Heres our chat…
NB: this interview took place beforeThe MuppetsTV series was cancelled.
So thats a good start.
Um, and I remember as a child laughing at Lewis Caroll and finding him very amusing.
Hes very witty, and the characters made me laugh and Alice made me laugh because shes so defiant.
And, with my background in, largely, comedy… And I thought that would be an interesting equipment.
What Tim [Burton] did was beautiful and visually absolutely stunning, and the characters are fantastic.
Its very different, you know?
Its such a different world.
Um, theyre different challenges.
You cant really compare the two.
Theyre so different, especially because theres no sense really… Or the designed the universe and its parameters.
And bring things I like, like the drawings of John Tenniel for example, to the production design.
You are aware that there are things that have been established, like the characters themselves, for example.
They were clearly drawn before and thats what theyre going to look like again.
Even though you might vary them a little bit, thats what was set.
So, its totally different, I guess you have been given someone elses world to work with.
And how involved was Tim Burton throughout the process?
So that was very handy.
He was around for that, for the shoot.
And then when youre designing stuff, hes just an email away.
He was very helpful, and, you know, he knew the script.
And I was very careful to check that we talked about the design of Time, the new character.
And on locations, we had new locations and stuff.
So he was very helpful.
So, theres a certain licence in that.
Was the script already nailed down when you came in, or did you make changes to it?
Er… sort of.
One of the elements I brought in when I read it was the idea of the character Time.
So I thought, thats good, because obviously Hatter knows this man called Time.
Time exists as a person, and hes annoying.
Its a very Lewis Caroll idea.
And that would be therefore a very useful antagonist in this plot.
It feels very English.
Hell be very pleased to hear that, thank you.
He does a great job, and Im really thrilled with him.
Ive worked with him, as you know, for many years.
You really feel for him.
And you often feel sorry for him.
I didnt want him to be this one note comedy bad guy.
You have to have a character that has dimension.
And therefore I wanted to make him lonely.
And that was a good idea, I think.
It hasnt, thats the great thing about it.
He and I worked together for a long time, so through that you develop a certain trust.
He and I share a lot of sensibilities.
And, therefore, he trusts me to use the things that he does in a constructive way.
In a way that makes the character work.
Um, and thats hugely helpful.
It might not have said a bit.
[Still laughing] He did alotof ad-libbing.
Again, Im very much a believer… and this is with everything that Ive ever done.
That you get what you have on the page, and then you play if you have time.
And that works really well.
And so, no, Im very keen that he does that.
And he brings alternatives all the time, which is very helpful.
Are there any particular bits that are him, that made it to final cut?
Hes very good at falling over.
Also, with that introduction straight away, you know this guy.
Its set up as though hes this terrible, powerful guy and then he just falls over.
And you go okay, I get it.
You fire up the film up with Alice adventuring on the seven seas.
What was the appeal of starting the story there?
And particularly because I think shes so competent, Alice.
And thats much more devastating if you understand where shes just been.
And the things shes just been doing, and the things shes capable of.
And the fact that, because shes a woman everybody treats her so terribly.
And therefore those things feel the much sharper, in contrast.
And what was the sea captain scene like to shoot?
The sea captain sequence, we saved until last, brilliantly.
And so we were at…
So we were all tied in, and it was these eight two-ton water dump things.
And obviously huge fans.
So it was absolutely freezing, but actually quite fun.
And its that thing whereby youre filming, its quite unusual to have a combination of those two things.
Youre wet and its freezing, but its fun.
And bless Mia [Wasikowska].
I could wear what ever I wanted to wear, which was a thick coat and like a scarf.
She was wearing a rather thin, 19th century woollen frock coat.
She was jolly cold, so bless her for that.
When weinterviewed you last time for Muppets Most Wanted, I think you were just starting on this.
You said that this would be a lot more digital than The Muppets analogue.
Were you surprised, then, that you actually got to build things like a giant boat?
Muppets is pretty much the anti-CG movie, and this is very much a CG movie.
So I wanted to embrace the idea and try stuff out.
At the same time I was conscious that I do like building sets.
So, err, that was interesting.
Another thing you said back then
[Laughs] Ah, dont quote me from three years ago!
