Bridge to Terabithia (film)

Interview with director, Gabor Csupo in New Zealand

Gabor Csupo is a lively, slightly built man. With his sharp blue eyes, several days’ stubble around his cheeks and chin, and dishevelled hair escaping beneath a brown baseball cap, he could be one of the magical woodland creatures from the film he is directing.

Still busy wrapping the final stages of production Csupo gives time on a Saturday morning for an interview. The interview takes place at a cafe on the Auckland waterfront where he is planning to go fishing later with his son. Csupo laughs frequently throughout the interview, obviously enjoying the fantasy elements of the film he is creating, as well as relating strongly to the emotional aspects of a book that has captured the hearts and imaginations of children and adults the world over.

What is your interest in making a film of this particular book, given that it is also your first film that is not animation:

Yes I know [laughs]. I had some ideas many years ago about getting into live action. Cary Granat kept sending me books and scripts but I didn’t feel any of it was appropriate. I knew I had it in me to do live action one day, but reading all that stuff none of it felt like it would be my first movie.
Then one day he called me and said ‘We have this great book, you should read it’. I had heard about it but never read it and I was blown away by its emotional message. It is basically a story about friendship and loyalty and outcast children; how they cope with their fantasy world and all that. And it actually reminded me of myself [chuckles] and of the way I grew up.

How was that?
Being kind of artistic and drawing all the time. You know, other kids are playing football and stuff. They don’t understand you, so I always felt a little bit outcast. But of course later on when I got into art school all of my friends were of the same genre and we understood each other.
My parents were also very, very poor and were not able to provide much for us, although they were loving people and all that but I always felt that because of the difficulties of just putting bread on the table, my father was in a similar situation as [Jess’s father] in the book.
So I thought all these things are the kind of stories and characters and themes that, by God, I could probably understand and paint nicely if I did it. I called up Cary and said if we have a great script then this could be a great movie. We signed a deal and started looking for writers. Jeff Stockwell had written the first two or three drafts of the screen play based on the original screenplay written years ago by David Paterson, the son of Katherine Paterson the author.

Why didn’t you go with the original screenplay?
That was an option but none of us seriously considered going with it. It was basically an edited version of the book, which he had just translated into a 95 page version of the book. It just wasn’t cinematic and didn’t add anything to it. So we hired Jeff Stockwell and immediately the first draft got everybody excited. He really captured the essence of the book and he added all the cinematic moments to it that were kind of lacking in the book.
But I also liked that about the book - it gives the children [readers and characters] so much to work on with their imagination. That is one of the reasons I think the book was so successful, because everyone could have their own different ideas about what Terabithia could be. Of course we now have this very difficult task of showing people what we think Terabithia is.
Hopefully the children will react by saying, “Oh wow that is great”.

Right from the beginning we decided not to make it very “cutesy” and young, but a little bit more sophisticated and unexpected on the side of design. I approached it more as Ridley-Scott or Terry Gilliam would approach it, not from the very “cutesy” side but more from a darker, dirtier, scarier, more inventive side.

It is very organic, the creatures seem to grow out of the forest.
Yes, we thought it would be nice if the children didn’t make just random creatures out of nowhere with no reference to their own lives, but they create these creatures out of their own experience and what they went through.
At school the two boys, Gary Fulcher and Scott Hoager are always harassing the children so in the forest Jess makes Gary Fulcher into a Hairy Vulture, and Scott Hogar becomes the Squogre. That is the ogre and the squirrel mixed up. It is a mean and nasty, vicious little Squogre, about the size of a small dog, but there is a bunch of them and they attack all at once, so they can be fairly dangerous [chuckles at length].

This reflects the way the kids are feeling about being bullied at school?
Absolutely. The other major character in the movie is Janice Avery who again turns into the giant troll in its classic sense. She will have some resemblance to the monstrous, crazy looking figure with green toenails. The only weak spot the creature has is that she is ticklish. The way they find to overcome the creature is when Prince Terrien [the dog Jess gives Leslie] runs between the giant’s toes and she runs away giggling [laughs].

