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Exclusive: Bonnie Arnold and Louise Goodsill have teamed up to adapt Juniper’s Christmas from bestselling author of Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer.

The deal was struck by Emily Hayward-Whitlock at The Artists Partnership in association with Sophie Hicks at Sophie Hicks Agency.

“Eoin has created a fresh and imaginative rendering of a contemporary Santa and a brave young heroine, Juniper Lane, who sets out to save Christmas and Santa himself,” Arnold and Goodsill said in a statement. “It’s a special book with unforgettable characters that we look forward to making into a wonderful film for all to enjoy — a family adventure filled with joy.”

Published by Macmillan Children’s in the U.S. and HarperCollins in the UK in October 2023, Juniper’s Christmas tells the story of eleven-year-old Juniper Lane as she’s thrown into a Christmas...

This review was written for the theatrical release of "August Rush".Magical realism meets a modern-day Oliver Twist in "August Rush", an often charming urban fantasy that teeters perilously on the brink of preciousness but never quite topples over. It's a tightrope act from the first frame, but Kirsten Sheridan in her second outing as a director -- 2001's "Disco Pigs" was her first -- infuses her film with rapturous music and imagery. The story is about musicians and how music connects people, so the movie's score and songs, created by composers Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer, give poetic whimsy to an implausible tale.

Warner Bros. will rely on the cast to help sell this movie. Freddie Highmore again demonstrates he is one of the industry's top child actors, while Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers continue to climb to stardom in roles that demand the utmost sensitivity. The film should attract a loyal following, but critics will be mixed.

"August" adopts the structure of "Oliver Twist" whereby an orphan runs away to New York and falls in with a Fagin-like character. Instead of a gang of young thieves, the "Wizard" (Robin Williams, doing his best with a poorly written role) operates a team of young musicians who live in an abandoned theater and play for money on street corners. Evan (Highmore), whom he renames August Rush, is a child prodigy whose skills reward him with a prime spot in Washington Square.

It is in Washington Square 11 years ago where Evan was conceived. In flashback, a young Irish guitarist-singer, Louis (Rhys Meyers), encounters a shy, young cellist, Lyla (Russell), on a rooftop overlooking the square. The two spend the night only to be torn apart by circumstances.

When the pregnant Lyla is hit by a car and gives birth prematurely, her father (William Sadler), mindful of her career, gives the infant up for adoption but tells his daughter that her baby died. Shattered, she loses interest in playing and relocates to Chicago, where she teaches music. Louis, too, gives up music, opting for a business career in San Francisco.

A kind social worker (Terrence Howard) urges Evan into family placement, but the boy never gives up hope of finding his parents. He believes he can reach out to them through music, that they can "hear" each other. His musical gifts explode when he comes to New York. Its sounds resonate in his head: In the whoosh of subway trains, noise from cars, thumps of a basketball and the clatter, hum and buzz of everyday life, he feels music flow through him.

When August wanders into a church, the pastor (Mykelti Williamson) is so impressed with the boy's organ composition that he brings the youngster to the Juilliard School of Music. In no time, he has composed a symphony. It will be played in Central Park, where Lyla is a featured cellist and Louis is nearby, reunited with his old band.

Clearly, the film does not work on any realistic level. "August" is driven by its music. From gospel and rock to classical and symphonic, music carries its characters and story ever forward to their destiny. John Mathieson's inspired cinematography turn contemporary Manhattan into a Dickensian world where an orphan might triumph and people feel the sound of healing music. And nearly stealing the film is young Jamia Simone Nash with her sassy line readings and astonishing voice.

