The Never Ending Story
| The NeverEnding Story | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Wolfgang Petersen |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Based on |
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Alan Oppenheimer |
| Music by | |
| Cinematography | Jost Vacano |
| Edited by | Jane Seitz |
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Production
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
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| Language | English German |
| Budget | DM 60 million (~US$27 million) |
| Box office | US$100 million |
The NeverEnding Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a 1984 West German English language epic fantasy film based on the novel of the same name by Michael Ende, about a boy who reads a magical book that tells a story of a young warrior whose task is to stop a dark storm called the Nothing from engulfing a mystical world. The film was produced by Bernd Eichinger and Dieter Giessler and directed and co-written by Wolfgang Petersen (his first English-language film) and starred Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley, Gerald McRaney, Moses Gunn, and Alan Oppenheimer as the voices of both Falkor and Gmork (as well as other characters). At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced outside the United States or the Soviet Union. The film was the first in The NeverEnding Story film series and later followed by two sequels.
Ende felt that this adaptation's content deviated so far from the spirit of his book that he requested that production either be halted or the film's title be changed; when the producers did neither, he sued them and subsequently lost the case. Ende called the film a "gigantic melodrama of kitsch, commerce, plush and plastic" [Ein "gigantisches Melodram aus Kitsch, Kommerz, Plüsch und Plastik"]. The film only adapts the first half of the book, and consequently does not convey the message of the title as it was portrayed in the novel. The second half of the book would subsequently be used as the rough basis for the second film, The Next Chapter. The third film, Escape from Fantasia, features a completely original plot.
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Wikipedia