Back in May, the Weinstein Company acquired the U.S. theatrical rights to “The Young and Prodigious Spivet,” an adaptation of Reif Larsen‘s charming illustrated novel “The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet,” from “Amelie” director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. While no domestic release date for the English-language 3D movie has even been tentatively penciled in, it’s still coming out in October in France (in IMAX, no less) and thanks to a newly released trailer and a bunch of new stills, we can at least get a little taste for what the noted stylist has up his sleeve. Prepare yourself; heartstrings will be tugged.
Basically, ‘Spivet’ is about a young inventor (played by adorable newcomer Kyle Catlett) who wins a contest at the Smithsonian Institute. So he packs up and leaves his eccentric family’s ranch, headed for his destiny. Of course, along the way he meets a bunch of equally eccentric weirdos who teach him life lessons and hopefully don’t try to do weird stuff to him (he is, after all, a little kid traveling cross-country alone). The movie co-stars Niamh Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter, Callum Keith Rennie and Judy Davis (is she having a moment or what?).
The book was a charming work of discovery, as each page revealed a new diagram or illustration or map. It looks like Jeunet, with his first film since the oddball, little-seen, Fellini-esque heist movie “Micmacs,” has captured that unique sense of discovery beautifully. By the time the trailer wraps up and the music from “Cloud Atlas” comes in, either you’re welling up a little bit or you’re officially a robot. Hopefully the Weinstein Company will schedule this beast soon, although their Oscar season dance card seems to be filling up quick and, barring some kind of resounding critical and financially windfall in France, we probably won’t see this until sometime in 2014.
Watch the trailer below, courtesy of Twitch Film, and check out 15 new photos from the film, each of them pretty as a picture.
