Piracy warning

Wolverine turns beardy buckaneer for vibrant fairytale reinvention Pan.

Director Joe Wright

Starring Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Amanda Seyfried, Levi Miller

ETA 17 July

“This isn’t the Neverland story you know,” says director Joe Wright ( Atonement, Anna Karenina). He’s not kidding. While Peter Pan is one of many fairy stories being raided for reimaginings and reboots (as well as the live TV version starring Alison Williams and Christopher Walken, Melissa McCarthy is working on a Tinker Bell movie), Pan looks nothing like the original J.M. Barrie play or novel, nor the 1953 Disney cartoon that, like its hero, never gets old.

For starters, the big bad isn’t the pirate you’d predict. In this origins tale (expect plenty of ‘Peter Pan Begins’ headlines), it’s Hugh Jackman’s Blackbeard who’s on evil pirate duties. It’s a far cry from Wolverine: Jackman has a Blackadder-esque wig balancing on his bald bonce and a twirlable ’tache that’ll put your co-workers’ Movember efforts to shame. Blackbeard’s flying ship whisks away kids from their comfortable homes in London to work camps in Neverland (told you this wasn’t quite the Neverland story you know), and the young Peter (newcomer Levi Miller) sees it as an opportunity to reunite with his missing mum.

With the moustachioed villain role checked, this time Hook is younger, more dashing and has two hands (suggesting that the Hook name is an unfortunate irony, rather than an adopted nickname.) Played by Garrett Hedlund, he’s a far more rakish adventuring sort than we’ve come to expect, and at this point in the story, he’s an ally of Pan’s. With the film likely to be spun into a franchise, expect future installments to hinge on his turn to the dark side.

While it might not be a traditional take on the story, it should certainly be a magical one, with ships soaring over London, colourfully kitted out tribespeople and Cara Delevingne as a mermaid. If Wright pulls this off, Peter Pan could prove to be ever youthful.

Pan opens on 17 July.