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 The reception area and a long corridor of Great Ormond Street
Hospital are among the filming locations for "Peter & Wendy", a
low budget but high-spirited gloss on author J.M. Barrie's story
about the orphan boys led by Peter Pan who live in Neverland and
fight the bloodthirsty pirates led by Hook.
"I think it's probably the first time a film production company
wanted to be so closely associated with Great Ormond Street, and
have it included in the story itself," said Christine De
Poortere, the "Peter Pan Director" of the hospital's charity
wing.
The charity raises some 50 million pounds ($75 million) a year
to benefit the hospital and patients. Of that, she said, a small
proportion comes from the Peter Pan rights the hospital holds in
perpetuity, at least in Britain, thanks to Barrie's bequest of
1929 being renewed by Parliament.
Scriptwriter Adrian Hodges has reimagined Peter Pan as taking
place in the imagination of a young woman named Lucy who is
brought to Great Ormond for a life-threatening heart operation
and enters into the story as she reads the book.
"I felt the time was right for a version that was in the
classical tradition but also a bit different," he said at a
launch event for the film due to air on Britain's ITV on Dec 26.
Dublin actress Hazel Doupe, 14, who plays Lucy and becomes Wendy
- "mother" to Peter Pan and his Lost Boys in Neverland - said
the plot line might seem dark but could make the film of
interest to all ages.
It includes, among other things, Lucy having a near fatal heart
attack and undergoing an emergency operation by a heart surgeon
played by Stanley Tucci, who doubles as Hook.
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"Considering that my character is so ill but so imaginative and
happy at the same time, it was complicated to portray all the
emotions she has," said Doupe, who had to give her Dublin accent an
English polish. "It was an emotional rollercoaster."
Hospital theme aside, "Peter & Wendy" is Peter Pan with all the
trimmings, including a pirate ship and singer Paloma Faith's amorous
Tinker Bell, who is jealous of Peter's attention to Wendy and lets
him know in speech made of chime tones.
The versatile American actor Tucci, who is the unctuous gameshow
host Caesar Flickerman in "The Hunger Games" movies, said he leaped
at the chance to play Hook.
"He's a psychopath ... which is why I jumped at the chance - any
actor who says they don't want to play Captain Hook is lying," Tucci
said.
For Zak Sutcliffe, 14, of Bradford, England, playing Peter Pan was
even more irresistible.
"There isn't a single 14-year-old I know who doesn't want to fly,
ride a pirate ship and fight Stanley Tucci," he said.
($1 = 0.6666 pounds)
(Editing by Michael Roddy and Tom Heneghan)
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