- Notes provided by Fox Walden. -

Nim'S Nautical Glossary

ALOFT: Anything above the highest deck of a ship is said to be aloft

ASTERN: Anything directly behind the vessel is considered astern

BOW: The extreme forward end of the ship

BUCCANEERS: The name given to the pirates who plundered Caribbean coasts in the 17th century

CELESTIAL: Pertaining to the sky or stars, especially for navigation

FATHOM: A depth of six feet or 1.8 meters

FURLING: Gathering in the sail and lashing it down

GALE: A strong wind, usually greater than 28 knots

GANGPLANK: The portable bridge that links a ship and the wharf

HURRICANE: A ferocious wind of 64 to 71 knots

JACOB'S LADDER: A rope ladder used to climb aboard or aloft the ship

KEEL: The backbone of a ship, along the centerline of the bottom

KNOT: A measure of speed equal to one nautical mile (6,080 feet) per hour

LATITUDE: A measurement of how far north or south of the Equator a place is located

LEEWARD: The direction opposite the way the wind is blowing

LONGITUDE: The position of any place on earth measured in degrees east or west of Greenwich, England

MERIDIAN: Imaginary lines running north and south around the earth that cross the equator

PORT and STARBOARD: The left and rights sides of the ship, respectively

STERN: The rear of the boat

ZENITH: The point in the heavens directly above the head of the observer

About the Production

Dear Alex Rover,

My father `s missing at sea and my island is being invaded.

I need you Alex Rover!

Anything can happen on NIM'S ISLAND, a place where imagination runs wild and adventure rules. Here, a feisty young girl named Nim (ABIGAIL BRESLIN), surrounded by her exotic animal friends and inspired by legends and books, leads an amazing tropical existence that mirrors that of her favorite literary hero: Alex Rover, the world's greatest adventurer. When her island is threatened she reaches out to her hero for help.

But what Nim doesn't know is that the acclaimed author of the Rover books is, in fact, Alexandra Rover (JODIE FOSTER), a retiring, fainthearted recluse locked away in a big city apartment. Now, as Alexandra nervously ventures forth into the world and Nim faces the biggest challenge of her exciting young life, they must both draw courage from the fictional gallantry of Alex Rover,and find strength in one another to save Nim's Island.

An adventure comedy, NIM'S ISLAND is about becoming the hero of your own story -- as a girl who thought she was alone and a grown woman who thought she was scared of the world discover they can be so much more than they ever dreamed. The film features Academy Award® nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) in the spunky title role; Academy Award® winner Jodie Foster in a rare comic turn as Alexandra Rover; and heartthrob Gerard Butler (300, P.S. I Love You) in a dual role as Nim's real father and valiant fictional idol Alex Rover.

NIM'S ISLAND is directed by husband-and-wife team Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett(Little Manhattan) from their own screenplay written with Paula Mazur and Joseph Kwong, based on the acclaimed novel by Wendy Orr. The producer is Paula Mazur (Corrina, Corrina) and the executive producer is Stephen Jones (Superman Returns).

Shot on location on the sandy beaches of Australia's Gold Coast and the lush rainforests of Hinchinbrook Island, the behind-the-scenes team who bring Nim's world of natural and imaginary wonders to life includes Academy Award®-nominated director of photography Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano, Bridget Jones' Diary), production designer Barry Robison (Wedding Crashers), Oscar®-nominated costume designer Jeffrey Kurland (Ocean's Eleven, Bullets Over Broadway) and editor Stuart Levy (Any Given Sunday).

FINDING NIM's ISLAND:ABOUT THE STORY

In 2002, author Wendy Orr published Nim's Island, a tale that brought to life a whimsical, adventure-filled tropical paradise like no other and two irresistible heroines: bold young Nim, who leads a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson lifestyle filled with excitement on a remote isle surrounded by her scientist father, close animal companions; and adventure writer Alexander Rover, who leads a completely opposite life of seclusion and high anxiety in her big city apartment -- that is, until her biggest fan reaches out to her for help.