AUGUST RUSH

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Southpaw Entertainment production in association with CJ Entertainment

Credits:

Director: Kirsten Sheridan

Screenwriters: Nick Castle, James V. Hart

Story by: Nick Castle, Paul Castro

Producer: Richard Barton Lewis

Executive producers: Robert Greenhut, Ralph Kamp, Louise Goodsill, Miky Lee, Lionel Wigram

Director of photography: John Mathieson

Production designer: Michael Shaw

Music: Mark Mancina

Costume designer: Frank Fleming

Editor: William Steinkamp

Cast:

August Rush: Freddie Highmore

Lyla Novacek: Keri Russell

Louis Connelly: Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Richard Jeffries: Terrence Howard

Maxwell "Wizard" Wallace: Robin Williams

Thomas: William Sadler

Arthur: Leon Thomas III

Hope: Jamia Simone Nash

Running time -- 113 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...

Magical realism meets a modern-day Oliver Twist in August Rush, an often charming urban fantasy that teeters perilously on the brink of preciousness but never quite topples over. It's a tightrope act from the first frame, but Kirsten Sheridan in her second outing as a director -- 2001's Disco Pigs was her first -- infuses her film with rapturous music and imagery. The story is about musicians and how music connects people, so the movie's score and songs, created by composers Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer, give poetic whimsy to an implausible tale.

Warner Bros. will rely on the cast to help sell this movie. Freddie Highmore again demonstrates he is one of the industry's top child actors, while Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers continue to climb to stardom in roles that demand the utmost sensitivity. The film should attract a loyal following, but critics will be mixed.

August adopts the structure of Oliver Twist whereby an orphan runs away to New York and falls in with a Fagin-like character. Instead of a gang of young thieves, the Wizard (Robin Williams, doing his best with a poorly written role) operates a team of young musicians who live in an abandoned theater and play for money on street corners. Evan (Highmore), whom he renames August Rush, is a child prodigy whose skills reward him with a prime spot in Washington Square.

It is in Washington Square 11 years ago where Evan was conceived. In flashback, a young Irish guitarist-singer, Louis (Rhys Meyers), encounters a shy, young cellist, Lyla (Russell), on a rooftop overlooking the square. The two spend the night only to be torn apart by circumstances.

When the pregnant Lyla is hit by a car and gives birth prematurely, her father (William Sadler), mindful of her career, gives the infant up for adoption but tells his daughter that her baby died. Shattered, she loses interest in playing and relocates to Chicago, where she teaches music. Louis, too, gives up music, opting for a business career in San Francisco.

A kind social worker (Terrence Howard) urges Evan into family placement, but the boy never gives up hope of finding his parents. He believes he can reach out to them through music, that they can "hear" each other. His musical gifts explode when he comes to New York. Its sounds resonate in his head: In the whoosh of subway trains, noise from cars, thumps of a basketball and the clatter, hum and buzz of everyday life, he feels music flow through him.

When August wanders into a church, the pastor (Mykelti Williamson) is so impressed with the boy's organ composition that he brings the youngster to the Juilliard School of Music. In no time, he has composed a symphony. It will be played in Central Park, where Lyla is a featured cellist and Louis is nearby, reunited with his old band.

Clearly, the film does not work on any realistic level. August is driven by its music. From gospel and rock to classical and symphonic, music carries its characters and story ever forward to their destiny. John Mathieson's inspired cinematography turn contemporary Manhattan into a Dickensian world where an orphan might triumph and people feel the sound of healing music. And nearly stealing the film is young Jamia Simone Nash with her sassy line readings and astonishing voice.

AUGUST RUSH

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Southpaw Entertainment production in association with CJ Entertainment

Credits:

Director: Kirsten Sheridan

Screenwriters: Nick Castle, James V. Hart

Story by: Nick Castle, Paul Castro

Producer: Richard Barton Lewis

Executive producers: Robert Greenhut, Ralph Kamp, Louise Goodsill, Miky Lee, Lionel Wigram

Director of photography: John Mathieson

Production designer: Michael Shaw

Music: Mark Mancina

Costume designer: Frank Fleming

Editor: William Steinkamp

Cast:

August Rush: Freddie Highmore

Lyla Novacek: Keri Russell

Louis Connelly: Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Richard Jeffries: Terrence Howard

Maxwell Wizard Wallace: Robin Williams

Thomas: William Sadler

Arthur: Leon Thomas III

Hope: Jamia Simone Nash

Running time -- 113 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...

