Rosie Alison is certainly high in the rankings of top Paddington fans, having spearheaded his live-action presence and bringing a beloved British-Peruvian icon to a new generation. FILMHOUNDS spoke to the producer about her journey with the bear and her work with Dougal Wilson, who took over the directorial helm for Paddington's third big-screen adventure. You can also read our thoughts on the film here.
Paddington 2 was nothing less than an instant classic, and arguably one of the best films of the last decade. Where do you go from such a huge success?
It definitely was a little daunting. Paddington 2 was born out of a lot of creative confidence from Paul King coming off the first film, but then he went to do Wonka and it was back to the drawing board, both for writing the script and finding a director. We take the ‘please look after this bear' label very seriously. We were never going to make a third film unless we felt we could get a script we thought was good enough, and a story that was meaningful and resonant enough. And, of course, if we could find a director to fill Paul's shoes.
Who has the incredible combination Paul has, that visual imagination, that wit and that heart? I'd been aware for a long time of the work of this wonderful director, Dougal Wilson, who has a rather maverick, beautiful, imaginative body of work. I'd happened to have a general meeting with him a few years before, and we sat on a park bench in Soho Square and had a chat about cinema. I was very struck by what a lovely, joyful, sort of innocent quality he had. He has a very strong inner child – an inner Paddington, if you like. I had my eye on him, but he never made a film, so it was quite a big risk and a big challenge for him. We met with him and he was obviously daunted, but he couldn't quite resist entertaining the idea because he loved Paddington and he could see that he was a good fit for the world.
He could see that the good thing about the Paddington world is this strong creative brain trust. The scaffolding was already in place. Our wonderful cinematographer Eric Wilson has worked on all three films, and Pablo Grillo, our amazing animation director, was there right at the beginning creating the model of Paddington and bringing the bear to life. We also do a preschool animated Paddington series, and our two writers on that, (Jon) Foster and (James) Lamont, who are tuned in to the voice of Paddington, came on board as writers. Mark Burton, the other scriptwriter, had also collaborated a bit on the second film. Our trio of writers were all versed in the world.
You mention the preschool series; the Paddington-verse has expanded! When did you realise when you started working on this franchise that you had a hit on your hands?
I suppose when the first film came out. I first proposed the idea of a Paddington film back in 2002, and it took a while for it to happen. The rights were tied up with an animation company. We had to sit patiently, and we made friends with Michael Bond in that time. It all really started when Paul King arrived, and we could see that he had the vision to bring this to life.
A lot of film projects are very slow going and you have to be patient, but in the case of Paddington it always felt worth it because he's such a beautiful creation. He's so simple, but he has this incredible cultural reach. His kindness, his politeness, his perspective of the world; he's always an outsider who sees the world and life in a fresh way, always with this deep respect for everybody else. He's never a preachy or trite figure, though, because he has his comic misadventures.
Paddington is very much associated with London, and the first two films have a clear love for the city. What was the motivation of moving the third film to Peru?
Paddington, as we know, was born in Peru and his Aunt Lucy sent him to London because she thought he'd have a better life there. He never really had a choice. He's synonymous with his life in Windsor Garden with the Browns, but as an immigrant, he would always be thinking about who he'd left behind and where he'd come from.
We felt that a story considering how he feels about identity, whether home is where you're born or where the heart is, was part of the Paddington story. In this film, he has his own choice in deciding where he wants to be, whether he wants to be in the country of his birth, or the country which adopted him.
What was the biggest challenge of the production, and your favourite moment of the finished film?
I think the biggest challenge of the production was just what an incredible jigsaw creating the world of Paddington is. There were 1400 people working on this film in different aspects, so many different crafts, so many different tiny details to build. Keeping the tone of this world, made up of live action and animation, as pure as it could be through all those moving parts was tricky.
I have very many favourite parts of the film. I do really love the dream sequence, when Paddington has a dream that he goes back to his childhood home and sees Aunt Lucy again. There's a beautiful aspect of the story about being lost and reunited, about love and separation and the deep emotional resonance that goes with that. And so this dream, reflecting a moment when he feels lost, I was very moved by.
Paddington in Peru is now out in cinemas.
Podcast
