30. ↑ "Past Saturn Awards". Saturn Awards.com. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  31. ↑ "7th Annual Awards". American Society of Cinematographers. Archived from the original on November 9, 2006. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  32. ↑ "49th Golden Globe Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  33. ↑ "Grammy Awards of 1991". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  34. ↑ "Twelfth Annual RAZZIE Awards". Golden Raspberry Award. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
  35. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (December 2, 2011), "Steven Spielberg: The EW Interview", Entertainment Weekly.
  36. ↑ "Steven Spielberg interviewed by Kermode and Mayo". 26 January 2013..

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