You have created the fantasy elements yourself. This seems to be a major difference between the book and the screenplay.
We created all of the creatures. None of this is in the book. We wanted to make sure we gave enough to the children watching movie, but not too much. It is not effects-heavy, it’s more like a very sensitive human drama, a classic story where children escape to their own world and creations. But we also made it in modern times so children could identify with it. It’s not a period piece.

Katherine Paterson’s young son was so depressed [in the ‘70s] after his friend died that she wrote the book to calm him down and help him to understand about the legacy and the good spirit people leave behind when they die. I very much liked that message in the book and responded to it.
Children tend to understand the meaning of [death] around 10 and 11 years old. Before that they tend to think everybody lives forever. So when someone loses a close friend and companionship like that it affects them deeply; especially in this boy’s [Jess’s] case when he was so alone and outcast. Even his sisters didn’t talk to him, although the little sister May Belle, adores him but it isn’t cool for a 10 year old boy to be friends with a little sister, everyone knows that. So at the end when he passes on everything he learned from Leslie to her is really a beautiful moment.

What determined your choice of actors?
When we were casting we saw a lot of children. But when Anna Sophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson became possibilities we were very much intrigued by their talent and their physical looks. They are both cinematically very beautiful children. Josh [Jess] comes from a very poor family so he dresses very simply, kind of little boyish. There is also a very beautiful moment in the movie where he is inheriting one of his older sisters’ tennis shoes - I mean you can tell they are a girl’s shoes - and he is so embarrassed and covering them up with markers. [Csupo is visibly moved by this and has tears in his eyes].
He can’t afford anything nice and Anna Sophia Robb [Leslie] comes from a richer family. They are writers and can afford more. But even then we thought we wouldn’t have her going and buy off the shelf, beautiful clothing, we thought we would make her more inventive than that. She makes her own variation of her clothes in the forest, little buttons and things - she is a very creative, special child.


The forest is the mysterious place of fairytale where one discovers unexpected things.
The forest is a very safe world for children. They can hide from the real world and at the same time with their imagination or even with real life possibilities and moments there can be danger there. That is why I think most children like to hide and play in the forest is because they feel they are in adventure land even if nothing really happens. Because beyond that wall of trees you don’t really know what is lurking [laughs].
We take advantage of those fantasies children have about the forest and finding a hideaway. Leslie and Jess find an old ruin of a fort, a stronghold in the trees and they fix it up and make it their own.

What is the fort like?
The fort is really, really amazing. Robert Gillies designed it. It is really better than I ever anticipated. We had all sorts of drawings, even clippings of the world’s best tree houses that children or their parents have built. Robert got all kinds of ideas and inspiration and took them out to the location. We thought initially it was going to be a fort up in the branches of one big tree then Robert came up with the interesting idea of two trees far apart from each other and the stronghold across the two trees. [like the bridge] It’s every kid’s dream - majestic, tall, secret, hidden.

You are really bringing the concrete world together with the imagination here in a serious and playful way.
That was important for me. A lot of people thought that the guy who worked on The Simpsons, Rugrats and Thornberries and silly cartoons will probabely make something over the top and silly. But I was very consciously making the decision whatever I am going to do I want to make something very serious at the same time. I don’t mind humour in it here and there, I also don’t like over acting and over the top things. I think it is a lot stronger if you don’t overdo things. The emotions work a lot better if you [suggest it] on the surface, give the audience a chance to think deeper into it and to understand, instead of punching them in the face with everything. The audience is more sophisticated and smarter than most film makers tend to think in Hollywood. There is a tendency to overdo everything in Hollywood. So the movie is going to be scary and adventureful here and there, a bit non-traditional, and not make children think it is something silly. I know I will be proud of what I am doing. I am working with the best cinematographer in the world, and with the production design, everything in this movie is just the way I thought it should be. The New Zealand crew has been just first rate, all 110% dedicated. It has been a fantastic experience for me.


