We Bought a Zoo Film

Shorts said:
That would be a very different world where Peter Greenaway films were the mainstream:D
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One morning a few years ago my cat had left some hunting remains by the back door. When I announced to my visiting sister and nieces that 'a slug is eating half a mouse outside', she instantly asked if Peter Greenaway was filming it!
 
As one of the few hard film fanatics on zoochat (many hours at the cineclub of the universidad nacional autonoma de mexico ) I consider that the only major Hollywood film related to zoos (not just a zoo as a background in a scenario) until now remains the great "Hatari" directed by Howard Hawks in 1962 and which stared John Wayne, Elsa Martinelli and the memorable Red Buttons all as animal collectors for zoos. It was filmed in Tanzania and the music which is also great was by Henry Mancini. The secuences of the capture of a black rhino and later a giraffe are pure cinematography. Maybe i am getting old, but those were movies. Young zoochaters, see it and relive a part of history.
 
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carlos77 said:
the great "Hatari" directed by Howard Hawks in 1962
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Wow this takes me back.

A great scene was when they figured out how to catch l think babbon by shooting a rocket with a net attached in the opposite direction of a tree. The weight of the net forced the rocket to curve back and cover the tree and the baboons.

The actual act of going under the net to individually catch the baboons must have been incredibly dangerous!
 
I have to say, when I met Mr. Mee last summer while zipping past the house - which is really right there in the zoo, I didn't immediately think "Matt Damon" when he mentioned they were doing the movie. Still, Damon's a good actor, so I'm sure he can pull it off, and will be able sound British to us Americans, anyway.
It's hard to imagine that the area can get that crazy with tourists, given the Devon walls, which make it hard to get to - and can't be moved!
I decided to visit the zoo last summer after reading the book and then realized after I got there that I had been there a few years ago. It seemed quite a bit lighter this time, although my favorite thing is still watching the otters get fed.
 
Talli said:
I have to say, when I met Mr. Mee last summer while zipping past the house - which is really right there in the zoo, I didn't immediately think "Matt Damon" when he mentioned they were doing the movie. Still, Damon's a good actor, so I'm sure he can pull it off, and will be able sound British to us Americans, anyway.
It's hard to imagine that the area can get that crazy with tourists, given the Devon walls, which make it hard to get to - and can't be moved!
I decided to visit the zoo last summer after reading the book and then realized after I got there that I had been there a few years ago. It seemed quite a bit lighter this time, although my favorite thing is still watching the otters get fed.
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Was the zoo under Mee's ownership when you first visited?
 
sealion said:
Was the zoo under Mee's ownership when you first visited?
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No, I'm pretty sure not. I'll have to see if I can find my pictures from that trip. Probably aren't that many - I think the camera I had at that time didn't have much capacity and I didn't have a handy way to copy photos like I do now to make room.
 
Talli said:
No, I'm pretty sure not. I'll have to see if I can find my pictures from that trip. Probably aren't that many - I think the camera I had at that time didn't have much capacity and I didn't have a handy way to copy photos like I do now to make room.
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Ah I see. That would make for an interesting comparison! Good planning of trips!
 
Upcoming movie: We Bought a Zoo

Just saw this movie listed in upcoming releases:

A father moves his family to the English countryside to own and operate a zoo.
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Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Matt Damon, Elle Fanning

From Wikipedia: [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Bought_a_Zoo]We Bought a Zoo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

We Bought a Zoo is an upcoming comedy film directed by Cameron Crowe starring Matt Damon, Thomas Haden Church, Colin Ford, Scarlett Johansson, Patrick Fugit, and Elle Fanning.

The film is based on a memoir by Benjamin Mee about how the author and his family used their life savings to buy Dartmoor Zoological Park, a dilapidated zoo, replete with 200 exotic animals facing destruction, in the English countryside.
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So Scarlett Johansson isn't playing Mee's wife (willing to bet she's still the love interest). The zoo has moved to Southern California and it's a... comedy?

Something tells me this is going to "We Bought a Zoo" in name only.
 
CGSwans said:
So Scarlett Johansson isn't playing Mee's wife (willing to bet she's still the love interest). The zoo has moved to Southern California and it's a... comedy?

Something tells me this is going to "We Bought a Zoo" in name only.
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They have taken the concept idea and tailored it to the big screen. I can see it now- the 'steep learning curve' of a new zoo owner, with lots of merry japes including hair raising incidents of animals escaping, finding partners for lonely animals etc. Not sure how they will deal with the tragedy of Mee's wife dying though- not very fitting in a comedy?
 
I hate it when they mess with a fiction book when they turn it into a movie, I think this one's going to make me crazy. I guess "based on a true story" means they use a few names and a couple of facts and make up everything else. I've now read "set in Southern California", not just filmed, and "widower moves his family" - meaning they'll have his wife gone before the story even starts, not after they move to the zoo. I guess as someone else said, if they wanted to make a comedy, the true love story, while beautiful, is certainly not funny, so they would have had to work a lot harder. Too bad. I will go, of course, and hopefully it'll generate enough money for the zoo that they can tarmac the paths!
 
Too bad, as the book was so interesting, it would have made a perfect movie. Absolutely no reason to change things.

That means there will be two zoo-based comedy movies this summer. The Zookeeper appears from the preview I saw online to be like a fun movie. Set at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston (USA).
 
Apparently the ADI is calling for a boycott of Zookeeper and also Water for Elephants because of claimed abuse of the elephant Tai used in both movies: Animal Defenders International : Take action : Help ADI speak up for Tai and other animal actors

As to the movie making money for the zoo - I suppose it depends on the terms of the sale of the movie rights (i.e. will Mr. Mee get any percentage of the profits and future DVD sales, etc), and how much increased traffic it brings to the zoo. Hard to imagine there would be much merchandising.
 
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