Ant Timpson director and Nell Fisher filming the movie Bookworm.
Ant Timpson director and Nell Fisher filming the movie Bookworm.
A “horrible” family holiday in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf that “ended in absolute chaos and the kids nearly drowning” was the inspiration behind Bookworm, the film’s Kiwi director Ant Timpson has revealed.
Timpson’s latest movie, a quirky tale of a no-hope magician and his estranged daughter venturing into the wilderness in search of a mythical black panther, was released in cinemas last month to largely positive reviews.
But while it’s charming audiences, father-of-two Timpson revealed in an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night that the story was inspired by a traumatic incident from when his sons were little.
“I had a family vacay with my kids when they were very young that went horribly wrong… it ended in emergency call-outs and battered bodies and everything. It was a horrible, horrible experience,” he said.
“[We went on] a small jaunt around an island in the harbour, Rakino Island. Everyone said it was easy at low tide, that you just go around the tip of it and walk around,” he said.
“But it ended in absolute chaos and the kids nearly drowning and me panicking and not being the heroic dad that you should be in these moments. I completely pooped the bed.
“I just remember looking at my kids and they were looking at me, and it was them seeing my panic that haunted me. And I was like, like I do with any minor trauma, I’m gonna mine it for comedic effect and we’ll make another movie out of it.”
Bookworm is the second in a “loose trilogy” of films starring Elijah Wood that are based on hang-ups that scriptwriter Toby Harvard and Timpson have about fatherhood.
Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher star in Ant Timpson's film Bookworm, shot in Canterbury. Photo / Geoffrey Short
Like the first film in the trilogy, 2019 horror-comedy Come to Daddy, Bookworm involves “parental figures trying to be what they want to be” to their children, but ultimately falling short.
“For Bookworm, the singular fear that I shared with Toby was failing in front of my kids in a time of crisis. We all fail daily with our kids when they’re growing up,” Timpson told Cowan.
The parenting fails can’t have been too bad, though. Timpson says his now-teenage sons brought him a “heart-stopping” pulled pork sandwich and a coffee for breakfast for Father’s Day.
Timpson’s own relationship with his father – who was a “great Dad”, but earned the nickname “The General” by virtue of his authoritarian parenting style – was complicated.
“I spent a lot of my time as I was growing up being quite scared of Dad. He was an imposing figure at times and very stressed. His workload was insane, so he brought a lot of that home,” Timpson recalls.
“But eventually it all turned a corner. When everything eased off and work wasn’t this huge priority in his life, it just became wonderful and we got on like a house on fire.”
Director Ant Timpson on location for Bookworm.
Photo / Supplied
Timpson says reminiscing on the relationship he had with his father has been a “good self-check” for him.
“No matter how far you think you’re not going to be [like your dad], those traits are very hard to get rid of. I mean, it’s genetically tied into you,” he told Real Life.
“It’s great to reminisce, but also to think about your relationship with him in the past and then what am I going to do to not be the negative side of those things and to focus on what was great about it.
“What I’ve learned is that the journey and the learning never stops in terms of your kids. They might start shooting up by a foot, which is what has happened in the last year or so, and turn into monsters – but the relationship you have with them goes in ebbs and flows.”
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
