A Monster Calls
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All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Conor is a twelve-year-old boy dealing with more than any child should have to face. His mother is seriously ill, he is being bullied at school, and he lives with his strict grandmother, all while his father is absent. At night, a yew tree outside his window comes to life as a huge, knotted monster that visits him and tells him stories, gradually pushing him toward a difficult truth he has been refusing to accept. The film blends fantasy with a boy's struggle to face loss and fear.
The film was directed by J. A. Bayona, his fourth feature after The Orphanage, The Impossible and Nine Days in Haiti. Patrick Ness wrote the screenplay, Belén Atienza produced, and the cast includes Lewis MacDougall as Conor, Sigourney Weaver as his grandmother, Felicity Jones as his mother, Toby Kebbell as his father, Ben Moor and James Melville. It was a co-production between the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States.
Made for 43 million dollars, the film returned 47 million dollars worldwide, a modest result against its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from 99,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.3/10 from 3,647 votes, indicating a generally favourable audience response. A critics' rating of 7.6/10 from 265 reviews is in line with those figures.
What's left behind the scenes
- Lewis MacDougall turned 12 years old at the start of filming, just like his character.
- In preparation for the role of Lizzie, Felicity Jones visited several oncologists and spoke with women undergoing chemotherapy.
- Sigourney Weaver's mother was a British actress, so portraying a British accent was not difficult for her.
- Lewis MacDougall's mother died in 2013, shortly before the start of his filming in "A Monster Calls".
- The Monster's height was approximately 12 meters.
- The Monster's head, shoulders, legs, and branches were made of foam.
- The screenplay for "A Monster Calls" was included in the so-called "Black List" of 2013 – a list of the most promising, but unrealized screenplays.
- Juan Antonio Bayona did not allow Lewis McDougall to read the final page of the script in order to elicit the most natural reaction in the final scene.
- The film features the "Blackpool Pleasure Beach" amusement park in Lancashire, one of the largest entertainment parks in Europe.
- School scenes were filmed at a school in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England.
- The scene where Connor stands at the gates and looks at the mountain was filmed near the village of Rivington, close to the town of Horwich in Lancashire. The mountain's appearance was slightly altered using computer technology, as required by the film's plot.
- According to the book's author, Patrick Ness, the Monster references an English legend called "The Green Man".
- Tom Holland, who had previously worked with Juan Antonio Bayona on the disaster film "The Impossible" (2012), was present on set in case it was necessary to substitute for the monster. The actor receives special thanks in the end credits.
- The film is based on Patrick Ness’s novel “A Monster Calls” (2011).
- Liam Neeson portrays Connor's grandfather in an old photograph, which shows the boy's mother being carried in her father’s arms as a child.
- The Monster's neck was equipped with a hydraulic structure, allowing it to move its head. And at the back, an operator controlled the structure using a kind of steering wheel.
- When animating the Monster, the features and movements of actor Liam Neeson, who voiced the character in the film, were used as a basis.
- Director Juan Antonio Bayona and cinematographer Óscar Faura have already filmed three films together – “The Orphanage,” “The Impossible,” and “A Monster Calls.”
- This is the first film in which Sigourney Weaver has played a grandmother.
- In order to preserve national heritage sites, Eugenio Caballero created exact replicas of the church and cemetery at a studio in Spain.
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