The makers of a movie about a custody battle based their screenplay on a 19th century novel, writes Helen Barlow
In What Maisie Knew, Julianne Moore is a rockstar mum in a joint custody drama. Moore's volatile Susanna, and Beale, her art dealer ex, played by Steve Coogan, are so self-absorbed that they aren't the best parents to 6-year-old Maisie (Onata Aprile). The stable force in Maisie's life is her nanny Margo (Joanna Vanderham) who ultimately runs off with her dad, while Susanna marries a hunky barman Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard), who comes to share Maisie's child-rearing with Margo.
It might sound like a very modern movie but the screenplay - by Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright - is based on Henry James' 1897 novel of the same name.
"It's funny because we'd read that Henry James was at a dinner party and heard about a joint custody situation, which he had never heard of before," explains New Yorker David Siegel, who co-directed the movie with partner Scott McGehee in what's their fifth film together. "It was very rare at the time, as it's more of a 20th century idea, yet the absurdity in his mind of that situation is what sparked the idea for the novel. As much as it's very common now, the emotional terrain of what that might mean for a child isn't so different."
While the directors were so impressed by Aprile's abilities that they shot her in close-up and were able to tell the story through her eyes, getting Moore to sing was another matter.