Toronto Film Festival

TORONTO — Playing like an adult woman's rejoinder to the Peter Pan factor in recent rom-coms, "Then She Found Me" prefers the mature man to the overgrown boy, gets knocked up without freaking out, and never -- well, maybe once -- goes for the startling gag over the pointed observation. With subtle laughs but solid emotional thrust, it will play very well with older audiences.

In her debut as feature director, Helen Hunt also stars as a teacher whose husband has a change of heart after less than a year of marriage. The earth beneath her continues to shake as her adoptive mother dies and her purportedly real one -- self-obsessed talk show host Bernice, played with pushy panache by Bette Midler -- makes her presence known.

Not a good time for new love, which makes the immediate arrival of Frank such a perfect vehicle for Colin Firth's patented choked-back-emotions act. Frank is the recently-divorced dad of April's student, and the two make a valiant (but doomed, natch) attempt not to ask each other out. Their quick rapport contrasts with the tentative relationship, threatened by half-truths and showbiz flakiness, between April and Bernice.

Then April, who has been worrying about getting too old to have a child, learns her estranged husband got her pregnant on the night he left -- just the spark needed to kick all the plot's tricky relationships into high gear at once. April's poor obstetrician (a truly left-field celeb cameo) hardly knows how many supporters she'll have with her each time she's due for an ultrasound.

Things are moving quickly, but Hunt aims for restrained believability rather than glossy bounce. The script isn't afraid to crack a joke, but it also doesn't want to exploit April's angst for cute laughs; accordingly, Hunt the director allows Hunt the actress to look realistically beat-down from time to time. The relatively sober mood means that when things turn ugly, the blow-ups don't come off as manufactured plot points. (That's particularly true with Firth's character, a memorably damaged suitor.)

The picture is set apart not only by its tone but by the way it takes seriously some elements that might get reduced to window-dressing in a movie more carefully engineered to reach the broadest audience: details of the protagonist's Jewish upbringing, for instance, but especially the attitude toward children, who here aren't fashion accessories but an essential part of the way April and Frank think about where they stand with each other.

That's not the kind of consequence-factoring theme you find in the average date movie, but it helps give "Then She Found Me" a character that many viewers will respond to.

THEN SHE FOUND ME

ThinkFilm

Killer Films / Blue Rider Pictures / John Wells Prods.

Director: Helen Hunt

Writers: Alice Arlen, Victor Levin, Helen Hunt

Based on the novel by Elinor Lipman

Producers: Helen Hunt, Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel, Connie Tavel, Christine Vachon

Executive producers: Jeff Geoffray, Louise Goodsill, Walter Josten, Ralph Kamp, Chip Signore, John Wells

Director of photography: Peter Donahue

Production designer: Stephen Beatrice

Music: David Mansfield

Co-producer: Matthew Myers

Costume designer: Donna Zakowska

Editor: Pam Wise

Cast:

April: Helen Hunt

Frank: Colin Firth

Bernice: Bette Midler

Ben: Matthew Broderick

Freddy: Ben Shenkman

No MPAA rating, running time 100 minutes...

The film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical theater powerhouse "The Phantom of the Opera" still contains its memorable lyrics and score, but this "Phantom" is a pale -- dare we say ghostly? -- copy of the original coup de theatre directed by Harold Prince. Part of the problem can be laid to miscasting and an overindulgence in set design. But the element of camp, which admittedly lurked in the wings of the stage musical, explodes into full view here before unforgiving cameras.

A Baz Luhrmann might have found a way to make the film version hip and relevant to younger audiences. But Webber clearly maintained a tight grip on his baby as producer and screenplay collaborator with director Joel Schumacher, so little rethinking of the stage show went into the filmization. Consequently, audiences for the musical skew older, with little to attract young males.

The story from Gaston Leroux's 1911 pulp horror novel tells of a disfigured musical genius who haunts the catacombs of a Paris opera house. He secretly mentors a young female singer, whom he adores, but a hideous face behind a half mask forces him to hide both himself and his love from the woman.