You said that a lot of the film would be built in post
Oh, I see.
I see what you mean.
Yes, thats true.
That is interesting, youre right.
Which is great, and thats how filmmaking works.
But with this… youre right…
I was very prescient three years ago!
And you could change the animated voices up to the point that you stop, which is fair enough.
But you might create new moments, or new sequences, because youre in a fully CG environment.
So yes, that was fascinating to discover.
Because the options are innumerable.
And so it does get hard to nail down what its going to be.
It has to be quite a force of nature of make it happen.
But, um, it is interesting because it gives you flexibility in a way you never had before.
Certainly in the Muppet films, for sure.
It must be weird when youre shooting, say, a shot with all the digital characters together.
What do you have there, is it the balls-on-sticks?
You know, its mostly for eye-line.
Just so the actors that are performing have a natural interaction with those characters.
Um, you often have just cut-outs, because its simple and its very graphical.
But if theres interaction you’re gonna wanna actually build a proxy.
A blue proxy or whatever its going to be.
Um, so yeah, you do want something.
When you talk to someone, you look over there.
Even if youre not talking, youll exchange glances with somebody.
He just does it all the time and is great at it.
Just to talk a bit about other projects before Im ushered out…
[Laughs] Yes?
Dont worry, Ill bash through them quickly.
I mean, Jemaine always talks about it as his press conferences, so its fine.
I mean look, were still really good friends and wed love to do something together.
Its just purely a question of timings.
Time, very appropriately.
They live in New Zealand and I live in LA, and we sort of cross paths occasionally.
Actually, quite frequently.
So its quite handy, they can sort of stop over.
Bret often stays around.
Theyre often doing work in LA, so thats helpful.
I do see them fairly regularly, its just the boring old schedule thing.
Thats all it is.
how did that one end up on your desk?
It seems like such a random thing to appear through the letterbox one day.
Um, how did I hear about that?
Its a good question.
And so, I love the Men In Black world.
Ive always loved the first film, its just so fantastic.
And you read the script and go ah, I completely get it, this is amazing.
And so, its exciting, and its just fun to do that world.
I just like comedy adventure, and thats what it feels like to me.
You were speaking toCinemaBlendabout MIB 23 recently
oh dear.
Quoting me to myself is a terrible idea.
Its what I seem to keeping doing!
You said you were approaching it as if neither world existed before.
Does that mean that its not going to be the Men In Black characters that we know?
Make the film stand on its own two feet, is the idea there.
It has to be a thing that works anyway.
You cant rely on those two things, or people having prior knowledge in some way.
Thats what I meant by that, I think.
I was probably completely jet-lagged, [Laughs] who knows what I was saying two days ago?
[After Ive stopped laughing] So youre not ruling out having a call-back to the other MIBs?
Its really early, honestly.
Weve only just started working on it, so anything right now theres lots of possibilities.
All sorts of ways you could go with it.
So, I dunno yet.
I do feel that was part of the appeal.
It draws upon things that Ive been doing recently, obviously.
And I do love the idea of trying that sort of world.
You know, the Rick Baker world of aliens is a fantastic one.
Again, its quite early.
No, I mean, yes!
Err, well, the TV show seems to be doing okay.
I dont know if theyve renewed it yet or what.
Look, I love working with Muppets and I loved making those films.
So, anything I could do ever to help them, I will always do.
So, who knows?
As you said earlier, there are two Alice books and now weve got two Alice films.
I mean, I really love Mia as Alice.
So, there seems no reason why you couldnt do another one.
Um, but saying that, who knows?
As you said there were only two books by Lewis Caroll… [Laughs]
It must be quite weird for Mia coming back.
From her perspective, its been some time since the last one…
Yeah.
Its five, six years I guess between the films.
The shooting, maybe only four years.
And then, in a way, often explain things that happened in the first film a bit.
Thats funny too, I think particularly for The Red Queen and The White Queen in this film.
Its not really what he was interested in.
On that note, having stretched by one last question rather far, its sadly time to stop chatting.
James Bobin, thank you very much!
Alice Through The Looking Glasses reaches UK cinemas on Friday 27th May 2016.
