Watching the Son Rise

Though following in his famous father’s career, Michael Landon Jr. is making a name of his own as a producer of family-friendly films. Love’s Enduring Promise was a smash hit on the Hallmark Channel, and Saving Sarah Cain garnered impressive awards as well. Now families can add another favorite to their collections with the recent (March 17) DVD release of The Velveteen Rabbit, unique for being set in both the “real” and animated worlds.

The DVD features the vocal talents of Golden Globe® winner Jane Seymour (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” Somewhere in Time) as the mom, with Emmy Award® winner Tom Skerritt (Top Gun, "Picket Fences") as the skin horse, and Oscar® winner Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Requiem for a Dream) as the swan.

Landon, married for eighteen years and a father of three, talks about his new film, the process, and storytelling.

What made you choose The Velveteen Rabbit —and to tell it from the boy’s perspective rather than the toy’s, as the book does?
I love the original classic by Marjorie Williams and the theme that “love makes us real.” I knew I didn’t want to adapt it, taking a based-on approach—for one, it had been done as a short animated film. Second, I thought Williams created perfection. So my approach is an “inspired-by” one. I didn’t want to make an animated film. I wanted to tell the story from the boy’s point of view. The boy is mentioned in Williams’s story—it’s his toy, and I thought we needed to give him life.

Since The Velveteen Rabbit is your first film to include animation, how did the process differ from your usual directing?
This time I had to exercise a lot of patience. It took more than three years to get the animation completed. We shot the live action first, and once it was finished, the animation started. I laid out in the screenplay what I felt the story should be, but then I let the animation direction take over. And I waited.

Some of your more recent films— Saving Sarah Cain, The Last Sin Eater and now The Velveteen Rabbit —represent a change from the pioneer setting. Is that on purpose?
I wouldn’t want to do only pioneer films. But it’s not “on purpose.” It’s all about the story for me. Still, a “period” film allows me to tell a story without having to worry about having a so-called edge. For example, from a language standpoint, young people believe more easily in the world of the past where there’s no cursing. It’s hard for contemporary teens to believe the world otherwise.

What do you look for when choosing a film to produce?
There’s the practical sense of telling a story and also weighing the chance of it being made. Story is definitely number one. There’s the viability of what I bring to the table as a storyteller. But also I have to be realistic about where my career is and what I can get made. I had to convince somebody to spend a million dollars on ninety pages of work.

When I produced Love Comes Softly, it took ten years to get it made. In Hollywood when people read the novel and eventually the book, no one had any interest in the genre. They said “It’s been done.” And then we put it on, and it became the highest-rated movie in the history of the channel. That means there are people out there who are not being fed.

In terms of story, it’s impossible for me to avoid the spiritual element, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be overt. The Last Sin Eater, the original novel, has a strong spiritual message. I didn’t want to shy away from it. The Velveteen Rabbit is a perfect example of a film with spiritual themes throughout. I know there’s a physical world and a spiritual world.

Who are some of your moviemaking heroes and why?
It may sound clichéd, but Stephen Spielberg is definitely at the top. I don’t think there’s a more versatile storyteller—someone who can go from ET to Schindler’s List and do it all well. He’s a master—and at more than just visuals. He’s the whole package.

Another director is Ridley Scott. If I see a Ridley Scott film—Gladiator, for example—visually, I’m always blown away.

Going back in time, Capra is another. I relate to him as a storyteller. In It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, he captured reality but allowed a bit of heaven to sneak in, too. So it doesn’t have a Scorsese grittiness in which you’re living in the dark part of people’s souls. There’s a softening effect. Capra is a bright man, very capable of doing something gritty and raw. But he doesn’t.

If you were to speak to artists about how to communicate faith effectively, what would you tell them?
Use metaphors. Allegory. You do try not to just hit spiritual things right on the nose. That’s why you go to church. But even a good preacher tells stories. Jesus told stories. Otherwise, you only speak to the person’s mind and not his or her heart. Good story telling does both.