At first glance, having a father/daughter family-friendly adventure film premiere at Fantastic Fest may seem out of keeping for a festival that opened with the unrated gore of Terrifier 3 and closed with the similarly bloody Mr. Crocket. But, in many ways, Bookworm may be the perfect Fantastic Fest movie.
First of all, the festival has a long history of screening movies that are more charming than horrifying, like Riddle of Fire and The Deer King. But it’s also a festival that cherishes its alumni. With regulars like Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal) and Eugenio Mira (The Birthday) in attendance for 2024, “It feels like a reunion,” says writer/director Ant Timpson, who’s attended what he estimated was 14 of the 19 Fantastic Fests with offbeat titles like The ABC’s of Death and The Greasy Strangler.
“It’s a homecoming,” adds Elijah Wood, who’s become a Fantastic Fest fixture for films like Grand Piano and The Toxic Avenger, aside from just being a regular moviegoing badgeholder.
Their latest collaboration, Bookworm, takes Wood back to something that made him famous as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings: long walks across New Zealand. But Bookworm has a lot more in common with 2019’s Come to Daddy, the feature directorial debut for veteran New Zealand producer Timpson. Both star Wood and instantly recognizable British character actor Michael Smiley; both highlight wild and rugged environments that may not be familiar to American audiences; and both are stories of family. In dark comedy Come to Daddy, Wood played an adult who unearths surprising secrets about his estranged father. This time, he’s the daddy: He plays Strawn, a failed TV magician who suddenly finds himself taking care of Mildred (Nell Fisher), the daughter he barely knows, as they are forced to bond on a hike through the wilderness in search of a cryptid – the legendary Canterbury Panther.
However, Wood doesn’t see that much of a difference between the two films because they’re both ultimately family reconnection stories. “Daddy has a lot of violence and some pretty gnarly genre twists and turns, but they’re both filled with heart. Daddy’s filled with heart – and sincere heart – and Bookworm is as well.”
Timpson made his reputation producing what he called “very singular types of films that you have to recommend to the right audiences” like Deathgasm and Housebound. After that, making a family movie “still doesn’t feel right, but I’m loving it. Listening to audiences who would have never seen anything I’ve been associated with, ever, and being able to talk about it … is the wildest thing ever.”
It’s also been very affirming, since he’s had more positive feedback, and more people reaching out to him about how much they’ve enjoyed the film, than anything he’s made before. “In the old days, I used to have to force people to go see them,” Timpson says. “‘Go see The Greasy Strangler! You’ll hate it, but you should go see it!’”
However, what they were really setting out to do was make the kind of kids movie that you rarely see any more, the kind that doesn’t talk down to kids, “something that harked back to films that I grew up with,” Timpson recalls. “They were called general entertainment, and Benji is the gold standard. So it was like, let’s do one where the stakes are relationship stakes, and put it into the great outdoors because of our love for wilderness family adventures.”
So, what convinced Wood to get back into the muck and mud of New Zealand.? Well, it’s less a “what” than a “who.” “Ant,” he said. “Truth is, I would probably do anything he asks me to,” said Wood. “We had such a fun time making Daddy, and it was a really fun, collaborative experience with the entire team that to get that creative band back together on this was just a no-brainer.” With the opportunity to bring his partner and kids with him, Wood said that the shoot became “a family vacation, and let’s make a movie while we’re doing it.”
“That was the pitch,” grins Timpson.
Once there, the family feeling continued, as the movie channeled the kind of kids entertainment that Timpson grew up on. He noted that the ever-prepared and ever-pugnacious Pippi Longstocking was a big influence on Mildred, and he rejects the term that’s been applied to her – precocious. “It’s a disservice, because all it means is confident and capable, and someone who’s going to stand up to authority.” The script also overflows with the influences of British children’s literature authors: Timpson’s love of Enid Blyton (creator of the massively successful Famous Five and Secret Seven series of kids adventure books) is apparent, while Smiley’s character has a lot in common with the nightmare-inducing Child Catcher from Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. Equally, Timpson notes that cowriter Toby Harvard “can’t escape his love of Roald Dahl.”
There’s undoubtedly something Dahl-esque about Strawn, with his hobo jacket and ridiculous hat, looking like one of Quentin Blake’s illustrations come to life. “He’s a weird buffoon,” Wood says, “and there’s so much there to play with.” However, he didn’t have to learn all of Strawn’s close-up magic tricks – “thankfully,” he laughs. However, he did work closely with the world’s greatest magician and hyperbole expert, Mike Pisciotta, meeting with him once a week to learn card dexterity and how to hold a pack like a real stage conjuror. “In and of itself, it sounds overly simple, but it’s actually kind of complex because there is a right or a wrong way to hold them it you’re a magician.”
Even before this film opens in cinemas, both Timpson and Wood are looking forward to their next collaboration – not that they necessarily know what it is yet, just that they want to get back together with the found family they’ve assembled across these last two movies. Wood explains, “It’s such a great feeling. You’re all creatively aligned, you love each other’s company, and you all want to make cool, good shit that you like. It’s a pretty blessed place to work from.”
Bookworm opens in cinemas this weekend.
Bookworm
New Zealand, 2024, 103 min.
US premiere
Follow all the Chronicle’s 2024 Fantastic Fest coverage.
This article appears in October 18 • 2024.
