Following its premiere this spring in a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival and in competition at the Annecy Film Festival, Into the Wonderwoods, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord, is now coming to theatres. In France, it was released by Le Pacte on 23 October.
The feature film is an adaptation of one of Vincent Paronnaud’s comic books, which he wrote and drew under his pseudonym Winshluss. The comic was published by Gallimard (France) in 2016 and has won several awards.
Into the Wonderwoods is aimed at a family audience and is suitable for viewers aged of 6 and above. The hero is a 10-year-old boy named Angelo, who suddenly learns that his grandmother, who lives a long way from their home, suffers from a serious illness. His parents, brother, sister and himself set off by car to meet her, but the journey does not go according to plan. After a break at a motorway rest area, the family set off again, but leaves Angelo behind. The boy finds himself wandering alone into a mysterious forest, where he meets a host of characters, confronts a villain, and just might find the remedy that will cure his Granny…
Vincent Paronnaud explains how the idea for the feature film came about:
When I finished to write and draw the comic, I said to myself that it could be adapted for the screen. I truly had the feeling that I could return in a different way to Angelo’s story, which is an initiation tale.
Producer Marc Jousset, who co-founded with Franck Ekinci in 1996 the company Je Suis Bien Content, was also convinced that the comic would make a great feature film.
Marc Jousset has been working with Vincent Paronnaud on animated films for over twenty years. Among their collaborations, we can highlight that Marc Jousset produced Raging Blues, Vincent Paronnaud’s first short film, co-directed by Lyonnel Mathieu (2003), and was also the artistic director on the multi awarded feature film Persepolis, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, and for which Je Suis Bien Content handled executive production.
Vincent Paronnaud and Marc Jousset soon discussed the technique to be used for Into the Wonderwoods:
We chose 3D. It’s a technique I’d never used before and I wanted to experiment with it. But I wanted the 3D to have a stop-motion style to bring the characters to life even more.
Vincent Paronnaud wanted to direct the film with another artist who was already familiar with 3D. Together with Marc Jousset, they contacted Alexis Ducord, who they had known for years. Alexis Ducord co-directed with Arthur de Pins the feature film Zombillenium, which was selected as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and the same year opened the Annecy Film Festival, where it was also in competition.
Alexis Ducord immediately accepted to co-direct:
Vincent didn’t want to make a strict adaptation of the comic. There was a desire to come up with new ideas, which was very interesting.
The picture includes a few 2D sequences.
Into the Wonderwoods is produced by Je Suis Bien Content, Gao Shan Pictures (Arnaud Boulard, France) and Zeilt Productions (Laurent Witz, Luxembourg), with a budget around €10m. The feature film is one of the first to have been made using the Unreal Engine tool developed by Epic Games (USA). Mainly used for video games, this tool enables 3D shots to be rendered in real time.
Into the Wonderwoods was presented at Cartoon Movie in 2018 at the ‘in concept’ stage and attracted a great deal of interest. This year it returned to the market at the ‘in production’ stage.
Jousset comments:
Development and financing took three years. Pre-production lasted a year and we followed that up with two years of manufacturing.
The Into the Wonderwoods team is already preparing the future. Jousset unveils:
We’re working on a loose adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island.
The sales agent for Into the Wonderwoods is Urban Sales (France). To date, the film has been acquired by 45 territories, including Italy (Movies Inspired), Spain (Vercine), Vietnam (Skyline Media) and Poland (New Horizon).
