Why The NeverEnding Story's Original Director Handed The Reins To Wolfgang Petersen
When you think of director Wolfgang Petersen (who passed away last year), the first thing that comes to mind is probably not a movie about ailing Empresses, heroic young boys, and giant, flying luck dragons. After all, a glimpse of Petersen's filmography doesn't really seem to suggest that he's the kind of guy too interested in fantasy movies for children. Much of his resume is studded with impressive hits like 1981's "Das Boot" and 1997's "Air Force One." Both of these films are firmly based in reality and depict both militaristic and political storylines, with "Das Boot" focusing on a German submarine in World War II and "Air Force One" honing in on a terrorist attack aboard the President of the United States' plane with not a single luck dragon is in sight.
Still, there is one movie of Petersen's that, while great, doesn't quite fit with the rest of his projects: the 1984 fantasy "The NeverEnding Story." The film tells the story of Bastian Bux (Barret Oliver), a precocious young boy with a deep love for reading. When he steals a mysterious book from a grumpy bookseller, he soon realizes the story unfolding within its pages might not be as fantastical as it seems. Based on the book by Michael Ende, "The NeverEnding Story" has gone on to become a fantasy staple for young children everywhere. Petersen's guidance — and the use of an extremely catchy theme song — has helped solidfy the film as a classic, but Petersen wasn't always the director in mind to help rid Fantasia of The Nothing. In fact, if it wasn't for the first director's concerns over making the film, Petersen may have never gotten the chance.
The right man to continue the story
When "The NeverEnding Story" first got greenlit, German director Helmut Dietl was set to tell Bastian's story. He had previously worked on a few German television series but had yet to take on something of this caliber. Wolfgang Petersen explained Dietl's hesitancy to continue directing "The NeverEnding Story" for Entertainment Weekly's oral history of the film. "[Dietl] was a very, very good director in Germany but he mostly did small films and comedies, which he was great at," said Petersen, continuing, "By the time they started building creatures, he realized the film was too much for him. He was overwhelmed. He knew this was not his world." In fact, Dietl was so aware of the fact that he was not the one to tell Bastian and Atreyu's (Noah Hathaway) story that he even helped the movie's producer, Bernd Eichinger, call up Petersen to convince him to take over.
Petersen explained:
"After three grueling years working on 'Das Boot,' I was available and looking for something different to work on. 'Das Boot' was a tough, tough movie to make. From the story point-of-view, it was very dark, and emotional material. My son, at that time, was around 10 years old or so and he didn't care for 'Das Boot' very much. As a father, I wanted to do something that my son would be really interested in and that he could be proud of."
So, as fate would have it, the call from Dietl and Eichinger came at the perfect time. Petersen was eager to take the job, saying, "I knew this was what I was looking for." And thank goodness he did. Because of him, "The NeverEnding Story" really will continue on for many more years to come.