The Girl with the Red Riding Hood
Encyclopedia
Red Riding Hood is an American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

/Canadian fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Catherine Hardwicke
Catherine Hardwicke is an American production designer, film writer and film director. Her works include the independent film Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, the Biblically-themed The Nativity Story, the vampire film Twilight, and the werewolf film Red Riding Hood...

 and starring Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

 as the title role, from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson. It is very loosely based on the folk tale Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....

collected by both Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...

 under the name "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" (Little Red Riding Hood) and several decades later by the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

 as "Rotkäppchen" (Little Redcap).

Plot

Valerie (Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

) lives in the village of Daggerhorn, which is on the edge of a haunted black forest. As a child, she developed an affinity for hunting and sneaking out when she was told not to for a boy who she grew to love, a woodsman named Peter (Shiloh Fernandez
Shiloh Fernandez
Shiloh Thomas Fernandez is an American actor best known for his roles in Jericho, Deadgirl and United States of Tara, as well as portraying Peter in the film Red Riding Hood.-Early life:...

). Despite her feelings however, her mother Suzette (Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...

) and father Cesaire (Billy Burke
Billy Burke (actor)
William Albert "Billy" Burke is an American actor. He is known for his role as Charlie Swan in Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He is also known for his role as Gary Matheson in the second season of 24.-Life and career:Burke was born in...

) disapprove and instead promise her to wed Henry (Max Irons
Max Irons
Maximilian Paul Diarmuid "Max" Irons is an English film actor and model. He is perhaps most noted for his leading role in Red Riding Hood....

), the son of the wealthy blacksmith Adrian Lazar (Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...

). For years, the small village has been plagued by a werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...

 that comes out at night, feeding on livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 that the villagers sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

 so that the wolf does not seek human prey. Things change when Valerie's sister Lucie (Alexandria Maillot) is found dead; slain by the werewolf. Several village men leave to hunt the beast where they believe it to live, they encounter a vicious wolf but not before Adrian is murdered in its den. Meanwhile, Valerie's grandmother (Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....

) consoles her granddaughter by giving her a wedding gift early: a beautiful red hooded cape.

Taking the wolf's head back to Daggerhorn, they decide to celebrate their liberation, but Father Solomon (Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...

), a priest experienced in werewolves, having had to slay his own wife to protect their children disproves their theory that it is the actual werewolf as upon its death a werewolf would revert back to its human form. The villagers ignore this. Valerie learns afterward that her mother had been in love with Adrian years prior to meeting her husband, and unexpectedly had given birth to Lucie as a result, but Cesaire has been kept in the dark on this. During the celebrations that night, Valerie confronts Peter for rejecting her after being pressured by her mother to do so, after they share a romantic interlude in a barn, they are separated and shortly after the werewolf attacks; slaying many villagers and injuring one of Solomon's guards. The wolf confronts Valerie and her friend Roxanne (Shauna Kain) and both are horrified to learn that Valerie can not only speak to the werewolf, but can understand it when it speaks to her. The one clue provided to the wolf's identity is the color of his eyes, which look brown as human eyes.

The next morning, despite the guard's brother's objections, Solomon kills the injured guard. Having explained previously that during the blood moon; which is happening over the course of three days, anyone bitten by the werewolf is cursed to become one. And all cursed men must die. He instigates an investigation into the villagers' homes, deducing that the wolf is hiding among them. In the process, they discover Roxanne's autistic brother hiding and accuse him of witchcraft, stuffing him in a Brazen Bull
Brazen bull
The brazen bull, bronze bull, or Sicilian bull, was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece. Its inventor, metal worker Perillos of Athens, proposed it to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily, as a new means of executing criminals. The bull was made entirely of bronze, hollow,...

 when he does not relinquish the name of the werewolf and Henry tells Valerie he had seen her with Peter and they mutually agree to call off the engagement. Roxanne, hoping to free her brother from his torture agrees to give up Valerie's name as a witch and the secret of her being able to understand the werewolf in exchange for him. Solomon relinquishes her brother, though traumatized and catatonic from the experience. Valerie is made to wear a wolf-like mask and offered as a sacrifice to appease the werewolf's demands, but Peter and Henry rescue her. The wolf comes, but is unable to cross holy ground to enter the church yard where Valerie and Henry had gone for sanctuary. Solomon tries to force Valerie to leave and in the conflict the wolf bites his hand off. The guard, exacting revenge for his own brother tells Solomon "A man bitten is a man cursed, and cursed men cannot live" before killing him.

