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Word on Set: Nutcracker, The Untold Story
July, 2008. By David Michael

It's the middle of summer in Budapest, and Guillermo Del Toro is mid-shoot on his sequel to Hellboy. But if he thinks Hellboy II: The Golden Army is raising a bar in the freaky stakes, he's got another think coming. Just down the road, FILMINK is on the set of Nutcracker: The Untold Story, a film that may give him a run for his money.

At Korda studios, Andrei Konchalovsky (Tango And Cash, Runaway Train) is attempting to turn Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker into a musical infested with fascist rats. There's certainly an eccentric edge to the film's shoot. Standing on one of the studio's main sound stages, American actor John Turturro - wearing a spiky blonde wig and rat face prosthetics - is discussing the various throwing options of a head that he's just pulled off a toy drummer boy to intimidate the film's young protagonist Mary, played by Elle Fanning (the younger sister of Dakota). Should he throw it like a basketball, a javelin or a baseball? The director's preference is unclear, as Koncalovsky's heavily Russian accented direction is muffled by a mouth mask, the type used when the bird flu epidemic was at fever pitch. Maybe rat flu is on its way in Budapest? Whatever's afoot, things are certainly getting a little delirious.

Nutcracker: The Untold Story is based on the same source material as the original ballet. Konchalovsky had originally written a script forty years ago in 1968 for the late British director Anthony "Puffin" Asquith (Pygmalion) to direct, but Asquith died that year. "It's a homage to the original Nutcracker," explains Konchalovsky. "All the music is from Tchaikovsky, but not necessarily from Nutcracker. You won't recognize it, as a lot of it's jazz - Tchaikovsky jazz!"

The film is set in 1920s Vienna, with the production's design taking its lead from Otto Wagner and the period's art nouveau, while the rats' design and regime is very much inspired by Third Reich Germany. There's a nightmarish edge to the fantasy, with the mice of the ballet becoming rats in the film, led by Turturro's deranged Andy Warhol-esque Nazi rat king, who seeks "Ratification" of the world. The film is certainly driven by macabre undertones, which is surprising considering that it's intended as a children's Christmas movie. "Narnia meets Batman" was how the biggest budget independent non-studio financed film ever made was pitched. "It's dark, but not graphic, although certain things are frightening," confirms Konchalovsky. "Batman and Harry Potter are really dark, so today's youngsters are used to it."

One thing that FILMINK isn't used to is interviewing nine-year-old girls. But since Turturro seems to be shy of an audience while in his ridiculous rat-face get-up, we're prepared to brave it. After we learn that Elle Fanning identified with her character's love of dolls (she owns four dolls' houses herself) and that her music taste is more Gwen Stefani than Tchaikovsky, Fanning provides a refreshingly to-the-point encapsulation of the art of acting. "I read the script, and then play it like I'm that person," she says with fresh-faced reason. "I'm Mary, so I'm playing it like I'd be Mary. It's natural. I just think about about what she's thinking."

It has to be said that Fanning, despite her tender years, is probably the sanest person on set. She's also a seasoned pro, with ten films to her name already (including Babel, which she's too young to see), and David Fincher's fortcoming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to follow, in which she plays the six-year-old version of Cate Blanchett's character. Giggling embarrassingly, Fanning also informs me that she's working on her own novel. "She has extraordinary ability and is very interesting," says director Konchalovsky of his diminutive lead actress. "She's very mature as an actress; she has a natural talent."

She'll have to wait to step out of her sister's shadow for a little while longer though, as the film's post-production period has been extended. Its release date has now been pushed back from Christmas 2008, which will give the filmmakers time to work on a potential stage musical version, and the subsequent Ratification of Broadway.

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