Winter's Tale

Russell Crowe as Pearly Soames in "Winter's Tale." Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

"Winter's Tale" marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Akiva Goldsman ("A Beautiful Mind"), who also wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Mark Helprin. A romantic drama set in a mythic New York City, the story begins in the late 19th century with orphan and burglar Peter Lake who joins the Short Tails, a band of thieves led by Pearly Soames, after he arrives in Manhattan from Bayonne Marsh. Peter apprentices for several years before breaking with Pearly--the Short Tails track him down for his perceived betrayal. Later burglarizing an uptown mansion he believes to be empty he encounters Beverly Penn, a dying consumptive and the two fall in love. Peter is determined to keep Beverly alive.

Jessica Brown Findlay as Beverly Penn and Colin Farrell as Peter Lake. Photo by David C. Lee. 

Akiva spent years thinking about how he would adapt the novel after first reading it in the '80s. "Mark's book is big, close to 800 pages, and no screenplay could contain every element, so I worked on it, distilling from it what resonated with me the most." He pared most of the book's unexplained mythology, focusing on the love story between Peter (Colin Farrell) and Beverly (Jessica Brown Findlay). Russell Crowe plays Pearly, the Short Tails gang leader and the cast includes Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt and Eva Marie Saint. The film opens Feb 14, view trailer.

Photo by David C. Lee.

The first half of the film is period, the second, contemporary. Costume designer Michael Kaplan was particularly interested in creating the looks for the earliest years in the film, though it posed a challenge. "The women's costumes from the teens are so beautiful, but the evening clothes were very delicate and few exist, since the fabrics were so fragile," said Michael. He based Pearly's look on an early 20th century gangster style. "One of the people I researched when I was doing Pearly's costumes was Diamond Jim Brady. A bit of a dandy, he just seemed like the kind of character that I wanted to think of when dressing Russell--beautiful, luxurious fabrics, handmade shirts, heavy woolen suits and coats." Peter is outfitted in clothes suited to his profession, a thief--spare and dark. The Short Tails and their costumes are based on clothing worn by an actual gang of that name Michael discovered in his research. "They don't wear coats; they all wear these period cutaway jackets in shades of black and charcoal, and they all wear black derbies. It becomes their uniform."

Photo by David C. Lee.

Jennifer Connelly as Virginia Gamely and Ripley Sobo as Abby. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Due to the time span covered in the film and the fantastical elements required of the story (there's a flying horse and the characters live in multiple time periods), the filmmakers created New York's skyline and its surrounds in three different eras: 1895, 1916 and 2014. City settings--Prospect Park, Central Park, Calvary Cemetery in Queens, DUMBO, South Street Seaport--enrich and inform the narrative. "New York really can function as a presence on film in a way that alters what's on the screen," said Akiva. "So we pursued as many practical locations as we could in order to present a real New York, but not a literal one."

Screenwriter/producer/director Akiva Goldsman. Photo by David C. Lee.