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The Thief Lord (film)
Encyclopedia
The Thief Lord is a 2006 British-German family film
directed by Richard Claus. It is a joint production of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., Future Films Limited, Comet Film, and Thema Production. The film is distributed by Warner Brothers. The DVD was released on March 14, 2006, and the one disc-edition includes a theatrical trailer that ran in theaters in Europe and Mosca's cartoon from the movie itself.
It was nominated for the 2006 World Soundtrack Awards, with Original Music by
Nigel Clarke and Michael Csányi-Wills. The screenplay was written by Richard Claus and Daniel Musgrave, based on the novel of the same title
, by German author Cornelia Funke
.
The tale follows two recently orphaned brothers, Bo (Jasper Harris
) and Prosper (Aaron Johnson), dumped in the care of a cruel aunt and uncle, who escape their impending separation by running off to Venice. Hiding in the canals and alleyways of the city, the boys are befriended by a gang of young urchins and their enigmatic masked leader, the Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks
). From their home base of an old cinema theater, the children steal from the rich to support themselves and soon capture the interest of a bumbling detective. However, a greater threat to the children is something from a forgotten past: a beautiful magical treasure that can change the age of anyone who rides it.
). She plans to send twelve-year-old Prosper (Aaron Johnson) away to boarding school. However, before they can separate the two boys Prosper takes Bo to Venice, the magical city about which their mother often told stories.
Once in Venice, the boys live on the streets, and the money Prosper brought quickly runs out. Bo becomes ill and Prosper is forced to resort to stealing cough medicine from a pharmacy. The boys are nearly caught and lose the rest of their food, but are rescued by the mysterious Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks
). The Thief Lord, a mask-wearing teenager whose name is Scipio, invites the boys to come with him to his hideout, an abandoned movie theatre called the Stella. The Stella is home to a handful of orphaned children Scipio has rescued: Hornet (Alice Connor
), Riccio (George MacKay
) and Mosca (Lathaniel Dyer). They steal from stores and Venice's wealthy tourists, but the majority of their money comes from Scipio, who goes on mysterious raids and always brings back treasures. Unfortunately, Barbarossa - the sleazy antique dealer the children have to sell their stolen goods to - always cheats the children. Bo brags that Prosper "is great at selling things" and Prosper ends up getting Barbarossa to quintuple his asking price. Barbarossa tells Riccio and Prosper there is a client who needs something stolen and is willing to pay big money for it.
Meanwhile, the boys' aunt and uncle, Esther and Max Hartlieb (Carole Boyd
and Bob Goody), have traveled to Venice in order to find their nephews and entreated the help of Victor Getz (Jim Carter). The inspector wanders across Prosper and Riccio in front of a pastry shop and chases the boys when they run away. However, he is distracted by a friend, Ida Spavento, and loses the boys.
Back at the theatre, the children celebrate Prosper's success. Riccio tells Scipio about Barbarossa's customer and he decides to take the job.
After being persuaded by the others Scipio takes all of them with him to go and see the client, a mysterious man known only as the Conte (Geoffrey Hutchings
). However he only let's Prosper and Mosca come to meet the client in person. The conte asks them to steal a wooden wing, a fragment from the long lost merry go round of the merciful sisters, for it he would pay fifty thousand euros.
While Scipio, Prosper and Mosca are preoccupied with the conte; Bo, Hornet and Riccio are forced to wait outside. While there Bo meets Victor Getz, who befriends him. While they are talking Bo accidentally lets slip that he lives in an abandoned movie theatre. Prosper and the others return and chase him off. While hiding in a mask shop, Scipio comes up with a plan to help the others escape. During which Victor Getz sees his face.
Scipio needs to go away for a few days so he asks the gang to stake out the mansion where the wing is kept. At the same time Victor Getz approaches Dottore Massimo (Robert Bathurst
), owner of the Stella. While there he discovers that Scipio is not a poor orphan at all. He is the son of the rich Massimo. Scipio makes a break for it and manages to escape back to the Stella.
He tries to persuade the others to leave but instead they devise a plan to catch Getz. It works and Getz is soon their prisoner. When Scipio doesn't show up for stake out the next day, the others are confused. Getz (having been released by Mosca to help fix the projector) tells them what he had discovered. Not believing him the gang visit Massimo's mansion. There they find out the truth. That Scipio had lied to them and that all the 'loot' had come from the house. Riccio is the most upset out of all of them.
