A chat with "Ember's" citizens

Okay, here's a little treat for you. I did not have the opportunity to attend a screening of "City of Ember" before it opened--it's out today and I hope to catch it this weekend. But over the summer I did have an opportunity to chat with the film's star, Saoirse Ronan, and director Gil Kenan. The review was finally published this week in the 10/12/08 edition of the Advisor and Source Newspapers, so I thought I'd share it here.

Citizens of "City of Ember"

by Chris Williams



In the new film adventure "City of Ember," an underground city is facing disaster and only two kids can save the day.



A big budget adaptation of the popular young adult novel by Jeanne DuPrau, the film features performances by Oscar winner Tim Robbins and Oscar-nominated funnyman Bill Murray as the adults who can help or hinder protagonists Lina Mayfleet and Doon Hallow. Twentieth Century Fox is hoping the film will join the ranks of "Harry Potter," "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and "Kung Fu Panda" as a new family classic.



The studio's hopes are pinned on young director Gil Kenan, who last helmed the horror-comedy "Monster House," and actress Saoirse Ronan, last seen opposite Kiera Knightley in the Oscar-nominated "Atonement." Over the summer Kenan and Ronan both talked with the Source about the highly-anticipated film, which will be released in theaters Oct. 10.



'Atonement' and adaptations



On a beautiful day when most children her age were enjoying the last days of summer, 14-year-old Saoirse (pronounced 'SIR-sha') Ronan was indoors in Los Angeles concluding a day of interviews with reporters from across the country.



"I'm not mad about staying inside and doing interviews," said Ronan. "Obviously you're going to want to go out and have fun, but you have to promote the movie. I don't mind doing it because then I can go home and enjoy that."



Home for Ronan is her native Ireland, where she lives with her parents and recently started her second year of high school. She said her parents are supportive and her father helps her pick the right scripts sent to her, but she also realizes that life as a high school student is probably about to make a big change. For one, she said she most-likely won't be getting involved in drama club, because she wants to be able to live a bit normally and give others their chance in the spotlight.



Besides, it might not be fair for others to have to audition against a teenage Oscar nominee. Ronan received that honor last year, when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her work as Briony Tallis in the critically-acclaimed "Atonement" alongside Knightley and James McAvoy. She will next be seen in the adaptation of the popular novel "The Lovely Jones," where she plays murdered child Susie Salmon alongside actors Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon and Rachel Weisz. The film is directed by Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning helmer of "King Kong" and "The Lord of the Rings."



Not a bad clique to be around in your high school years.



"I think there's a few good people that I've got to work with and hopefully that will continue," said Ronan.



The included both Robbins and Murray, whose work as the Mayor of Ember brought a levity and charm to the set, Ronan said.



"It was brilliant," she said. "He was so much fun and he brought so much to the set."

"Ember" is yet another adaptation to add to Ronan's resume alongside "Atonement" and "Lovely Bones." Yet where those films dealt with solemn, serious issues, the new movie features gigantic set pieces and mind-bending mysteries all delivered with a sense of humor and adventure.



"Everything up to 'City of Ember' wasn't really a big film, they were kind of quiet and smaller and more serious," Ronan said. "But I didn't really mind it. It was great."



As heroine Lina, Ronan is involved in the chase to save Ember. Lina finds a box in her apartment that houses instructions to save the city that have been discarded by a corrupt mayor. As the new mayor (Murray) tracks her down, she must do whatever she can to solve Ember's hidden mysteries.



Ronan said it was a great deal of fun to step of the film's massive set and be part of an adventure film designed to appeal to her peers.



"It was great to do and lots of fun. There's lots of stuff that happens and it's just so much fun," said Ronan. "The same thing that people liked about the book, they're going to like about the movie. It's just very exciting."



As Ronan moves forward into her teenage years, she knows that the opportunity to cash in on her fame by taking roles in crude comedies and slasher films could be a temptation. Yet she said she wants to stick to more respectable work and has a word of advice for young actors getting formulaic scripts.



"Just don't do them. Some of them are actually very good, but there are always some bad ones and that's for any movie," she said. "I don't think I'd like to do a horror movie, though. I suppose I just have to see what comes her way."



There is one genre, however, she said she may like to dance her way into.



"I think it would be fun to be in a musical," she said. "The singing and dancing just seem like it would be a lot of fun."



From a "House" to a "City"



Gil Kenan's feature debut, the 2006 family horror-comedy "Monster House," was a computer-animated adventure that required no sets or costumes. In making the film, Kenan dressed his actors up in special suits that captured their movements and facial reactions. The sets and special effects were all added later by animators.



For "City of Ember," Kenan could have easily gone the same route or, similar to the films "300" and "Sin City," filmed his actors and animated the settings. But Kenan felt it was necessary to build a large set that housed Ember, the place his actors would call home for several months.



"We went the practical route because I really wanted to give the actors a tangible experience with this," he said. "In some ways, this is actually a bit easier because everything is right there. You're not asking them to react to a ball on a stick or pretend something's there when it's not."



Born in the United Kingdom, Kenan was a film student who caught a self-described "lucky break" when one of his short films played in a festival and caught the eye of Hollywood agents. Shortly after that, Kenan received a call to meet with some of Hollywood's biggest players.



"At that point, I was struggling and I was basically living hand-to-mouth," he said. "Literally within a few months of that call I was having meetings with Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg."



It was with those two that Kenan would eventually collaborate on "Monster House," a film about two young boys who battle a house that literally comes to life and begins eating neighborhood residents. Raised on films like "E.T.," "Poltergeist" and "The Goonies," Kenan made the film a sort of homage back to the family films of the 1980s that dared to actually mix real scares in between the laughs.



"I feel like the reason I liked the movies I did when I was growing up was that they didn't pacify the experience. There was a danger and an excitement to them," he said. "That drove me in a big way to 'Monster House,' and I feel like when I watch that that it captures that same sort of tone."



Before taking on the "House," however, Kenan was attracted to an adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's young adult novel about a 200-year-old underground city that's running out of time. Although complications required "Monster House" to come first, Kenan still felt his home was with "City of Ember," which he liked because of the science fiction elements of the story.



"One of the things that was really interesting was the interplay between the characters and their environment, in this city that is underground with these lamps lighting it that are about to go out," he said. "With 'Ember' I really loved the idea that this place we call home is about to disappear and needs to be saved."

Constructing the elaborate city took the work of hundreds of craftsman and construction workers. For the city's look, Kenan turned to other famous dystopias, including the first such film, Fritz Lang's 1926 silent masterpiece "Metropolis."



"I was really inspired by looking at 'Metropolis'. You're looking to construct something that's visually interesting, but also functional, and when you look at these dystopian periods, they kind of all boil down to the same design," he said. "All of them were sort of born from that same look."



With the city ready to go, Kenan said the film would rest on the shoulders of "Ember's" citizens. He said Murray, with his dry wit, was a natural choice for the Mayor of Ember and that Robbins' cache lent credibility to his role. For the casting of Lina Mayfleet, however, he turned to Ronan, then an unknown.



"It was just crystal-clear that she was the right girl for this role," Kenan said. "Obviously 'Atonement' proved that she had the chops, but she was just wonderful in her audition."