The story is also tragic and you have made an emotional map of it. How are you going to take the audience through this?
Yes I am taking on some very dangerous work where one of the main characters - specifically the main heroine who is also a child - dies after two thirds of the movie. This was one of the reasons Fox passed on this project at the last minute, although we were in heavy development with them for over a year. They realised it was going to be a marketing challenge. But what attracted me to the project was that it was different, not easy, it is heavy subject matter, but for me the pay off was worth it. What Leslie leaves behind is stronger than if she lives forever. So that is why we are trying to make a very strong emotional message. I don’t want to make a downer, or for people to come out of the theatre feeling really depressed and sad. I want them to come out feeling uplifted and stronger than ever and understanding that the human condition is like that.
The movie’s message is that, yes we die, but what we live for or leave behind is more important.

Is it also like a rite of passage, a crossing through childhood, going through grief?
It moves on a lot of different layers. When he is just about to fall in love with this little girl she dies, and the film explores how he deals with it. He could be depressed and sad forever or angry. It all goes through his mind and then he learns from it and is creative with it. The bridge is such a metaphor. In Jess’s mind he is making the way to the world of the imagination safer. There will be no more deaths by using that silly rope. He makes the passage easier for other children to find their dreamland [and their own inner resources].
The Terabithians welcome them at the end. The idea is to keep your mind wide open and fantasise. Anything you wish for can happen.
[Leslie tries to swing across the creek when it is in flood and dies while Jess is visiting an art gallery with his beautiful music teacher, Miss Edmonds, played by Zooey Deschanel]


Tell us about the artwork and the concept development for the creatures.
Jeff Stockwell came up with some of the earlier descriptions of the creatures in his script, and then I had this amazingly talented artist in my office, Dima Malanitchev who has worked for me for many years and was production designer on all of my movies in Los Angeles. Although he mainly works in the cartoon field and in art animation he is also a very good friend of Igor Kovalyov who is probabely the Fellini of animation and does short films. He wins every possible award around the world. Dima always helps him in background and character designs - he’s just an amazingly great artist. I gave Dima the script and underlined the characters and said - “What can you come up with.” In the next day or day two he brought me these sketches and I said - “Great, don’t touch it!
We never did any modification on it, people, everyone at Fox and Walden just loved it the way it was from the beginning. So we are happy Weta Digital are working on it too and showing a great respect for the integrity of the original art. They are modifying a tiny bit some of the creatures to resemble the real kids in the school - tweaking just a little.

Some of them look a little like creatures you might expect in a Hieronymous Bosch painting (a giant snail with a human head) and yet totally original.
Yes we told him from the beginning we didn’t want any cutesy stuff - not the cartoony Sesame Street stuff. Let’s do something different, creatures you hopefully won’t have seen before.

You are a musician. This is a very emotional film. What kind of sound effects and music can we expect and how will you avoid it being a “tear jerker”?
The sound effects and music will play a major role in this. There is a lot of emotional ups and downs and adventure. There is sadness and happiness, joy, grief - all sorts [laughs]. We really have to navigate the landscape of all that. But I don’t want it to be scored in a traditional Hollywood sense where the big string orchestra comes in a very busy Hollywood style. I have very specific ideas on the kind of music I want to use - artistic but also approachable enough for the general audience. I don’t want to do a self-indulgently beautiful art house film that noone goes to see. It might be satisfactory for me, but it isn’t great if people don’t see your work. And at the same time I don’t want to do something so commercial that everybody [has heard before]. There are formulas about how to score these kinds of emotions and I don’t want to go after the obvious. I’m trying to approach it with something different, or with counter-play. With big action if you play almost minimalistically slow music it is almost more powerful than if you do the ultra-busy “chchcchchc” [vigorously demonstrates big Hollywood music sounds] stuff. John Gilbert and I are constantly listening to music.
I want something contemporary and for children to recognise it is contemporary, speaking in their language, not old fashioned. I don’t like the old fashioned approach, this is the era of iPods after all. So my goal is to do something powerful but very unexpected. And it has to work with the emotions.