When they return to the Stella they find that Getz has escaped but gave them his 'word of honor' that he wouldn't reveal their location to anyone as long as he didn't here of any break ins. However he had fixed the projector and they enjoyed a short film. And, even though their moral of Scipio's betrayal was low, they decided to complete the bargain with the conte.
When the group decides to steal the wooden wing, they encounter Scipio, and also wake the owner of the house, Ida. After a confrontation, Ida agrees to let the group take the wing as long as they take her with them. After receiving word of the transaction, Scipio drives all of them on a boat to meet the Conte. The deal goes off without a hitch.
Unfortunately, Prop and Bo's persistent aunt and uncle do not believe Getz though he tells them he firmly believes the boys have left Venice; and Barborossa when he was unable to get information out of Prosper, Hornet, and Riccio decides to take matters in his own hands taking police to the Stella, where they were able to take Hornet and Bo, who remained behind during the deal, and close down the Stella. When they return, Prosper and the others now worried think that Getz has sold them out and decide to confront him. Getz helps them when they confront him and through him and a phone call to the aunt, they discover that Bo is when them and that Hornet was with the police.
Ida and Getz are able to get Hornet, whose real name is Catarina, out of the orphanage she had been left in, and Ida allowed the group to stay at her place. Scipio sneaks into Ida's house and wakes Prosper later that night persuading him to come with him to the secret isle in order to ride the merry-go-round, which is said to have mystical powers to age or restore youth to the riders, in order to become adults and both get what they want.
Bo, who despises his aunt and uncle, sneaks out and to the Stella, where Getz, after receiving a phone call from the aunt, finds him and brings him back to Ida's house. Meanwhile, the Conte, whose real name is Renzo, and his sister the Contessa are now children, around the same as Riccio and the others. They offer, after the others discover the money payment was fake, a ride on the merry-go-round as payment for being unable to truly pay them. However, only Scipio takes this offer and after riding, jumps off after being warned by Prosper, now an adult. When Barborossa appears, Scipio tricks him onto one of the animals that restores youth and Barborossa breaks the merry-go-round after becoming a young child.
Upon their return, Prosper is reunited with his younger brother. The older Scipio appoints himself as Getz's new partner in the detective field which the man does not object to. Barborossa after drinking himself to sleep is left alone as the children are reunited with each other in the den, while the adults step outside. The aunt and uncle, who had followed Getz take the opportunity to break into the house and take back Bo. Riccio, Prosper, and Mosca fend off the two adults while Hornet keeps Bo with her, but the children lose the upper hand when the uncle takes hold of Ida's rifle and points it at Prosper. Bo, remembering the night the group had stole the wing and were confronted by Ida, tells him that the gun doesn't work. Testing the gun out, the uncle hears what he believes to be a dry click and points it once again at Prosper however pulling the trigger and discovering that the gun was indeed loaded as a bullet fires a spot on the wall right next to Prosper. Startled, the two adults are then confronted by Scipio who returns, takes the gun, and tells the aunt and uncle to leave and never return successful in sending them off to which he credits his being an adult.
Taking the money they deserve from Barborossa's safe, Riccio and Mosca split it all between all of them and Scipio uses his share to buy the boys a boat and to establish bank accounts for the others. Victor, Ida, Prosper, Hornet, and Bo are on Scipio's old boat driving alongside them. Ida comments on how they would make a great family and how the kids don't have to leave. They decide to stay together.
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...
directed by Richard Claus. It is a joint production of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., Future Films Limited, Comet Film, and Thema Production. The film is distributed by Warner Brothers. The DVD was released on March 14, 2006, and the one disc-edition includes a theatrical trailer that ran in theaters in Europe and Mosca's cartoon from the movie itself.
It was nominated for the 2006 World Soundtrack Awards, with Original Music by
Nigel Clarke and Michael Csányi-Wills. The screenplay was written by Richard Claus and Daniel Musgrave, based on the novel of the same title
The Thief Lord
The Thief Lord is a children's novel written by Cornelia Funke. It was published in Germany in 2000 and translated into English by Oliver Latsch in 2002 for The Chicken House, a division of Scholastic publishing company...
