Wonder (film)

Development

On November 27, 2012, it was announced that Lionsgate was developing a feature film adaptation of R. J. Palacio's debut novel Wonder, and were in talks with John August to write the screenplay.^[4] Mandeville Films' David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman produced the film.^[4]

On August 9, 2010, Jack Thorne was hired to adapt the novel after August had departed from the project.^[5] In October 2014, John Krokidas was reported to be directing the film,^[6] though in April 2015, Paul King was hired to direct instead. Steven Conrad was writing the script at that time.^[7]

Casting

On April 14, 2016, Jacob Tremblay was cast to play the lead role, Auggie Pullman, while Julia Roberts was in talks to play Auggie's mother.^[8] Three weeks later, Roberts' casting was confirmed, and Stephen Chbosky was set as the film's director.^[9]

On June 27, 2016, Owen Wilson joined to play Auggie's father.^[10] Two weeks later, newcomer Noah Jupe joined the cast as Auggie's best friend at school,^[11] and on July 15, Daveed Diggs was cast as Mr. Browne, an English teacher at the school.^[12]

On August 19, 2016, Sônia Braga joined the cast, portraying the role of Roberts' character's mother.^[13]

Special effects

Tremblay's prosthetic makeup, designed and created by Arjen Tuiten, took an hour and a half to apply. It consisted of a skull cap with prosthetic ears attached, a facial prosthetic that covered Tremblay's face, and a wig to tie it all together.^[14]

Filming

Filming took place in several locations in New York and British Columbia, Canada, from July 18 to September 13, 2016. The school Beecher Prep in the film is fictional.^[15][16]

Music

Marcelo Zarvos composed the film's score.^[17] Bea Miller composed a song for the film, "Brand New Eyes". It was released on August 3, 2017. Wonder author R. J. Palacio has often credited Natalie Merchant's song "Wonder", from her 1995 album Tigerlily, as the inspiration for her best-selling book. At Merchant's invitation, the song was featured on the soundtrack. The song is also played during the film's end credits.^[18]

Box office

Wonder grossed $132 million in the United States and Canada, and $182 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $315 million, against a production budget of $20 million.^[3] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film made a net profit of $55.3 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.^[23]

In the United States and Canada, Wonder opened alongside Justice League, The Star, and Roman J. Israel, Esq. and was initially projected to gross around $9 million from 3,096 theaters in its first weekend.^[24] However, after grossing $740,000 from Thursday night previews and receiving a large number of group ticket sales, weekend projections were upped to $15 million.^[25] Weekend projections were again increased, this time to $28 million, after the film made $9.4 million on its first day. The film went on to debut to $27.5 million,^[26] finishing second at the box office, behind Justice League.^[27] In its second weekend, the film dropped just 17.7%, grossing $22.7 million and finishing third at the box office.^[28]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 189 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wonder doesn't shy away from its bestselling source material's sentiment, but this well-acted and overall winsome drama earns its tugs at the heartstrings."^[29] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[30] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, one of approximately 100 films in the history of the service to receive the grade.^[27]

Some reviewers criticized the decision to cast an actor without the same condition as Auggie as undermining the film's message.^[31][32] In August 2021, during Edinburgh TV Festival's MacTaggart Lecture, co-writer Jack Thorne, while not specifically citing Wonder, acknowledged that he had failed to stand up for disabled talent on projects involving the subject, and sought to rectify this through pushing for new disability initiatives like 'Underlying Health Condition', which launched in December 2021.^[33]

Accolades

Sequel/prequel film

White Bird: A Wonder Story, a spin-off sequel/prequel war drama film to Wonder based on R. J. Palacio's graphic novel of the same name, starring Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren, with Bryce Gheisar reprising his role as Julian Albans, began production in February 2021 in the Czech Republic.^[49] Described as a "companion piece" to the original film,^[50] the film follows Julian as his Parisian grandmother tells him stories of her childhood as a young Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, when she was hidden from the Nazis by a classmate and his family. Initially scheduled to be released on September 16, 2022,^[51] the film's release date was ultimately delayed to October 14, 2022^[52] before the film was removed from the release schedule in September,^[53] envisaging an August 2023 release.^[54] However Lionsgate pushed the release to an unspecified date, in July 2023, as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike, in the fourth quarter of 2023.^[55] In December 2023, Lionsgate scheduled the film for release on October 4, 2024.^[56]

Musical adaptation

On April 9, 2019, it was announced that a musical adaptation of the film was in the works for Broadway, with Jill Furman (Hamilton) producing and R. J. Palacio adapting the novel for the stage production.^[57]