What have been the main challenges for you as it is the first time you are directing people on a set?
The closest thing I ever did to this was directing voices in a recording booth for cartoons. Basically there you close your eyes and listen to the performances’ audio quality and the way they pronounce everything. With live directing you have to see their eyes, their faces, their body language - everything. It is much more complex, but at the same time when it works it is very satisfying. And on the spot you feel it in the moment when the cameras roll and you yell “CUT!” You just FEEL that was GREAT [vigorously]. You don’t even want to go for another take. You feel sometimes everything worked out so well that anything else you try will not be as good. And you also don’t want to drain your actors. It’s an instinct. You just feel it when you have achieved it.

How has it been for you making a film in New Zealand, using New Zealand locations, given that the book is in a United States setting?
I think the experience is great. We found a very good school, a beautiful church and a great museum. The only challenge was when we were showing the traffic - you know the cars driving on the opposite side to the US, but they somehow managed to block streets and drive the other way round. I find coming over easier too, it is only 12 hours flight. You get on a plane, sleep and it’s the morning when you arrive. I have spent three months in production here but I’ll be commuting more during post-production in Wellington.

That is the kind of work you are used to.
Yes I love that. Anything that’s post-production, sound and music, I do it all the time. You know this isn’t so much the big action movie [as your magazine usually writes about], but I sometimes feel that less is more. It gives the audience a chance to figure things out on their own. I mean, a typical example of this, not related to this movie, is like Jaws or Alien when you only see the creature towards the very end. But the whole movie is very suspenseful [chuckles loudly]. If you show it too soon you take the power out of it.

Do you think you will go on to make others?
Yes I will see. So far everyone is happy with the footage and the crew and the whole experience is very good. So we will see how it turns out. I am very critical of myself. I have a big screen in my house and watch three movies a night and I buy every media released DVD so I am pretty critical. There are very few movies I like. I have a handful of directors I really respect and I sometimes hate the movies that are the most successful at the box office, so my taste does not necessarily flow with what makes the most money.

Which directors inspire you?
Obviously Ridley-Scott and Lars von Trier or Wong Ka Wai - I like those filmmakers, and the early days of Goddard; Ingmar Bergman’s stuff. All the early black and white movies - they were the movies I grew up with. I felt there was a master filmmaker behind these pictures. And I love Woody Allen, Coppola and Scorsese. Although they don’t always make perfect movies I respect their film making genius.
I wanted to prove to myself I could make a movie after being so critical for so many years of other people’s work [laughs]. It is so easy to say but do it better yourself! So now I am in the position of having to prove it to myself - that I can make a pretty good, little movie. The budget is something like US $24 million. If the audience agrees with me I would probably like to do some more.

It is not for the money that I am taking time away from my very profitable business in Los Angeles. It is for my personal commitment, for the experience and satisfaction basically. I want to prove that I can do it to myself, to friends who believe in me and I’m also doing it for Cary Granat who kept sending me scripts. So I am doing my very best and so is everyone else. That always shows up on the screen.

Gabor Csupo, biography
Csupo was born in 1952 in Budapest, Hungary, and received his animation education at Hungary's Pannonia studio. He left Hungary for political reasons in 1975 and went to Stockholm where he helped produce Sweden's first animated feature. There he met his future partner, American graphic designer Arlene Klasky. Together they formed Klasky Csupo, Inc., in 1981.
Klasky Csupo, Inc. has created and produced popular animated television series that includes "The Simpsons," "Rugrats," "Duckman," "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters" ,"Santo Bugito" and “As Told by Ginger”.
In 1998 Csupo, along with Arlene Klasky, produced the company’s first feature film, “The Rugrats Movie, ” (the first non-disney animated film to gross over US$100 million) as well as its hit sequel, “Rugrats in Paris.”
Passionate about music, Csupo also founded record labels, Tone Casualities and Casual Tonalities and has released two CDs himself. Csupo’s art work is featured on the cover of his idol and friend Frank Zappa’s latest release entitled “The Lost Episodes.”