Winslet and Depp turn out for Barrie biopic
Hollywood stars Kate Winslet and Johnny Depp will tonight attend the premiere of Finding Neverland, the movie about the life of Peter Pan author JM Barrie.
American heart-throb Depp, 41, plays the Scottish author in the Hollywood blockbuster.
British actress Winslet, 29, plays Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, a mother whose young sons gave Barrie the inspiration for the classic.
Finding Neverland, which also stars Julie Christie and Dustin Hoffman, tells the story of how Barrie, a jobbing writer in London, created Peter Pan, or The Boy who Wouldn’t Grow Up.
Barrie, who never had children of his own, met the boys in London’s Kensington Gardens and became their playmate.
American critics have touted Depp, who lives with French singer Vanessa Paradis and their two young children, for his first Oscar for performance in the film.
But the Pirates of the Caribbean star has said he struggled at first to develop a Scottish accent for the part, saying: “Musically, rhythmically, I initially couldn’t quite get a hold of it.
“Luckily, I found this dialect coach who helped me out a great deal.”
Winslet, now married to film director Sam Mendes, has told how having two children of her own helped her with the role.
“I don’t think I could have played Sylvia if I wasn’t a mother,” she said.
“There is something about the physicality of being a parent that you don’t know about until you become one.”
A 12-year-old British actor Freddie Highmore plays Peter Llewelyn Davies, one of the boys.
The movie has been accused of playing down the ambiguous nature of Barrie’s obsession with children.
Some descendants of the Llewelyn Davies family are also said to have expressed some disappointment for not “sticking to the facts”.
But Miramax says the production is meant to be a fictional retelling rather than a biopic.
Tonight’s premiere takes place on the centennial year of the creation of Peter Pan, which was first performed as a play in 1904 at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London.
The event at the Odeon Leicester Square aims to raise thousands of pounds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
Barrie donated the lucrative rights to Peter Pan to the hospital before his death in 1937.
Finding Neverland is released on October 29.
