Trivia / The Spiderwick Chronicles

• Acting for Two: Freddy Highmore played both Jared and his identical twin Simon in the film version. Their personalities are complete opposites.
• Actor Allusion: Nick Nolte, who plays Mulgarath in human form and also voices him, had previously starred in another movie with a creature that turns big and green when angry.
• Cast Incest: Freddie Highmore and Sarah Bolger◊ dated, despite playing brother and sister.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Martin Short as Thimbletack and Seth Rogen as Hogsqueal. See below for who voiced the Red Cap.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Lucinda is "six and a half" in the flashbacks to her childhood. Jordy Benattar was actually thirteen when she filmed her part.
  • Jared and Simon are nine in the books, and Freddie Highmore was fifteen (but the characters appear to have been given a minor Age Lift).
  • Mallory is thirteen in the books, and Sarah Bolger was sixteen.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Sarah Bolger had five weeks of fencing training with an Olympic coach to prepare for her role. She ended up keeping it up after she'd finished filming.
• Fake American:
  • British Freddie Highmore as both Simon and Jared.
  • Irish Sarah Bolger as Mallory. Several crew members were fooled into thinking she was actually American.
  • Joan Plowright as Lucinda is an odd case. Lucy as a child speaks with an American accent, but has an English one as an old woman. She also reverts back to her American accent when she's restored to her youth.
  • Canadian Tod Fennell plays one of Helen's co-workers.
• Follow the Leader: One of many early 2000s adaptations of children's fantasy/adventure books, following the lead of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Sarah Bolger at the time was known for playing more passive introverted characters, such as In America, Tara Road and Stormbreaker. She had also just been cast as Mary Tudor in The Tudors. It was against type to see her as an outspoken Action Girl.
  • Director Mark Waters too was known for a string of light-hearted romantic comedies with only light supernatural elements like Freaky Friday (2003), Just Like Heaven and Mean Girls. This marked the first time he'd done a slightly darker adventure film with lots of CGI.
• Playing Their Own Twin: Freddie Highmore plays the twin brothers Simon and Jared. He gives them their own distinct looks, personalities and voices.
• Recycled Soundtrack: The film's OST, composed by James Horner, takes heavy cues from the Casper movie soundtrack, most notably "One Last Wish" and "Casper's Lullaby".
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: A lot of viewers thought this was the case with Simon and Jared, as widely documented. Even so, Mary-Louise Parker certainly looks like she could be mother to Freddie Highmore. Andrew McCarthy likewise looks like he could be related to Sarah Bolger.
• Stunt Casting: Nick Nolte as Mulgarath. He only has one four-minute scene of actual screen time, with the rest of his part being done through voiceover.
• Uncredited Role: Ron Perlman is uncredited for voicing the Red Cap.

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