Shawn Mendes’ ‘Stage Fright and Anxieties’ Made Him the Perfect Fit for ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,’ Says Producer
Almost 60 years after famous children’s author Bernard Waber published “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” the story is finally getting a live-action adaptation.
The 1965 picture book, a sequel to “The House on East 88th Street,” follows a saltwater crocodile navigating the streets of New York City. At the worldwide red carpet premiere on Sunday, the cast and crew discussed the process of threshing out a grander narrative based on the ten books in the “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” series.
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“It’s like a 17-page book, so the room for growth and expansion is tenfold,” producer Kevin Vafi told Variety at AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York. “It’s finding those homage points that you really want to do, like the note in the attic or meeting Lyle in the bathtub with Mrs. Primm — all these little callbacks to the book.”
The feature film was directed by comedy duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon, best known for “Blades of Glory” and “Office Christmas Party.” The two hinted at the possibility of building a larger franchise around “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.” Gordon emphasized that it wouldn’t come from a “cynical” place, while Speck suggested that “there’s a whole era of kids’ books from that era that we could adapt.”
“[‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’] was a big part of my childhood and our children’s childhood,” Speck said. “What’s exciting is that [the book] is known by the people that know it, but it’s not so widely popular in terms of IP — yet. We were able to take the adaptation and really expand out into the story.”
Vafi, who has collaborated with the “Speck & Gordon” duo on three different projects, also touched on the “nostalgic element” that people associate with “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.” Without going into specifics, he said that he was pitching new adaptations of children’s books to studios.
While Waber passed away in 2013, the filmmakers worked closely with the author’s two daughters, Louisa and Paulis. One of the ways they contributed was by sharing unreleased animations and drawings with the filmmakers that helped them inform the story.
Louisa told stories about her late father drawing pictures of crocodiles at the zoo while he studied at the University of the Arts and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was introduced to the “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” book when she was about four years old — but not in its finished form.
“I remember that he used to read to us every night,” Lousia said. “Most of the time, there was a book that had already been published by other authors, but he often came into our bedroom and read something that was just a bunch of papers with scribbled pictures stapled together.
Weber’s other daughter, Paulis, said she believed that Lyle’s personality resembled her father.
“I am really certain that [Lyle] was some version of our dad,” Paulis said. “He was vulnerable in that way and super talented. He had some of the early difficulties you see in the Lyle book and movie. He was very sensitive, and he was super funny.”
Paulis said that her father also had “musical aspirations” — he would practice the piano but never believed it was a viable career path — and similarly, Lyle is a singing crocodile that struggles with stage fright. Lyle is voiced by Shawn Mendes in the film and exclusively communicates by breaking out into song — Mendes doesn’t even have one regular speaking line.
“I think Shawn is this character at his core,” Vafi said. “It’s funny, we learned more of it the more we talked to him. He has stage fright and his own anxieties just like the character.”
The film stars Constance Wu, Javier Bardem, Scoot McNairy, Winslow Fegley and Brett Gelman. Wu, who plays Mrs. Primm in the film, took the opportunity to recognize the Asian American crew members that worked on the project.
“A lot of the actors and directors that are Asian get a lot of attention, but there’s a lot of people behind the scenes — the writers, the crew people, the songwriters — that are doing just as important and amazing work,” Wu said. “I’m hopefully trying to lift up their voices more.”
“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” will be released in theaters on Oct. 7.
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