Due to the circumstances of Peter's disappearance from the night before and a glove where an injury the wolf had gotten when he tried to cross onto the church grounds, Valerie begins to suspect him. She attacks him and flees to her grandmother's house, but is greeted instead by her father using her grandmother's voice. Cesaire reveals that he is the werewolf, and that all in his bloodline can speak to him. When Lucie, not born of his blood could not understand him, he realized that she was not his child and lost control. He offers Valerie an opportunity to become a werewolf as well, each generation being stronger than the last one, but when she refuses he tries to force her. Peter returns and the two men have a furious struggle and Peter is knocked out, but Valerie manages to kill her father using the dismembered hand of Solomon which, as a precaution had been lined with silver fingernails by Solomon. Peter realizes he had been bitten and too would be cursed to become the werewolf. Instead of killing him, he and Valerie dump Cesaire's body in the lake and Peter rows away, leaving Valerie behind. He promises to return when he has controlled the beast within. Valerie moves out of Daggerhorn and into her grandmother's cottage, awaiting the day Peter returns. Henry, having gone with Solomon's former troupe to face werewolves and other creatures, while her mother, having given up on Cesaire's return, returns to her normal life as well. One night, Valerie sees a werewolf, and the movie ends with her smiling mischievously.

In the alternate cut of the film, Valerie and Peter consummated their relationship after killing Cesaire. This was only very briefly shown while Peter was leaving in the original theatrical version, implying that it happens in the future or Valerie is imagining it. This has the result of, unlike the original, Valerie being shown holding a baby when Peter returns.

Cast

  • Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

     as Valerie
  • Virginia Madsen
    Virginia Madsen
    Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...

     as Suzette
  • Billy Burke
    Billy Burke (actor)
    William Albert "Billy" Burke is an American actor. He is known for his role as Charlie Swan in Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He is also known for his role as Gary Matheson in the second season of 24.-Life and career:Burke was born in...

     as Cesaire
  • Julie Christie
    Julie Christie
    Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....

     as Grandmother
  • Shiloh Fernandez
    Shiloh Fernandez
    Shiloh Thomas Fernandez is an American actor best known for his roles in Jericho, Deadgirl and United States of Tara, as well as portraying Peter in the film Red Riding Hood.-Early life:...

     as Peter
  • Gary Oldman
    Gary Oldman
    Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...

     as Father Solomon
  • Max Irons as Henry Lazar
  • Michael Shanks
    Michael Shanks
    Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...

     as Adrien Lazar
  • Christine Willes
    Christine Willes
    Christine Willes is a Canadian television, theatre and film actress who is best known for her roles as Delores Herbig on the Showtime comedy-drama Dead Like Me and Gladys the DMV demon on the CW supernatural drama television series Reaper...

     as Madame Lazar
  • Michael Hogan as The Reeve
  • Lukas Haas
    Lukas Haas
    Lukas Daniel Haas is an American actor, known for roles both as a child and as an adult. His career has spanned more than 25 years during which time he has appeared in more than 36 feature films, as well as a number of television shows and theater productions.-Early life and career:Haas was born...

     as Father Auguste
  • Alexandria Maillot as Lucie
  • Shauna Kain
    Shauna Kain
    Shauna Nicole Kain is an American-Canadian actress. She is probably best known for her role as Siryn in X2. She reprised that role for the third film, X-Men: The Last Stand. She can also be seen as a nauseated girl in a commercial for Roller Coaster Tycoon.-Filmography:-External links:...

     as Roxanne
  • Kacey Rohl as Prudence
  • Cole Heppell
    Cole Heppell
    Cole Heppell is a Canadian actor.In 2006, He was nominated for a Young Artist Award of Best Performance in a Television Series - Guest Starring Young Actorfor: "The Dead Zone: Heroes & Demons-Filmography:...

     as Claude
  • Carmen Lavigne as Rose
  • Megan Charpentier as Young Valerie
  • Jennifer Halley as Marguerite
  • Dj Greenburg as Young Peter
  • Archie Rice as the voice of The Wolf

Production

Under Appian Way Productions, Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...

, Michael Ireland, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Alex Mace and Julie Yorn produced the film. Early into production, the film was originally titled The Girl with the Red Riding Hood. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....

 took place in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 from July 21 to September 16, 2010.

Casting

Director Catherine Hardwicke
Catherine Hardwicke
Catherine Hardwicke is an American production designer, film writer and film director. Her works include the independent film Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, the Biblically-themed The Nativity Story, the vampire film Twilight, and the werewolf film Red Riding Hood...

 had to persuade her Red Riding Hood star Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

 to work with newcomer Shiloh Fernandez
Shiloh Fernandez
Shiloh Thomas Fernandez is an American actor best known for his roles in Jericho, Deadgirl and United States of Tara, as well as portraying Peter in the film Red Riding Hood.-Early life:...

, "Amanda had met Shiloh before and did not like him, so when I told Amanda I was going to bring him in to audition, she made a face. But she tried it, and they hit it off."

