ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS: None currently available

Production information

Charlotte's Web
Release Date: December 15, 2006
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Gary Winick
Screenwriter: Susannah Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric the Entertainer, André Benjamin, Thomas Haden Church, Robert Redford, Reba McEntire, Kathy Bates
Genre: Drama, Family
MPAA Rating: G
Official Website: CharlottesWebmovie.com

A live-action/photo real CG animated feature adaptation of E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" starring Dakota Fanning as Fern. Julia Roberts will lend her vocals in the lead role of Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider and heroine of the book who goes out of her way to save Wilbur the pig's life by weaving miraculous words into her webs.

Also providing voices are Oprah Winfrey as Gussy the barn's maternal yet irreverent goose; John Cleese as Samuel the sheep; Steve Buscemi as the barn's sardonic Rat Templeton. Cedric The Entertainer will play opposite Oprah as the other Goose - Golly. Reba McEntire and Kathy Bates will voice the barn's ironic cows; Betsy and Bitsy and Thomas Haden Church will voice Brooks, one of two dimwitted crows opposite Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000) as Elwyn the other crow.

The critically acclaimed book "Charlotte's Web" written by award-winning author E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams is the best selling children's paperback of all time. To date the book has sold 45 Million copies worldwide and has been translated into 23 languages since published in 1952. "Charlotte's Web" is published by HarperCollins Children's Books.

PLOT
Wilbur is the pet piglet of a young girl named Fern Arable. Unfortunately, when he grows into an adult pig, Fern is forced to take him to the Zuckerman farm, where he will be prepared as dinner in due time.

Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider, lives in the space above Wilbur's sty in the Zuckermans' barn; she befriends Wilbur and decides to help prevent him from being eaten. With the help of the other barn animals, including a rat named Templeton, she convinces the Zuckerman family that Wilbur is actually quite special, by spelling out such descriptions as "Some Pig" in her web. Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver spider with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.

1973 version
The book was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973. The film, distributed to theatres by Paramount Pictures on February 22, 1973, is one of only two Hanna-Barbera features not based upon one of their television cartoons—Heidi's Song (1982) being the other—and was a moderate critical and commercial success. It is very true to the book.

Charlotte's Web (2006 film)
Charlotte's Web is a live-action/computer-animated feature film, based on the popular book of the same name by E.B. White. It is directed by Gary Winick and produced by Paramount Pictures, Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, and a remake of the animated 1973 film.

The movie was at one time intended for a June 2006 release, but was pushed back to December 2006 to avoid competition with two other films from Nickelodeon Movies -- Nacho Libre and Barnyard -- as well as Over the Hedge among other films. It was released in Australia on December 7, 2006 and will be released in the United States on December 15, 2006, having been rescheduled from December 20.

The film is rated G by the MPAA.

The slogan of the movie, according to the trailer and website, is "Help is coming from above."

Production information
Major shooting was completed in May 2006. It was filmed on location in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria and suburbs in Melbourne, Australia. The fair scene in the story was filmed in Heidelberg in Melbourne, Australia.

This will be Thomas Haden Church's second family film to be released by Paramount Pictures in 2006, the first being Over the Hedge, which was made by DreamWorks Animation. Paramount had distributed the film as a result of its acquisition of DreamWorks, whose animation division became its own company in late 2004.

Visual effects are by Rising Sun Pictures, Fuel International, Proof, Rhythm and Hues Studios, Digital Pictures Iloura and Tippett Studio. The visual effects supervisor is John Berton. Judging from movie trailers and scenes, the character of Charlotte A. Cavatica appears to look more like a spider as opposed to having a woman's face on a spider's body as the 1973 movie envisioned her.

Music
Danny Elfman left Spider-Man 3 to score this movie; Thomas Haden Church has roles in both of them. Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan performs a song entitled "Ordinary Miracle" for the movie, which was written by Glen Ballard and David A. Stewart of The Eurythmics. Music by Drowning Pool will also be included on the film's soundtrack, which will be released on December 5, 2006.