The film opens strongly with a black-and-white prologue in 1919, where the aging Vicompte Raoul de Chagny buys an old music box at auction in a decaying theater. As an organ strikes the Phantom's theme, the movie then flashes back in brilliant color to that theater in full swing in 1870 where singers, costumers, set builders and the ballet corps ready the next grand production.

The film gains further momentum when the brilliant and beautiful Emmy Rossum comes onscreen as the young chorus girl Christine Daae. A classically trained singer who made a dazzling debut in the underrated "Songcatcher" in 2000, Rossum has a crystal-pure voice that conveys the soft innocence of the Phantom's beloved. She also handles the mood shifts well, confused when caught in a romantic tug of war between the Phantom and her lover, Raoul, then later finding the backbone to stand up to her mentor.

Alas, the movie stumbles badly with the appearance of Scottish actor Gerard Butler as the Phantom. The role, so memorably created by Michael Crawford onstage, usually falls to an older actor since the Phantom has supposedly been Christine's "angel of music" since childhood. Yet Butler is nearly the same age as Patrick Wilson, who plays Christine's childhood friend Raoul. The change possibly reflects a misguided notion that a younger Phantom will attract a younger crowd, but it throws off the dynamics of the romantic triangle. Much more damaging is the fact Butler is not a trained singer. He manages to get by but lacks the vocal range and richness to do justice to some of the show's finest songs.

The role of Raoul is always problematic. Webber and Schumacher invent a ludicrous sword fight between Raoul and the Phantom in a graveyard so his character is a little less wimpy than onstage. Nevertheless, Wilson struggles, as do all Raouls, to give the character color or dimension.

Minnie Driver, as the opera's impossible diva, is terrific fun, hamming things up in a fake Italian accent and raging ego. Miranda Richardson is suitably grave and levelheaded as the ballet mistress who knows more than she pretends.

Simon Callow and Ciaran Hinds give comic zest to the theater's two new managers, but the roles have always been the show's weakest as they require vaudevillian turns at odds with the musical's often horrific tone.

What the film most damagingly lacks though is a sense of mystery and danger. When the Phantom magically transports Christine through the bowels of the opera to his lair, Schumacher has cinematographer John Mathieson light the passages so brightly -- the better to show off all those expensive sets, apparently -- it feels more like a fun frolic than a journey into the heart of darkness. There is even a horse standing by to help out. What on earth is a horse doing down there?

Similarly, in the scene where Christine visits her father's grave to sing "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," Schumacher has Rossum traipse miles through a grotesque set of towering, campy headstones and monuments before she finally arrives at a sarcophagus befitting an emperor. The only trouble is, her father was a poor violinist.

In the story's one major change, the famous scene in which the Phantom causes a chandelier to crash during a performance has been moved to the end to put more "wow" into the climax. Fine, only the audience now has no idea until the end how far this mad genius will go to claim his love from his rival. Except when Rossum is onscreen, this "Phantom" is but a hallow visual effects show.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Odyssey Entertainment A Really Useful Films/Scion Films production

Credits:

Director: Joel Schumacher

Screenwriters: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joel Schumacher

Based on the novel by: Gaston Leroux

Producer: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Executive producers: Austin Shaw, Paul Hitchcock, Louise Goodsill, Ralph Kamp, Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman, Keith Cousins

Director of photography: John Mathieson

Production designer: Anthony Pratt

Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics: Charles Hart

Additional lyrics: Richard Stilgoe

Choreographer: Peter Darling

Costumes: Alexandra Byrne

Visual effects supervisor: Nathan McGuinness

Editor: Terry Rawlings

Cast:

Phantom: Gerard Butler

Christine: Emmy Rossum

Raoul: Patrick Wilson

Mme. Giry: Miranda Richardson

Andrew: Simon Callow

Firmin: Ciaran Hinds

Carlotta: Minnie Driver

Buquet: Kevin R. McNally

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 140 minutes...