The Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm is a 2005 film directed by Terry Gilliam.

This film was supposed to be released in November 2004 in theaters, but it was delayed, with the new release date being August 26, 2005. The film was in the competition at the Venice Film Festival 2005.

Tagline: Eliminating Evil Since 1812.

Plot

The film starts in the 18th-century and begins with a scene of Wilhelm and Jakob as children. Their sister is dying and Jakob has been sent to sell the cow in order to have money for a doctor. However, when Jakob returns, he innocently explains that he has traded the cow for "magic" beans. Will is furious with Jake, and it is implied that their sister died as a result of his mistake.

The story jumps ahead fifteen years with Will and Jake riding into a town in "French occupied Germany", to rid the town of a banshee. However, after supposedly killing the banshee, it is revealed that the Brothers Grimm are actually con artists, setting up fake demons and monsters to trick gullible townspeople. Afterwards, as they are celebrating at an inn, the sadistic Cavaldi captures them and takes them to the French General, Delatombe. He forces them to solve a mystery: the girls of a small town are going missing. They are charged with finding out who is responsible under the assumption that it is the work of con artists like themselves. They soon discover that it is in fact the work of a supernatural force: the beautiful yet horridly dangerous Mirror Queen is stealing young girls for their youth.

Long ago, the Queen tormented the villagers' ancestors to possess their spells, including one for eternal life. Only a year later, her kingdom was succumbed by the plague. She built a high tower to avoid it, as her husband and everyone below her perished. Unfortunately, she didn't know that plague was carried by wind. She was extraordinarilty vain, and soon, "her perfect skin rotted away", as she decayed over the years. Her spell granted her immortal life, but not youth and beauty along with it. Her youthful appearence now only exists in her mirror, the source of her life, as an illusion and nothing more. The queen is working an enchantment to regain her beauty with the aid of her shape-shifting huntsman, crow familiars, and various creatures in the forest. The Brothers Grimm, with the help of Angelika, the knowing huntress from the village, and Cavaldi, the sadistic overseer of the General's torture chamber, must stop her.

=Main cast=

Matt Damon — Will (Wilhelm) Grimm
Heath Ledger — Jake (Jakob) Grimm
Peter Stormare — Cavaldi
Lena Headey — Angelika
Jonathan Pryce — General Delatombe
Monica Bellucci — The Mirror Queen

Delayed?

Despite initial fears by some critics and film fans (based on the fact that the release date was rescheduled several times), The Brothers Grimm was released August 26th 2005 after final arrangements made by the Weinstein brothers and the Walt Disney Company concerning how to divide the catalog of Miramax films currently in production. MGM and Miramax's Dimension Films produced the film, MGM has international rights and Dimension/Miramax has US distribution rights. MGM backed out of its deal to co-distribute in the US, which also contributed to the delay in its release.

Dreams and Nightmares: The Brothers Grimm and other Cautionary Tales of Hollywood by Bob McCabe was released on November 7, 2005 by HarperCollins documenting the challenges and problems that Gilliam and his crew faced while making the movie.

DVD Release

The DVD version of The Brothers Grimm was released on December 20, 2005. Special features included deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage, and commentary from Gilliam.

Trivia

Jonathan Pryce has already worked with Terry Gilliam. He played The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Sam Lowry in Brazil.
Both Terry Gilliam and Matt Damon wanted to hire Samantha Morton for the female lead, but Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein vetoed her out of the film. Morton has said that this was due to the impression that "the tops of her arms were too big."
Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins were cast originally, but both had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts.
Goran Bregovic was Terry Gilliam's original choice for composer. When Gilliam decided to go with a more traditional score, Bregovic was replaced by Dario Marianelli.
Robin Williams was originally cast in the film, but pulled out of the project.
Johnny Depp was originally set to star as Will Grimm.
Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini was personally fired by Bob Weinstein.
According to Terry Gilliam, Matt Damon took tango lessons in preparation for this film.
The Weinstein brothers (Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein) came on board in 2004 in the last minute when MGM suddenly pulled out the funding.
In June 2004, a problem occurred on the set and director Terry Gilliam decided to place the film on hold for six months. He went on to do Tideland (2005) and came back to this feature in January 2005.
The most expensive scene in the movie was cut because it occurred quite early on in the story and nothing would have been able to top it. Director Terry Gilliam said that this scene will be placed on the DVD as an extra.
The "hand forest" sequence in this film is an idea Terry Gilliam has had for almost 25 years. It was originally written for Time Bandits (1981) and almost used in Brazil (1985).
Matt Damon and Heath Ledger were originally cast in opposite roles. They petitioned and switched their roles.
Because of problems with the Writers Guild of America, Terry Gilliam and Tony Grisoni were not able to credit themselves as writers of the screenplay, despite the many changes they had made to Ehren Kruger's original script. They invented a credit for themselves as "Dress Pattern Makers" and thus were quoted as saying that the film was not necessarily made from a "screenplay" but from a "dress pattern".
For the scene in the torture chamber, Matt Damon was strung up by his waist but he could only stay up there for about a minute and a half because the rope was crushing his ribs which cut off his air supply.
Many references to fairy tales (most recorded by the Grimms) are made, but they are slightly different from the actual tales:
- The Mirror Queen was collaberation of stories like Snow White (the evil queen in relation to her magic mirror), The Princess and the Pea (sleeping on a pile of matresses) & Rapunzel (dwelling in a tower with no doorways and having long hair).
- Little Red Riding Hood is referred only by her Red Riding Cape, which follows her name in the original German, Rotkäppchen.
- The heroic woodsman from Little Red Riding Hood is now an evil henchman and a werewolf: The Big Bad Wolf.
- The Gingerbread Man is now an incarnation of a mud monster.
- Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk is changed to Jake to follow along with the brother's names.
- Hansel and Gretel refer to themselves as "Hans" and "Greta", which are their names without the diminutive /el/ affix.
- A demonic horse is referred to as having "What Big Ears you have, What Big Eyes you have", etc in reference to the Big Bad Wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood.
- Cinderella or the German form Aschenputtel is really the Grimm Brothers as they scrub the floors. The deleted scene in the DVD shows this better.
- All the girls' fingers are pricked as they fall into a deep sleep just like Sleeping Beauty.
- A girl gets glass slippers in reference to Cinderella.
- An old crazy woman tries to give the brothers a red apple, in reference to Snow White.
- A frog is kissed, in reference to The Frog Prince.
At least two references to modern stories are made:
- The Mirror Queen was based on the legend of the Blood Countess.
- A ring is thrown into water, and then the water is turned to ice, much like in Legend.
- A girl taps her slippers together in the same manner, however when lying down, as does Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
- The plot of an ancient, evil queen gathering and sealing children in sarcophagi, to be used as components in a life extending spell, is also found in the Playstation 2 game Ico.

External links

2005 films | Fantasy films | Films directed by Terry Gilliam

Gourt Home::Gourt :: The Brothers Grimm

Plot

Delayed?

DVD Release

Trivia

External links