, by German author Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Funke is a multiple award-winning German author of children's fiction. She was born on 10 December 1958, in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia. Funke is best known for her Inkworld trilogy, with the English translation of the third book, Inkdeath, released on 6 October 2008. Many of her...
.
The tale follows two recently orphaned brothers, Bo (Jasper Harris
Jasper Harris
Jasper Harris is a British television and film actor. He was born in London, UK.Harris, who earlier received two small supporting roles in BBC productions, had his leading role debut in the religious drama Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II, in which he plays the 10-year-old Karol...
) and Prosper (Aaron Johnson), dumped in the care of a cruel aunt and uncle, who escape their impending separation by running off to Venice. Hiding in the canals and alleyways of the city, the boys are befriended by a gang of young urchins and their enigmatic masked leader, the Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks
Rollo Weeks
Rollo Weeks is a British actor, the son of Robin and Susan Weeks, and the brother of Honeysuckle Weeks and Perdita Weeks, both actresses. His name means "famous wolf".-Acting:...
). From their home base of an old cinema theater, the children steal from the rich to support themselves and soon capture the interest of a bumbling detective. However, a greater threat to the children is something from a forgotten past: a beautiful magical treasure that can change the age of anyone who rides it.
Plot
When Prosper and Boniface's parents die, their aunt Esther attempts to adopt the younger brother, an adorable five-year-old who eventual turns six as the movie progresses, named Bo (Jasper HarrisJasper Harris
Jasper Harris is a British television and film actor. He was born in London, UK.Harris, who earlier received two small supporting roles in BBC productions, had his leading role debut in the religious drama Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II, in which he plays the 10-year-old Karol...
). She plans to send twelve-year-old Prosper (Aaron Johnson) away to boarding school. However, before they can separate the two boys Prosper takes Bo to Venice, the magical city about which their mother often told stories.
Once in Venice, the boys live on the streets, and the money Prosper brought quickly runs out. Bo becomes ill and Prosper is forced to resort to stealing cough medicine from a pharmacy. The boys are nearly caught and lose the rest of their food, but are rescued by the mysterious Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks
Rollo Weeks
Rollo Weeks is a British actor, the son of Robin and Susan Weeks, and the brother of Honeysuckle Weeks and Perdita Weeks, both actresses. His name means "famous wolf".-Acting:...
). The Thief Lord, a mask-wearing teenager whose name is Scipio, invites the boys to come with him to his hideout, an abandoned movie theatre called the Stella. The Stella is home to a handful of orphaned children Scipio has rescued: Hornet (Alice Connor
Alice Connor
Alice Rose Connor is a British actress, born in Buckinghamshire, England. She is best known for her roles in the television adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's novel The Illustrated Mum, in the children's television series The New Worst Witch , and in the film The Thief Lord as Hornet...
), Riccio (George MacKay
George MacKay (actor)
-Biography:MacKay was born in London, England. At the age of five, he produced, directed and created his very own production of the play Peter and the Wolf with his friends playing the characters...
) and Mosca (Lathaniel Dyer). They steal from stores and Venice's wealthy tourists, but the majority of their money comes from Scipio, who goes on mysterious raids and always brings back treasures. Unfortunately, Barbarossa - the sleazy antique dealer the children have to sell their stolen goods to - always cheats the children. Bo brags that Prosper "is great at selling things" and Prosper ends up getting Barbarossa to quintuple his asking price. Barbarossa tells Riccio and Prosper there is a client who needs something stolen and is willing to pay big money for it.
Meanwhile, the boys' aunt and uncle, Esther and Max Hartlieb (Carole Boyd
Carole Boyd
Carole Boyd is a British actress. She has had a career in theatre, television and radio, and plays Lynda Snell in BBC Radio 4's The Archers....
and Bob Goody), have traveled to Venice in order to find their nephews and entreated the help of Victor Getz (Jim Carter). The inspector wanders across Prosper and Riccio in front of a pastry shop and chases the boys when they run away. However, he is distracted by a friend, Ida Spavento, and loses the boys.
Back at the theatre, the children celebrate Prosper's success. Riccio tells Scipio about Barbarossa's customer and he decides to take the job.
