Is it possible to make another version of Peter Pan? Yes, says actor Jason Isaacs who has taken the pantomine out of Captain Hook to make him a villain of all time. Steve Pratt reports.

BRITISH actor Jason Isaacs has no worries playing the villain. He's getting used to it, having been the bad guy in the Mel Gibson American War of Independence adventure The Patriot and Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. But Captain Hook is in a evil league of his own and the Liverpool-born actor relished playing him in the latest screen version of J M Barrie's timeless tale Peter Pan.

"There was some precedent, there have been a lot of Captain Hooks but there's never been a real one on film. So I went to read the script and the book and found this incredibly rich, dark, twisted, melancholic, three-dimensional man," he says.

"This was a huge relief because I didn't need to compare myself to those that had been on film because they were cartoons or buffoons, whatever. This made the way clear for me to tell the story truly for the first time."

He feels the thing that's rewarding for an actor to play is good writing. "So I don't mind, I'll do villains until the cows come home if they're as great as this part. I certainly don't accept the roles I'm offered every day of these brain dead squids who hold a silencer to the hero's child's head. "These are brilliantly written characters in Peter Pan and it's a story that's been thrilling audiences for 100 years, making grown-ups sob and children shriek."

Issacs views Hook as the character who's most easily identifiable for the adult audience because his life seems to be passing by without him ever realising his dreams.

"He hates getting older and young people pay no respect, particularly this one irritating like kid called Peter Pan. He's got under his skin like a rash. He feels it all slipping away," he says.

Writer-director P J Hogan was looking for someone who could scare children, but also an actor with whom they weren't over-familiar. "We wanted to restore Hook to his true place in the pantheon of villains," he explains.

"Barrie was a very smart writer for kids. He knew they didn't like to be patronised. Every child has his Hook. There are villains in every child's life and Barrie, knowing this, created the ultimate children's villain.

"He intended Captain Hook to be scary not a joke, a comic figure. I felt it was very important to give it back to Hook. I wanted to show why Hook hated Peter Pan so much."

He also cast a teenage boy in the title role for the very first time in a major production. And American Jeremy Sumpter, now 14, couldn't have been more pleased. "Peter Pan was my favourite character when I was little. I watched the Disney version every day. I've always wanted to play him, and it's really cool to play your favourite character," he says.

"I'm a crazy kid. I'm energetic, always climbing on the walls and doing crazy stuff. So does Peter."

French actress Ludovine Sagnier, who made an impression in recent thriller The Swimming Pool, nearly didn't appear as Tinker Bell in the new Peter Pan movie. Originally, the character was going to be computer generated, although based on her movements. When the film-makers saw her screen tests, they decided to let the actress play the troublesome fairy on screen.

"PJ wanted this character to be really theatrical," explains Sagnier. "He expected me to produce many things and I improvised a lot. It was a great experience because it was the first time I had to hold such a character on my shoulders and be responsible for the creation of it."

She didn't want to copy any of the previous versions, who've included Julia Roberts in Steven Spielberg's Hook. "The interesting thing about doing another version is that it has to be new," she says.

"I knew I couldn't model her on the cartoon, and the aspect of the tomboy had been really well studied by Julia Roberts. I had to find something else. My inspiration was Jacques Tati or Marilyn Monroe."

She developed her Tinker Bell with a young relative. "Tink has been taking care of Peter Pan since he was a baby, so there had to be some magical relationship, some humour that would connect them without words," she explains.

"I spent a few hours a day with my eight-month-old niece without saying a word and trying to make her laugh without words."

* Peter Pan (PG) opens in cinemas on Boxing Day

Published: 24/12/2003