Joe Wright's full-bore foray into Peter Pan legend and lore will either end up becoming an instant family classic, or a beautiful disaster. A new featurette highlighting the 3D in Warner Bros. upcoming adventure fantasy Pan certainly suggests that audiences will be in for a wild ride through vibrant and lush landscapes, populated by brilliantly colored plants, animals, and natives. What it doesn't do is delve too much into the story, dialogue, or acting. So for the moment, we get to enjoy the eye candy out of context.

Pan is gorgeous. Wright pulls out all the stops in imagining and populating Neverland, and the 3D is intended to immerse audiences in that richly detailed world. It's visually reminiscent of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, and I'm sure that WB is hoping the similarities continue at the box office since that film banked north of a billion dollars. Then again, Tarsem Singh's Mirror Mirror looked like a visual feast, but ultimately did not connect with audiences or their wallets. We'll find out how Pan performs when it opens this fall.

Pan stars Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard, Garrett Hedlund as James Hook, Oscar nominee Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, and newcomer Levi Miller as Peter Pan, and opens in theaters October 9th. Check out the new behind-the-scenes look at Pan in this 3D featurette:

Here's the official synopsis for Pan:

From Warner Bros. Pictures comes, “Pan,” a live-action Peter Pan feature directed by Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “Pride & Prejudice”).

 

Offering a new take on the origin of the classic characters created by J.M. Barrie, the action adventure follows the story of an orphan who is spirited away to the magical Neverland. There, he finds both fun and dangers, and ultimately discovers his destiny—to become the hero who will be forever known as Peter Pan.

 

The film stars Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman (“Les Misérables”) as Blackbeard; Garrett Hedlund (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) as Hook; Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) as Tiger Lily; Adeel Akhtar (“The Dictator”) as Smee; and newcomer Levi Miller as Peter.

 

Rounding out the cast are Taejoo Na (“The Kick”) as Kwahu; Nonso Anozie (“Son of God,” “Atonement”) as Bishop; Kathy Burke (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) as Mother Barnabas; Kurt Egyiawan (“Skyfall”) as Murray; Lewis MacDougall (UK TV’s “In the Name of the Children”) as Nibs; newcomer Leni Zieglmeier as Wendy Darling; Jack Charles (“Mystery Road”) as The Chief/Tiger Lily’s father; and Amanda Seyfried (“Les Misérables”) as Mary.

Wright directs “Pan” from a screenplay written by Jason Fuchs. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Paul Webster are producing, with Tim Lewis serving as executive producer.

For more on Pan, be sure to check out some of our recent coverage below:

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