Some stories refuse to stay on the page. “Hollywood Reporter”Our Beyond the Book column explores what happens when books make the leap to the screen and beyond—revealing what has changed, how it’s done, and why it matters to the creators who made it happen.
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[Warning:Thisstorycontainsspoilers[Warning:Thisstorycontainsspoilersfor Sheep investigations.]
Sheep investigations It technically shouldn’t have worked.
The Amazon MGM film is based on Leonie Swan’s 2005 novel Three full bagsThe film revolves around a flock of Irish sheep who solve the murder of their shepherd, George Hardy (Hugh Jackman). While the cast includes human actors like Nicholas Galitzine and Emma Thompson, the focus remains on the sheep, voiced by stars including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, and Patrick Stewart.
Screenwriter Craig Mazin is well known The last of us and Chernobylfound that Swan’s best-selling book stretched new creative muscles for him. “This film on paper should not have been made,” Mazen says. Hollywood Reporter. Initial skepticism about a story that was “so ridiculous” may have given way to the discovery of a story that is “brilliant and philosophical,” Mazen says of his first reading of the novel in years. “What I loved most was her [Swann] They had these very caring sheep, but they were limited in their understanding of the world, and you had to explore that limitation with them.
Mazen, an Agatha Christie fan, has taken on the challenge of crafting a sheep-driven murder. To make it suitable for a family audience, the book’s dark plot points were modified and the set was simplified, but the essence became a “meta-exercise” in obscure metaphors.
“If this is going to be a murder and all they know about the world is an Agatha Christie murder, then it has to be an Agatha Christie murder. You have to follow these rules,” he explains of the sheep who become obsessed with mysteries after George Jackman reads them stories every night. “The thing is, [Agatha Christie’s] Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot were unable to solve the case until the end. “They are struggling, and I love that struggle.”
When crafting the film adaptation of the mystery, Mazin said the concern was that there wouldn’t be “any real stakes”, which is necessary in a mystery. So he made sure the dramatic tension was real by focusing on justice. “Hugh Jackman had to make us fall in love with George in about 12 minutes,” he says.
Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the smartest of the pack, uses a mystery novel that George reads to them every night as a blueprint to solve the crime. However, the lingering problem that prevents her and the rest from truly finding the culprit is that they never left their farm.
“They are afraid,” says Mazen. “Everything is new to them.” But what they lack in worldly experience they make up for in observational skills, including “the ability to look into someone’s eyes and tell if they’re telling the truth,” pattern recognition and “the most important skill that sheep have that no one else has.” [which] “It’s the ability to forget things.”
Moments of “shame” sometimes frustrate them, as Mazen points out how Cloud the sheep finds “the most beautiful bracelet.” [Molly Gordon’s] Rebecca has left the field, and she keeps it because she is obsessed with it, because it is the thing that has no end. The bracelet proved to be important evidence in the case, but she “views it as a circle that goes around and around and around, and hides it from the rest of the sheep. I thought this was the most unusual and beautiful thing. Your puzzle-solving process is somewhat frustrated by the fact that one of your family members can’t seem to stop looking at the bracelet.
Since “most of the novel’s mystery elements couldn’t be completely conveyed,” Mazin had to “create a different engine” and “try to do as much Agatha Christie calculations as possible”—but not without encountering a few hiccups along the way.
“Every screenwriter has a delicious five-hour version of a movie that no one wants to watch,” Mazin admits, but his challenge was to tell the story in “an appropriate amount of screen time” while introducing each suspect, who also had to appear “credible and have a motive.” Among those rationales were “financial motives, a contemptuous heart, a dangerous secret, and there’s jealousy,” he says, adding that Hong Chow’s Beth — and her involvement as a suspect — was among his biggest narrative tests, as her role isn’t explained until the “end” of the film.
On the surface, the Kyle Balda-directed film has all the elements to make it a fun family mystery described as “luscious meet Knives outBut Mazen confirms that the film has an emotional core, which is what he learned made people cry while watching the film.
“This movie, for me, was always an opportunity to do a coming-of-age story. Lily is a grown-up sheep, but she’s a child. Her innocence about death and life and the world, it’s profound, and it makes sense too. They’re sheep. They’re models of peaceful behavior and watching them struggle with reality is hard. She makes mistakes before she gets it right, and she makes mistakes because of something very shameful about her. She has to grow up for it. To solve the case.”
“We never stop learning, we never stop facing difficult things, and they change throughout our lives,” he continues. “Sheep are on the surface solving a mystery, but what they are really doing is dealing with grief and loss.”
The flock is also changed forever when their outdoor winter sheep, Sebastian, dies after defending Lily and Mobel (Chris O’Dowd) from aggressive dogs, a scene that Mazin says he cried while writing. “No matter how badly the sheep flocks treated him in his life, because he was a winter sheep, he still came back to defend them. He said, ‘You are my flock. “We cannot be separated from ourselves.” The people we admire most and find most noble are those who put themselves aside for others, even when others treat them poorly. It is a beautiful and noble thing that anyone can witness.
From Swan agreeing to the adaptation with MGM and executive Courtney Valenti’s support in helming the adaptation, which faced a decade-long development process, Mazin says the film’s success was a huge surprise.
“It did really well. We knew it wasn’t going to open like a huge movie, but it did four times in its opening weekend, just in the U.S. alone, which is a great number. I think we’re doing something like $125 million globally for the movie. They did a great job with the trailers and everything, but once the opening weekend came around, it was word-of-mouth marketing, and we were thrilled that a lot of people found it.”
Mazen added: “I am very proud of it and everyone who worked on it.” “This concerns me. Everyone thought this would be stupid.” Sure, animal movies are often stupid, and we overdone it!
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Sheep investigations It airs June 24 on Prime Video.
