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MISS PEREGRINE www.postmagazine.com 19 POST SEPTEMBER 2016 teen discovers a hidden sanctuary on an island where children, known as "peculiars," have special powers, dark secrets and some deadly enemies called Hollowgasts. That's the general plot for 20 th Century Fox's Hollywood adaptation of Ransom Rigg's bestselling novel, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." Here, children are invisible, can manipulate the air, create fire with their bare hands and control bees, all under the watchful eye of headmistress Miss Peregrine who, herself, can change form into a bird. The story is both weird and wonderful, and who better to helm such a project than director Tim Burton, known for his own 'peculiar' style, with offbeat films such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and Alice in Wonderland. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children stars Eva Green (Showtime's Penny Dreadful) in the title role, young actors Asa Butterfield as Jacob, Ella Purnell as Emma and support from industry vets Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench and Allison Janney. Shot predominantly on Arri Alexa cameras at various locations, including Florida, Belgium and the UK, Burton was joined behind the scenes by DP Bruno Delbonnel, editor Chris Lebenzon (who cut on Avid) and VFX supervisor Frazer Churchill. Here, Burton and Churchill speak exclusively with Post about some of the film's production and post challenges, as well as some of the more complex VFX sequences. TIM BURTON, FILMMAKER Burton told Post during our conversation on July 4 th , that speaking about the film while still putting the finishing touches on it was "A bit like talking about a baby before it's born — it's bizarre, but I'll do my best." Why did you want to make this film? Did you read the books by Ransom Riggs? "I wasn't aware of the book — but Jane Goldman wrote the script and I got the book and I think what I loved about it was — I just loved the way Ransom used these photographs, because I collect old photographs, not as much as he does, I don't know if anybody does, but what I love about old photographs is that you look at certain ones and they're haunting and poetic and creepy and emotional and mysterious. That's something that was very fascinating to me. Even though we're not out to recreate the image of the photograph, there's a feeling of which you get that's really interesting when you look at a photograph. I guess the thing that we were trying to do with it, what I felt Ransom did, was try to create more po- etic, strong images but not trying to copy them and try to give the flavor of what he did in the book. I also felt a connection to the Jacob character in the sense that he's not a big action hero…he's just a kid who feels awkward, and feels like he's crazy — [a] feeling that's easy to relate to. And the other kids being peculiar and that sort of thing — they're basically kids — they're not weird, they have these weird peculiar- ities, and all of that just spoke strongly to me. It's hard to recreate. It's an interesting challenge in a different way, to capture the flavor of what he wrote." Were there any technical challenges with the shoot — production or post? "More things seem to go wrong, be- cause it's all digital. I find more things going wrong, just by the flick of a button or switch or this or that. But I mean, also just the usual kind of stuff — different locations, a bunch of kids, the weather — that's enough, isn't it (laughs)? Throw in a few animals…" How early on in the process did you integrate post? Did you have your editor Chris Lebenzon on-location? "We bounced around a lot. Yeah, I did. I like to cut as I go and Chris Lebenzon, who I worked with for many years on many films, it's a kind of a thing where I like to keep on top of it, so that you don't want to spend a bunch of time shooting some- thing that's not going to be in [the film], and that keeps it more focused for me. For the most part, [Chris] came to our many A DIRECTOR TIM BURTON AND VFX SUPER FRAZER CHURCHILL DISCUSS THE COMPLEXITIES OF ADAPTING THE BEST-SELLING NOVEL MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN FOR THE BIG SCREEN Director Tim Burton, on-set.