Yesterday, before the long-awaited premiere, Syfy released a sneak peek for its two-part mini-series Neverland, which the network envisions as a prequel of sorts to the classic Peter Pan story.
The mini-series attempts to explain how Peter found himself in the mystical land, and depicts his first adventures there, long before he met Wendy. This clip gives a sample of the first half of the adventure, which aired last night on Syfy.
Interestingly enough, the project seems to be more closely related to Hook (it even has Bob Hoskins as Smee) than to J.M. Barrie’s original novel, which does reveal some details about the origin of the relationship between Pan and Hook, none of which seem to be represented here.
Fortunately, Neverland looks like a fun tale with a decent budget. The miniseries is definitely a refreshing change from other Syfy television movies, which are usually campy and generally pretty terrible.
The story of Peter Pan is a personal favorite of mine, and I’m always happy to see the primary conflict of the story developed further, even in a non-canon exploration. Judging from the success and popularity of Hook, I think I’m not the only one.
The clip came along with this cast interview featurette, which does contain some spoilers if you are prone to worrying about that type of thing.
The synopsis of the mini-series is thus:
Neverland is an original production for Sky Movies, revealing the never-before-told story of how Peter Pan became the Boy Who Never Grew Up. It’s an enthralling fantasy adventure for all of the family, starring Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel, with Charlie Rowe as Peter and Keira Knightley as the voice of Tinker Bell.
The second half of Neverland airs tonight, December 5, 2011, on Syfy. If you missed the first half, it will be up on Syfy’s miniseries page soon, though likely not before tonight.
