LASSIE
Year: 2005
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Jonathan Mason, Peter O'Toole, Samantha Morton, John Lynch, Steve Pemberton, Jemma Redgrave, Peter Dinklage, Gregor Fisher, Ian Hart, Lassie, Ken Drury, Edward Fox, Robert Hardy, Celyn Jones, Jamie Lee, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Kelly Macdonald, Brian Pettifer, John Standing, Angela Thorne, Peter Wight
Director: Charles Sturridge
Countries: USA / Ireland
UK: 99 mins
UK Certificate: PG contains mild language
UK Release Date: 16 December 2005
Synopsis
The film is set on the eve of World War II, in the small Yorkshire mining town of Greenhall Bridge, where Lassie lives with nine year old Joe Carraclough (Jonathan Mason) and his parents. An extraordinary and strikingly beautiful Collie, Lassie is well known locally, not least by the local mine owner, the Duke of Rudling (Peter O'Toole); a wealthy aristocrat with a passion for champion dogs and for getting his own way. When the mine is closed down and Sam Carraclough (John Lynch), Joe's father, is thrown out of work he can no longer afford to rebuff the Duke's offers and to the horror of his family, he is forced to sell Lassie.
The Duke presents his new acquisition to his young niece, Cilla (Hester Odger), but Lassie has other ideas and makes a series of daring escapes to return to the family she loves, until finally she is transported five hundred miles away to the Duke's remote castle on northern coast of Scotland. This however does nothing to dampen Lassie's determination and with help from Cilla she escapes the clutches of the Duke and his cruel trainer Hynes (Steve Pemberton) and once again sets out for home.
So begins an incredible adventure set against a stunning series of British landscapes that sees Lassie facing dangers natural and human and finding help in unexpected places as she makes her way across the country.
As the snow begins to fall on the dales, Joe is finding Christmas cheer in short-supply, until he realizes that against all the odds an exhausted, battered but not beaten Lassie has somehow managed to find her way home.
The Legend of Lassie
Lassie began in 1938 as a short story, set in pre-WWII England, by Eric Knight for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1940 that story became the beloved novel 'Lassie Come Home'. The story's main character was based on Knight's own collie, Toots.
Lassie made her theatrical film debut in 1943 alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowell in MGM's 'Lassie Come Home'. The movie was based on Eric Knight's best-selling novel of the same name and launched more sequel movies and TV shows than any other property in entertainment history.
Lassie has starred in ten movies. This adaptation of Eric Knight's 'Lassie Come Home' will be Lassie's eleventh movie. While the original Lassie novel was set in the UK, it was actually filmed on the MGM back lot.
LASSIE is one of entertainment's most successful franchises with ten feature films and more than 675 half-hour TV episodes to her credit. The original LASSIE movie was followed by a series of sequels with Hollywood legends Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Roddy McDowell and Jimmy Stewart. Lassie's two-time Emmy Award-winning TV series is one of the longest running programmes in television history and has been seen in more than 50 countries around the world.
Written, directed and produced by Charles Sturridge (FAIRYTALE, LONGITUDE, SHACKLETON), LASSIE was shot on location in Ireland and the Isle of Man over a seven weeks. The script, which was based on Eric Knight's classic 1938 novel Lassie Come Home, was written by Charles Sturridge. This new chapter in the evolution of the Lassie franchise promises all the love, trust and heroism a family audience could ask for.