Release

The original release date, set for the 22 April 2011, was moved earlier to 11 March 2011. Red Riding Hood grossed $14,005,335 in ticket sales over the opening weekend, placing at number #3, behind Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles is a 2011 American military science fiction war film directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo and Michael Peña...

and Rango
Rango (2011 film)
Rango is a 2011 American computer-animated Western Comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Graham King. In the film, a chameleon named Rango accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff...

, which grossed $35,573,187 and $22,602,847, respectively.

Reception

The film received mainly negative reviews. The film currently holds a 11% rating on critic aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, with the consensus being "Amanda Seyfried is magnetic in Red Riding Hoods starring role, but she's let down by her uninspired leading men and a painfully cliched script." Metacritic gave the film a score of 28 out of 100. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

complimented the production design, but wrote "it's a foolish story, marred by a strange blend of overacting and bland, offhand performances." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 gave the film one star out of four, stating it is "a movie that cross-pollinates the Twilight
Twilight (2008 film)
Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...

formula with a werewolf and a girl who always wears a red hooded cape, although I don't recall her doing any riding.... it has the added inconvenience of being serious about a plot so preposterous, it demands to be filmed by Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

."

Marketing

The teaser trailer and the poster were released in November 2010, featuring "The Wolf", a new song written exclusively for the film by Swedish act Fever Ray.

The second trailer was released in January 2011, featuring "The Hand That Feeds
The Hand that Feeds
"The Hand That Feeds" is a song by the American industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails, released as the lead single for the album With Teeth . It is the highest charting song by Nine Inch Nails on all charts except for U.S...

" by Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...

.

A novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...

 of the film was released on 24 February 2011, prior to the film's release. The novelization was written by 21-year-old Sarah Blakely-Cartwright
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is an American author. She wrote the novel Red Riding Hood to accompany the Warner Brothers release, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.-Notes:...

, a Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

 graduate who has additionally appeared in many of Catherine Hardwicke's films, including Red Riding Hood. The novel debuted at #1 on The New York Times children's paperback bestseller list. However, the novel received criticism for not including the story's final, concluding chapter, which instead was only made available for download online following the release of the film.

Soundtrack

The film's music is by Brian Reitzell
Brian Reitzell
Brian Reitzell is a musician, composer, producer and music supervisor best known for his contributions to several film soundtracks. He was formerly the drummer for the punk band Redd Kross. He has also collaborated with the French electronica duo Air, having performed drums on their 2001 album 10...

 and Alex Heffes
Alex Heffes
Alex Heffes is a British film composer . His film scores include the BAFTA-winning Touching the Void, and Oscar-winning movies One Day in September and The Last King of Scotland....

 and produced by WaterTower Music, owned by Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

 and operates as a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
  1. "Towers Of The Void" – Brian Reitzell
  2. "Kids" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  3. "Dead Sister" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  4. "The Wolf" – Fever Ray
    Karin Dreijer Andersson
    Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson , commonly known by her stage name Fever Ray, is the lead vocalist of the electronic duo The Knife, formed with her brother Olof Dreijer. Andersson was previously the vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Honey Is Cool...

  5. "Mt. Grimoor" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  6. "Tavern Stalker" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  7. "Grandma’s House" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  8. "Keep The Streets Empty For Me" – Fever Ray
    Karin Dreijer Andersson
    Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson , commonly known by her stage name Fever Ray, is the lead vocalist of the electronic duo The Knife, formed with her brother Olof Dreijer. Andersson was previously the vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Honey Is Cool...

  9. "Wolf Attack" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  10. "Just A Fragment Of You" – Anthony Gonzalez from M83
    M83 (band)
    M83 is a musical act by French musician Anthony Gonzalez. It is named after a spiral galaxy, Messier 83. The band was founded in 2001 by Gonzalez and former member Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes, France...

     & Brian Reitzell
  11. "The Reveal" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  12. "Finale" – Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes
  13. "Crystal Visions" – The Big Pink
    The Big Pink
    The Big Pink is an English electro-rock duo comprising multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell. The duo signed to the 4AD label in 2009, and won the prestigious NME Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act...



Some additional songs from the film are not featured on the official soundtrack:
  • "Fire Walking" – Anthony Gonzalez and Brian Reitzell
  • "Let’s Start An Orchestra" – Ken Andrews
    Ken Andrews
    Ken Andrews is an American musician and producer, based out of Los Angeles, California.Andrews was born in Seattle, Washington, and attended film school in Los Angeles before his band Failure received a record deal from Slash Records.He was the co-founder, lead vocalist, guitarist, and...

    and Brian Reitzell
  • "Ozu Choral" – Brian Reitzell
  • "Piano Study No. 1 (Symphonic)" – Brian Reitzell
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