After being persuaded by the others Scipio takes all of them with him to go and see the client, a mysterious man known only as the Conte (Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings was a British stage, film and television actor.-Early life and career:Hutchings was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England. After attending Hardye's School, he studied French and Physical Education at Birmingham University before he became a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic...
). However he only let's Prosper and Mosca come to meet the client in person. The conte asks them to steal a wooden wing, a fragment from the long lost merry go round of the merciful sisters, for it he would pay fifty thousand euros.
While Scipio, Prosper and Mosca are preoccupied with the conte; Bo, Hornet and Riccio are forced to wait outside. While there Bo meets Victor Getz, who befriends him. While they are talking Bo accidentally lets slip that he lives in an abandoned movie theatre. Prosper and the others return and chase him off. While hiding in a mask shop, Scipio comes up with a plan to help the others escape. During which Victor Getz sees his face.
Scipio needs to go away for a few days so he asks the gang to stake out the mansion where the wing is kept. At the same time Victor Getz approaches Dottore Massimo (Robert Bathurst
Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...
), owner of the Stella. While there he discovers that Scipio is not a poor orphan at all. He is the son of the rich Massimo. Scipio makes a break for it and manages to escape back to the Stella.
He tries to persuade the others to leave but instead they devise a plan to catch Getz. It works and Getz is soon their prisoner. When Scipio doesn't show up for stake out the next day, the others are confused. Getz (having been released by Mosca to help fix the projector) tells them what he had discovered. Not believing him the gang visit Massimo's mansion. There they find out the truth. That Scipio had lied to them and that all the 'loot' had come from the house. Riccio is the most upset out of all of them.
When they return to the Stella they find that Getz has escaped but gave them his 'word of honor' that he wouldn't reveal their location to anyone as long as he didn't here of any break ins. However he had fixed the projector and they enjoyed a short film. And, even though their moral of Scipio's betrayal was low, they decided to complete the bargain with the conte.
When the group decides to steal the wooden wing, they encounter Scipio, and also wake the owner of the house, Ida. After a confrontation, Ida agrees to let the group take the wing as long as they take her with them. After receiving word of the transaction, Scipio drives all of them on a boat to meet the Conte. The deal goes off without a hitch.
Unfortunately, Prop and Bo's persistent aunt and uncle do not believe Getz though he tells them he firmly believes the boys have left Venice; and Barborossa when he was unable to get information out of Prosper, Hornet, and Riccio decides to take matters in his own hands taking police to the Stella, where they were able to take Hornet and Bo, who remained behind during the deal, and close down the Stella. When they return, Prosper and the others now worried think that Getz has sold them out and decide to confront him. Getz helps them when they confront him and through him and a phone call to the aunt, they discover that Bo is when them and that Hornet was with the police.
Ida and Getz are able to get Hornet, whose real name is Catarina, out of the orphanage she had been left in, and Ida allowed the group to stay at her place. Scipio sneaks into Ida's house and wakes Prosper later that night persuading him to come with him to the secret isle in order to ride the merry-go-round, which is said to have mystical powers to age or restore youth to the riders, in order to become adults and both get what they want.
Bo, who despises his aunt and uncle, sneaks out and to the Stella, where Getz, after receiving a phone call from the aunt, finds him and brings him back to Ida's house. Meanwhile, the Conte, whose real name is Renzo, and his sister the Contessa are now children, around the same as Riccio and the others. They offer, after the others discover the money payment was fake, a ride on the merry-go-round as payment for being unable to truly pay them. However, only Scipio takes this offer and after riding, jumps off after being warned by Prosper, now an adult. When Barborossa appears, Scipio tricks him onto one of the animals that restores youth and Barborossa breaks the merry-go-round after becoming a young child.
Upon their return, Prosper is reunited with his younger brother. The older Scipio appoints himself as Getz's new partner in the detective field which the man does not object to. Barborossa after drinking himself to sleep is left alone as the children are reunited with each other in the den, while the adults step outside. The aunt and uncle, who had followed Getz take the opportunity to break into the house and take back Bo. Riccio, Prosper, and Mosca fend off the two adults while Hornet keeps Bo with her, but the children lose the upper hand when the uncle takes hold of Ida's rifle and points it at Prosper. Bo, remembering the night the group had stole the wing and were confronted by Ida, tells him that the gun doesn't work. Testing the gun out, the uncle hears what he believes to be a dry click and points it once again at Prosper however pulling the trigger and discovering that the gun was indeed loaded as a bullet fires a spot on the wall right next to Prosper. Startled, the two adults are then confronted by Scipio who returns, takes the gun, and tells the aunt and uncle to leave and never return successful in sending them off to which he credits his being an adult.
