August Rush
Release Date:
November 21, 2007
Limited release
Movie of the Day for Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 149/214 |
Max Braden |
If you played a harp made of string cheese, this is what it would sound like. It's Peter Pan and Pinnochio. |
It’s fitting that a new children’s story tangled in fantasy elements - August Rush - would derive from the creative minds behind some recent innovative retellings of one of the world’s best fantasy stories from the early 1900s: Peter Pan.
August Rush co-writers Nick Castle and James Hart penned the 1991 instant-classic Hook, the loose sequel to Peter Pan and his subsequent return to Neverland. Of course, Robin Williams was the lead in that kid-vid, and landed another part here as Wizard. Finally, little August himself, Freddie Highmore, starred in the 2004 film Finding Neverland, a partly autobiographical tale about the experiences that led Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie to write the literary classic.
Rounding out the all-star cast are Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Terrence Howard. So August Rush is in good hands. This much is true.
For the ill-informed, August Rush (Highmore) is a young street performer in New York cared for by a mysterious stranger (Williams). Using his remarkable talents as a musician, August seeks his parents (Meyers and Russell) who abandoned him as an infant after their chance encounter in the same city.
Continuing with the Peter Pan comparison, August Rush is no Hook. Back in December 1991, Hook opened to a modest $13,522,535, but went on to earn a fantastic $119,654,823. Its opening weekend frame claimed just 11.3 percent of its total domestic gross, against a steep production budget of $70 million. Instead, August Rush should behave more like Peter Pan, the 2003 film starring Jeremy Sumpter as the title character. The $100 million remake went on to earn just $48,462,608 at the domestic box office. (Eric Hughes/BOP)
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