In director Tim Burton’s latest fantasy movie, ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’, Asa Butterfield is set to play the role of Jake, a 16 year old who has nightmares following a family tragedy.
On the advice of his therapist, the teen embarks on an overseas journey to find the abandoned orphanage where his late grandfather claims to have once lived. Not only does the place turn out to be real, it also serves as the gateway to an alternate realm where children with strange powers are looked after by a magical guardian (Penny Dreadful star Eva Green) and time moves of its own accord.
Due Sept. 30, the movie is based on Ransom Riggs’ hit 2011 novel, which was inspired, in part, by otherworldly vintage photographs (like the cover shot of a levitating girl) that the author collected at flea markets and included in the book. Burton said he, too, found inspiration in those images. According Entertainment Weekly he says, “They’re quite compelling. They remind me of old horror movies, or dreams.”
Furthermore, Green stars as the title character, a shape-shifter known as an ymbryne. She protects her charges, called peculiars from hungry monsters known as hollows. “She’s like a scary Mary Poppins, and she can turn into a bird,” Burton says.
Jake Butterfield finds an unlikely romance with Emma played by Ella Purnell, who, in an earlier life, also had a special bond with Jake’s grandfather. “It was nice to shoot on location, to be connected to a place and geography while having people actually floating, as opposed to doing it all digitally,” Burton says of the production, which counted Florida, Belgium, and Cornwall County in the south of England among its locales.
The orphanage’s residents include, from left, Olive played by Lauren McCrostie, Bronwyn played by Pixie Davies, Millard played by Cameron King, the twins played by Thomas and Joseph Odwell, and Emma. “Weird kids: It’s something that I’ve dealt with and been interested in for a while,” says Burton, who previously directed Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among other films with youthful protagonists. “It’s a weird family.”