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ONLY BELIEVE
FATHER AND SON:
Daniel Magder and Bruce Greenwood on location in New Zealand
for The Water Giant.
the water giant
Just sometimes, the amount of time it takes to move a film from the idea stage into production - development hell, as some would term it - can have its upside. Or that’s what Barry Authors, the Canadian writer/producer of The Water Giant, thinks.
As its title implies, The Water Giant is a film which features a creature. It’s a family movie, centring on the relationship between a widowed father and his 10-year-old son, and the creature in question is a cross between Walter Matthau and a traditional Chinese dog. It’s called Mee Shee, and it’s pretty friendly (at least towards the boy). Most important of all, it has a part to play in the film in full view of the audience - which is a lot easier to achieve in 2002 than it was as recently as 1996, when Authors first began developing The Water Giant.
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WHAT’S A KID TO DO WHEN HIS DAD SAYS HE’LL TAKE HIM ON VACATION TO FLORIDA AND THEY END UP GOING TO A FREEZING LAKE
SOMEWHERE IN CANADA? WELL, IN THE WATER GIANT, 10-YEAR-OLD MAC HAS THE TIME OF HIS LIFE. DICK NIRO FINDS OUT WHY.
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“Originally, the creature was intended to be completely animatronic,” he explains, “but in the four years the film has been in development, computer-graphic technology has improved immensely.” So, when it was time to tackle the ‘how-to’ details of bringing Mee Shee to life, Authors and director John Henderson were delighted to discover that the Henson Creature Shop, doyen of animatronic workshops, was able to offer them a double whammy.
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