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Stardust

• Director: Matthew Vaughn
• Writer: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn
• Release Date: 10 August 2007 (USA)
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some fantasy violence and risque humor.
• Parents Guide: View content advisory for parents
• Genre: Adventure | Comedy | Family
• Runtime: 127 min

The passage from this world to the fantasy kingdom of Stormhold is through a breach in a wall beside an English village. In the 1800s, a boy becomes a man when he ventures through the breech in pursuit of a fallen star, to prove his love for the village beauty. The star is no lump of rock, it’s a maiden, Yvaine. Tristan, the youth, is not the only one looking for her: three witches, led by Lamia, want her heart to make them young; and, the sons of the dead king of Stormhold want her because she holds a ruby that will give one of them title to the throne. Assisting Tristan are his mother, the victim of a spell, and a transvestite pirate of the skies. Will Tristan win his true love?

From the Gallery

Cast Highlights

• Claire Danes … Yvaine
• Charlie Cox … Tristan Thorn
• Michelle Pfeiffer … Lamia
• Robert De Niro … Captain Shakespeare
• Sienna Miller … Victoria

Watch The Trailer

Trivia

  • Alex Pettyfer auditioned for the role of Tristan Thorn.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar was originally offered the role of Yvaine, but turned it down to spend more time with her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.
  • After initial conversations between Neil Gaiman and Matthew Vaughn about how to make the film, Gaiman found that Vaughn was most comfortable with all the action sequences and adventure bits but needed help with the romance side of the story. To complement Vaughn’s style and better capture all the aspects of the book, Gaiman introduced him to writer Jane Goldman, and the two hit it off and wrote the screenplay.
  • Terry Gilliam was offered the job of directing the movie, but having just finished The Brothers Grimm, wanted a break from fairy tales.
  • All princes wear clothing with a pattern spelling out their number in Roman numerals, composed by smaller Arabic numerals. Furthermore, Septimus wears a vest with the numeral 7 on each button.
  • The last film of Mark Burns who plays Bishop, he died before the film came out.
  • Release prints were delivered to theaters with the fake titles ‘Rusty’ and ‘Bright’.
  • Author Neil Gaiman began writing the novel back in 1994.
  • The lead character’s name was shortened from the book’s Tristran, with a “r” between the “t” and “n”, to Tristan because Tristran was hard to pronounce quickly. However there is one time it is said as “TristRan” instead of “Tristan”. This is during the scene when Tristan remarks that Yvaine sometimes glows, when he suggests jokingly that the thing that Stars do best is to annoy boys called “TristRan Thorn”.
  • Vinnie Jones was offered Ferdy the fence.
  • The three witches share their names with demonic creatures from Greek mythology. Lamia and Mormo were demons who ate children, and Empusa was a creature sent by the goddess Hecate to eat travelers.
  • The Princes’ names all refer back to their place in the family; Primus, the first born (Primary); Secundus, the second born; Tertius, the third (Tertiary) and so on in that fashion. Likewise, Una the Princess, is the first-born daughter. This tradition come from Latin, as some Romans called their children after the order of their birth, though usually as a nickname, only sometimes being a given name, especially with daughters.
  • Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jessica Alba all turned down the role of Yvaine.
  • Much of Ferdy’s dialogue was ad-libbed by Ricky Gervais (for example, telling Lamia he can get her a two-faced dog as a guard dog that can watch front and back entrances at the same time.)
  • Whenever Primus is seen travelling on his quest for the stone, he is alone (“primus” is Latin for “first”). Whenever Septimus is seen on his quest, he is accompanied by six servants, making a total of seven in his group (“septimus” is Latin for “seventh”).
  • The vicious-looking scimitar-shaped glass knife that Lamia uses was originally designed by Matthew Vaughn for Magneto in X-Men: The Last Stand but it was never actually used in that film.
  • Matthew Vaughn had great difficulty in shooting the scenes at the inn to which Lamia entices Yvaine, Tristan and Primus because there were very few occasions on which more than one actor was available on any given day for filming these scenes. Consequently there is a lack of wide shots and tracking shots containing several characters and much use is made of stand-ins in the closer shots to give the impression that all the characters were present.
  • Captain Shakespeare’s flying boat is called Caspartine, named after Matthew Vaughn’s two children Caspar and Clementine.
  • In the mural painted on the outside wall of The Slaughtered Prince pub, the victorious prince standing over the prince that he has slaughtered has Peter O’Toole’s face. The pub name The Slaughtered Prince is a sly reference to the pub The Slaughtered Lamb in An American Werewolf in London.
  • The letter the scientist sent to Dunstan reads, “Dear Sir, Thank you for your inquiry concerning the existence of another world beyond The Wall surrounding your village. In our opinion, the hypothetical existence of such a gateway would run contrary to all known laws of science. Subsequently – in the opinion of my esteemed colleagues and myself, the idea may be safely dismissed as merely colorful rural folklore. I thank you again for your enquiry and hope that our conclusion will enable you to proceed with your life. Yours faithfully,”.
  • When Matthew Vaughn pitched the film to executives at Paramount Pictures, the studio wanted a more recognizable name like Orlando Bloom to play Tristan. It was only after Vaughn had cast Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Claire Danes in the film did Paramount agree to let Vaughn cast Charlie Cox as Tristan.
  • In the original novel, the role of Lamia is actually a rather minor one. It wasn’t until Michelle Pfeiffer signed on to the project that the role was greatly expanded to become one of the main characters.
  • Michelle Pfeiffer was director Matthew Vaughn’s only choice for the role of the witch queen, having been a die-hard fan since first seeing the actress in Grease 2.
  • At the end when Una tells Tristan he is the last surviving male heir, the spirits of the brothers float up and away. But one of the dots turns red and goes down into the fire, presumably Septimus, as he was the most evil of the brothers.
  • The Princes, when killed, are all shown to bleed blue blood. This is a joke hinting at their nobility, as those of royal heritage were said to have blue blood in their veins, rather than red. As the Princes are of royal heritage, they are literally ‘Blue Bloods’. This may also have allowed the filmmakers to depict greater violence on screen, while maintaining a lower age appropriate rating.

Official Site

StardustMovie.com