Dean Spanley
| Dean Spanley | |
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UK quad format cinema poster
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| Directed by | Toa Fraser |
| Produced by | Matthew Metcalfe Alan Harris |
| Screenplay by | Alan Sharp |
| Based on |
My Talks with Dean Spanley by Lord Dunsany |
| Starring |
Jeremy Northam Peter O'Toole Sam Neill Bryan Brown Judy Parfitt Dudley Sutton |
| Music by | Don McGlashan |
| Cinematography | Leon Narbey |
| Edited by | Chris Plummer |
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Production
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| Distributed by |
Icon Entertainment International (UK) Transmission (NZ) Miramax (US) TWC (international) |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
Dean Spanley is a 2008 British comedy drama film, with fantastic elements, from Miramax, Atlantic Film Group (UK) and General Film Corporation (NZ), directed by Fijian New Zealander Toa Fraser. The film is based on an Alan Sharp adaptation of Irish author Lord Dunsany's short novel My Talks with Dean Spanley, and stars Sam Neill as the Dean, Jeremy Northam and Peter O'Toole as Fisk Junior and Fisk Senior respectively and Bryan Brown as Wrather.
The screenplay is an adaptation of fantasy author Lord Dunsany's My Talks with Dean Spanley, a 14-chapter novella published in 1936. It is set in Edwardian England.
The narrative is called "a surreal period comedic tale of canine reincarnation exploring the relationships between father and son and master and dog". Peter O'Toole said that the film's use of comedy to explore the relationship between a father and son was part of the attraction for him: "All of us have had these difficult familial relationships and I think it's a film for all of us who understand the relationship between a father and son. It's been interesting watching how various members of the crew have been looking at the monitors during scenes, because they come up to me and say, 'I had the same thing with my father.'"
In the very early 1900s, Henslowe Fisk lives beholden to his father, the difficult Horatio Fisk. The Fisk family has suffered first the loss of its younger son, Harrington Fisk (Xavier Horan), killed in the Second Anglo-Boer War, shortly followed by the death of Horatio's wife. Fisk Senior is looked after by his housekeeper Mrs Brimley (Judy Parfitt) who has lost her husband. Fisk Junior reluctantly visits his father every Thursday.
One day, trying to entertain his father, Fisk Junior brings him to a lecture by a visiting swami (Art Malik) about the transmigration of souls. The lecture is also attended by the new local clergyman, Dean Spanley (Sam Neill).
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Wikipedia