Of all of the surprisingly successful movies out there, Wonder is perhaps the least likely to become a franchise. The heartwarming 2017 coming-of-age movie about a boy with a facial deformity earned over $300M at the box office, leading Lionsgate to move forward on a spinoff sequel/prequel, White Bird: A Wonder Story.
The focus of White Bird isn’t Wonder‘s central figure, Auggie Pullman. Instead, the attention turns to his tormentor, school bully Julian Albans, with actor Bryce Gheisar reprising the role. At the end of the last film, Julian was pulled out of school by his parents. Now he’s visited by his grandmother, played by Helen Mirren, who tells him stories of her time hiding from the Nazis in occupied-France during WWII.
Also in the cast are Gillian Anderson, Ariella Glaser, and Orlando Schwerdt. The film is directed by Marc Forster (A Man Called Otto) from a script by Mark Bomback.
White Bird: A Wonder Story opens in theaters on August 18th.
From the best-selling author of Wonder, the book that sparked a movement to “choose kind,” comes the inspirational next chapter. In White Bird, we follow Julian (Bryce Gheisar), who has struggled to belong ever since he was expelled from his former school for his treatment of Auggie Pullman. To transform his life, Julian’s grandmother (Helen Mirren) finally reveals to Julian her own story of courage — during her youth in Nazi-occupied France, a boy shelters her from mortal danger. They find first love in a stunning, magical world of their own creation, while the boy’s mother (Gillian Anderson) risks everything to keep her safe. From director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland and Christopher Robin), screenwriter Mark Bomback, and based on R.J. Palacio’s book, White Bird: A Wonder Story, like Wonder before it, is an uplifting movie about how one act of kindness can live on forever.
