Which emphasis you prefer all depends on what kind of story-consumer you are, but, for me, Gaiman’s archetypal characters tend to be the least interesting part of his imaginative works.Īnyone who has read both the book and seen the movie will know that the Stardustfilm, co-written by Vaughn and frequent collaborator Jane Goldman, changes quite a bit from its source material. While Gaiman tends to be more interested in archeypes, themes and prose, the film - perhaps by necessity, as a product of Hollywood - has much more interest in making these characters three-dimensional and relatable. That is in no small part to the impressiveness of this cast, but it also has something to do with the screenplay. Read more: Why The Princess Bride is a Perfect Fantasy Movieįor me, one of the chief strengths of the film over the book lies with the realness and development of the characters. And have I mentioned that it is all narrated by Ian McKellen? Yeah, the extras are basically all played by Oscar-winners in this movie. Past that, we get some fun, memorable performances from Rupert Evertt as Prince Secundus, Peter O’Toole as the King of Stormhold, Henry Cavill as the prissy Humphrey, Ricky Gervais as the comedic Ferdy the Fence, and Sienna Miller as the haughty Victoria. (Strong would also go on to star in Vaughn’s Kingsmanas Merlin.) Past that, highlights include Michelle Pheiffer’s Lamia, Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare, and Mark Strong’s Prince Septimus. In the central love story, we have Charlie Cox and Claire Danes as Tristan and Yvaine. Seriously, everyone is in this movie and they are giving it their all, making the script come to life with complexity, humor, and heart. Many of Stardust‘saforementioned charms come in the quality of its expansive cast. Subscribe A great cast, led by Claire Danes & Charlie Cox. With the story by Gaiman and the illustrations by Charles Vess, Stardustbegan life as an inherently visual tale, which is perhaps one of the reasons why it works so well as a film. Stardustoriginally began publication life as a comic book - specifically a prestige-format, four-issue miniseries. In the wake of the excellent Good Omens adaptation, we’re taking the time to talk about the reasons why Stardustremains one of the best Gaiman adaptations out there, even if the box office numbers didn’t reflect that or if the story didn’t remain faithful to the book… The history of the book. With an all-star cast that included Daredevil‘s Charlie Cox and Homeland‘s Claire Danes, a director who would go onto make X-Men: First Classand Kingsman: The Secret Service,and a story from the mind of Neil Gaiman, Stardustis a funny, clever, and heartfelt fairy tale of a movie that happens to be criminally underrated by most mainstream movie audiences. Matthew Vaughn‘s film adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s Stardustis more than a decade old, but it hasn’t lost any of its magic.

Cast of stardust movie