Taking the money they deserve from Barborossa's safe, Riccio and Mosca split it all between all of them and Scipio uses his share to buy the boys a boat and to establish bank accounts for the others. Victor, Ida, Prosper, Hornet, and Bo are on Scipio's old boat driving alongside them. Ida comments on how they would make a great family and how the kids don't have to leave. They decide to stay together.
Cast
- Alice ConnorAlice ConnorAlice Rose Connor is a British actress, born in Buckinghamshire, England. She is best known for her roles in the television adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's novel The Illustrated Mum, in the children's television series The New Worst Witch , and in the film The Thief Lord as Hornet...
as Caterina "Hornet" Grimani, the only female member of the thieves who develops a crush on Prosper. - Aaron Johnson as Prosper, the protagonist and member of Scipio's gang; he has a crush on Hornet.
- Jasper HarrisJasper HarrisJasper Harris is a British television and film actor. He was born in London, UK.Harris, who earlier received two small supporting roles in BBC productions, had his leading role debut in the religious drama Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II, in which he plays the 10-year-old Karol...
as Boniface "Bo", Prosper's younger, eager brother. - Rollo WeeksRollo WeeksRollo Weeks is a British actor, the son of Robin and Susan Weeks, and the brother of Honeysuckle Weeks and Perdita Weeks, both actresses. His name means "famous wolf".-Acting:...
as Scipio "The Thief Lord" Massimo, a rich boy who pretends to be orphaned and a great thief. - George MacKayGeorge MacKay (actor)-Biography:MacKay was born in London, England. At the age of five, he produced, directed and created his very own production of the play Peter and the Wolf with his friends playing the characters...
as Riccio, one of Scipio's thieves who looks up to him. - Lathaniel Dyer as Mosca, one of Scipio's thieves who believes his father is still alive.
- Jim Carter as Victor Getz, a detective and friend of Ida.
- Caroline GoodallCaroline GoodallCaroline Cruice Goodall is a British actress and screenwriter.-Biography:Goodall was born in London, England to a journalist mother and a publisher father...
as Ida Spavento, a photographer who is instrumental in the gang's adventure. - Alexei SayleAlexei SayleAlexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...
as Ernesto Barbarossa, a sly, greedy, and rude shopkeeper. - Carole BoydCarole BoydCarole Boyd is a British actress. She has had a career in theatre, television and radio, and plays Lynda Snell in BBC Radio 4's The Archers....
as Esther Hartlieb, Prosper and Bo's snobby aunt. - Bob Goody as Max Hartlieb, Prosper and Bo's uncle.
- Geoffrey HutchingsGeoffrey HutchingsGeoffrey Hutchings was a British stage, film and television actor.-Early life and career:Hutchings was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England. After attending Hardye's School, he studied French and Physical Education at Birmingham University before he became a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic...
as Conte, a man who employs the gang. - Anita Wright as Contessa, the Conte's sister.
- Poppy Rogers as Morosina
- Robert BathurstRobert BathurstRobert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...
as Dottore Massimo, Scipio's ignorant and rich father. - Zak Davies as the young Barbarossa
- Vanessa RedgraveVanessa RedgraveVanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
as Sister Antonia - Margaret TyzackMargaret TyzackMargaret Maud Tyzack, CBE was a British actress.-Early life:Tyzack was born in Essex, England, the daughter of Doris and Thomas Edward Tyzack. She grew up in West Ham...
as Mother Superior - Roya Zargar as Maid to the Massimo family
- Ann Overstall Comfort as Housekeeper
- Chris Bearne as Newspaper Salesman
- Arnita Swanson as Tour guide
- Malcolm Turner as Chemist
- Dani Linster as Babysitter
- Massimo De Rossi as Barge Man
- Lewis Crutch as Renzo (uncredited)
- Mehran Khalili as Policeman (uncredited)