Ben Stiller directs and stars in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (opening January 22 in Phils.), James Thurber's classic story of a day-dreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker (Kristen Wiig) are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.
In 1939, when
James Thurber first published “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” he brought a
playful, modernist style to the story that lured readers directly into the
experience of Walter Mitty’s fantasy life.
In Ben Stiller’s latest adaptation, he hoped to do something similar,
using modern cinema to open the story up visually in a way that couldn’t have
been imagined in Thurber’s day. He knew there were several ways to approach
Mitty’s fantasizing. But there was only
way he felt that was right for what he wanted audiences to feel: using a deftly crafted hyper-reality that
merges Mitty’s inner stream of consciousness into the fabric of what’s going on
in his outer world.
“Everybody can
connect with the idea of talking to somebody while actually having this crazy,
imaginary fantasy going on in your head of where you’d rather be in that
moment,” he explains. “That’s what we wanted to capture.”
Stiller thought intensively about how to achieve that. Creating
Walter’s fantasies would certainly involve many moving parts, and a sense of
spectacle, but Stiller used his effects judiciously, with an eye towards
unbroken integration into the flow of the action. “In
terms of visual effects, we wanted the overall approach to be very photo-real,”
he says. “I’ve always found that the
best results come from doing as much as you can practically in real-life
situations and then just tickling that with the digital effects.”
Ultimately,
Stiller would put together a visual design team including Oscar-nominated
director of photography Stuart Dryburgh(“The Piano”), production designer Jeff
Mann (“Tropic Thunder,” “Zoolander”), editor Greg Hayden (“Tropic Thunder,” “Zoolander”),
costume designer Sarah Edwards (“Salt,” “Michael Clayton”) and visual effects
supervisor Guillaume Rocheron (“Life of Pi”).
The constant yin
and yang of dreams and reality in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” made for an
extremely ambitious production – one which would take on the rigors of shooting
in the middle of New York City then jet off to the other-worldly environs of
Iceland, where cast and crew moved from volcanoes to helicopters to the middle
of the frosty ocean.
Each location
would host scenes that could not have been filmed elsewhere in the world. In New York, Stiller had the chance to shoot
the epic chase between Walter and Ted in the live-wire dynamics of a typical
crowded day in the city.
In Iceland, Stiller would shoot a scene that pushed him to new edges
both as director and actor: when Walter
jumps into the raging waves of the North Atlantic, which Stiller simulated with
his own plunge into the ocean. “It was
really important for me that we not do that scene in a tank,” he recalls. “I felt we had to shoot in real high seas,
with a real boat there, a real helicopter and real waves,” he explains.
“That’s when
Mitty literally dives into life,” muses John Goldwyn. “It’s the big transition moment of the movie,
and it looks incredibly real, because most of it is.” The
scene turned out, just as it does for Walter Mitty, to bring a bit more reality
than even Stiller anticipated.
“We were about a
mile out at sea with seven-foot swells -- which, when you’re in the water, are
really big,” admits Stiller. “The boat
with the camera in it went away to come back and do the shot, but there was
this two-minute period where I was just in the North Sea with nobody around. I
was in the ocean just by myself with a briefcase, floating there waiting for
the camera to come back and was thinking, ‘I hope they can find me when they
come back for the shot,’” he laughs.
“There was a real sense of danger and it was one of those moments when I
thought, ‘oh, this is what real filmmaking is all about.’”
Step out and live
your dream. “The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty” opens January 22 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox
to be distributed by Warner Bros.