If it feels like we’ve been waiting a while for Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest, The Young And Prodigious T.S. Spivet, that might be because it has been touring European festivals and release dates before heading over here. The UK trailer is now online.
Switching locales from his usual Euro haunts, the new film finds Jeunet and co-writer Guillame Laurent adapting Reif Larsen’s novel for the tale of the titular youngster. T.S. Spivet (Kyle Catlett) lives on a remote ranch in Montana with his parents (Helena Bonham Carter and Callum Keith Rennie), his sister Gracie (Niamh Wilson) and his brother Layton (Jakob Davies).
A gifted child with a passion for science, T.S. has invented a perpetual motion machine, for which he has been awarded the prestigious Baird Prize by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Unfortunately for the awarding committee, no one realises that their winner is in fact a 10-year-old child. Undaunted by this issue, Spivet leaves a note for his family and hops a freight train to make his way across the United States and receive his prize. Cue a journey full of strange characters and new adventures…
Though the title may make some want to break out their Ross from Friends impressions (SPIVET!), this appears to be Jeunet bringing his particular style and charm to another different canvas. The film will arrive here on June 13.