‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ Film, Updates: New Featurette Puts Focus on Unique Female Characters; Ella Purnell Talks Acting, Fame

‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ released a new featurette focusing on the film’s unique female characters including Eva Green’s Miss Peregrine and Ella Purcell’s Emma Bloom. Meanwhile, Purcell talks about working in the acting industry as well as fame.

20th Century Fox recently released a new featurette for Tim Burton’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ book of the same name. The exclusive preview highlighted the film’s unique female characters as well as their special and peculiar abilities.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the new film follows a young boy who discovers a mysterious orphanage housing children with strange abilities. Jake fights alongside headmistress Miss Peregrine as they fend of magical monsters threatening the children of the orphanage.

In the minute-long footage, the female cast members explained that each character had strengths and powerful abilities. It opened to Purnell’s Emma showing her unique superpowers to Jacob, played by Asa Butterfield, as they go underwater. Ella then conjures some energy to pin them to the wall.

Actresses Purnell and Green talked about the eccentric and unique female characters in the film at different points in the footage. Purnell says, “There’s a lot of powerful female characters in the movie… they don’t take any crap.” Green adds, “They all have special abilities… Miss Peregrine, she’s kind of a warrior. She will do absolutely everything for her children.”

Director Tim Burton also says, “They’re strong – very mysterious. Ella can manipulate air… Olive, fire…” Other female members of the cast include Allison Janey, Judi Dench, Ella Wahlestedt, Raffiella Chapman, Pixie Davies, O-Lan Jones, Georgia Pemberton, and Lauren McCrostie among others.

Most of the upcoming film’s television spots, trailers, and other promotional material put more focus on Purnell’s Emma. The 19-year old English actress is best known for her roles in films such as 2010’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ and 2014’s ‘Maleficent’.

According to an article on WWD, Purnell revealed that she had been acting for the longest time – starring in the West End production of ‘Oliver!’ before moving to the big screen with ‘Never Let Me Go’. She admitted, “I didn’t really look at the job as a way to make money or get famous or anything… For me, it was the reason why I didn’t like going to parties. You don’t care about that stuff when you’re a kid.”

Purnell also expressed her enthusiasm over her role in the new film saying, “I fell in love with the idea of how this whole thing has been built on just a couple stray photographs that Ransom Riggs found… The script] is funny, it’s a bit sad, it’s a bit dark, it’s very gripping. Something happens every step of the way, and you’re so emotionally invested in all these characters. I think it’s just a hugely relatable movie with a great moral.”

‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ is an upcoming adventure-fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and written for the big screen by Jane Goldman. It is produced by Chernin Entertainment, Scope Pictures, St. Petersburg Clearwater Film Commission, and Tim Burton Productions. It is distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in the United States.

The film is scheduled to premiere in theaters on September 30, 2016.