Brendan Maher - Director
"I want the audience to get involved in a really fantastic and
exciting adventure story. To really get on board and go with Davie through
this wild adventure. Hopefully they are struck by the beauty of it and
also struck by its bigger historical context. I think they will be transported.
They'll be taken somewhere else." - Brendan Maher
Kidnapped director Brendan Maher describes his new 大象传媒 adaptation of
the Robert Louis Stevenson classic as an action-packed period piece
that feels like a contemporary road movie:
"It's a mad adventure. Davie has an incredibly adventurous time and
it's all the things that kids dream about. The landscape and the characters
he comes up against are larger than life.
"And the characters are not black and white. They are very vulnerable.
They have redeeming features and they're all flawed in some way."
Davie is played by young actor James Anthony Pearson, part of a cast
that is a mix of high profile, experienced actors and relative newcomers.
Maher is clearly delighted with the result:
"James Anthony Pearson carries the entire mini-series. He's in every
scene bar three or four and he's utterly compelling. James worked incredibly
hard and did an astonishing job."
Davie's companion for many of his adventures is Jacobite hero Alan
Breck, played by Iain Glen:
"Iain Glen plays the young kid's sidekick and he fills the screen.
He does all the things you really want in a Robert Louis Stevenson character."
Breck's English adversary Colonel MacNab is played by Paul McGann,
and Adrian Dunbar played the dual roles of Alexander and Ebenezer Balfour,
Davie's father and uncle.
"Paul McGann just played a fantastic baddie who again was completely
understandable, and had a job to do," says Maher.
"Adrian came on board and gave us something completely unexpected and
made the role his own."
Another actor whose performance gave Maher a new perspective on his
character was Gregor Fisher:
"Gregor brought something to James of the Glens I'd never really seen
before. The idea of this man in absolute crisis because he's placed
in a situation where he's torn between defending his family and surviving
and living in a regime that he just has no power over and doesn't agree
with."
Maher was also delighted by young actor Kirstin Coulter Smith, who
played Stewart's courageous daughter Catriona as a "marvellously vulnerable
yet tough, clear-sighted, powerful young woman."
To create the 18th century world of Kidnapped, Maher collaborated
with production designer Jo Ford and costume designer Lesley Burkes-Harding.
For Maher, the production design began with the locations Davie travels
through.
Maher decided to keep the landscape uncluttered, keeping the frame
as clear as possible:
"We needed the landscape to have a major impact. You end up with clear
skies, mountain ranges and whatever Davie's standing on."
Printable version