When fate brings Nim and Alexandra together, it appears that no two people could be any more different. Nim craves the thrill of great journeys and true friendships, while Alexandra is a comical bundle of frayed nerves. But the two quickly discover that they share something vital in common -- a belief in the power of the imagination, and a love of Alexandra's fictional creation, Alex Rover, whose boundless courage and derring-do will inspire them to go amazing places and make close connections of which they once only dreamed. Nim ultimately finds herself in the midst of one of the greatest adventures of all: becoming a family.

Says Orr, "Nim's story is about the idea that we can all be a lot braver than we think. Whether you're fighting off marauding pirates or leaving your apartment to cross the world, we're all capable of just so much more than we believe."

The Los Angeles Times called Orr's book, "a refreshing fantasy tale . . . with ample doses of suspense and comedy" and noted that "readers will want to believe everything about the likeable Nim and her idyllic isle."

Fast-forward a few years and film producer Paula Mazur suddenly discovers Nim's Island in a Santa Monica library bin. Intrigued by the title, she takes the book home to read to her children, and inspiration instantly strikes. "I found it such a beautiful story, so well-written, with such strong characters, with this father, daughter and author who are all destined to find one another, that right away I thought `I'd love to see this movie,'" Mazur recalls. "I especially loved that Nim is such a great role model. She's a can-do kid who takes on everything that she encounters with enthusiasm and humor."

Mazur was thrilled to find that the screen rights to the story were available and quickly put a screenplay adaptation into motion, soon after joining forces with Walden Media, who have become renown for their ability to take beloved family novels from page to screen with both integrity and creativity.

As the search began for screenwriters to raise the story to a richer cinematic level, both Mazur and Walden were agreed on the pair they hoped would take on the task: Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, the husband-and-wife team who, among many diverse projects, recently wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Little Manhattan, about two 11 year-olds who fall in love when they literally come face-to-face in a Manhattan karate class. Celebrated as that rare, smart, witty comedy for audiences of all ages, the film demonstrated the duo's affinity for evoking strong emotions and sophisticated humor within a family film context.

"The tone of Little Manhattan was very real and not sentimental and the script was so clever and beautiful. I just had a gut feeling they were the right people for NIM'S ISLAND," says Mazur, "and Walden felt the same way."

New parents themselves, Levin and Flackett and fell very quickly into love with Nim and all the delightfully offbeat characters, both human and animal, Orr brought to life in her novel. Says Levin: "We saw the foundation for a beautiful movie, and we took great inspiration from our daughter in approaching how to write and direct the movie, because we wanted to create something that she would love, and also something that reflected her, because to us she is a lot like Nim."

Adds Flackett: "We were really excited to try to capture that sense of a child's love of running and jumping and having adventures. There aren't many roles like that for girls, and we wanted to give that to our daughter. We've also both always loved the kinds of really potent family films that transcend age and time and we definitely saw the potential for that in this story."

In approaching the adaptation, Mark and Jennifer began with what they saw as the heart of the movie. "The core of it is about people trying to make a connection. It's about a father who's trying to get home to his little girl, a girl who's trying to reach out to her hero in her hour of need, a writer trying to connect with the world and with the person she always wanted to be, and most of all, about a family trying to restore itself. These are the themes of the book, and they are what always drove us in creating the movie, from the screenplay to the set," Levin summarizes.

While the themes remained the same, the pair explain that as they worked with the screenplay they did outwardly expand some of the events of the novel to create more drama and visual excitement on the screen. "Everything that happens in the movie also happens in the book, but we took the basic events and made them all just a little bit bigger and more cinematic," notes Flackett.

Having also at one time worked on the acclaimed, hit television show The Wonder Years, Levin and Flackett confess they both love writing from the fresh, and often fearlessly perceptive, angle of a child's point-of-view. "There's something about the twelve year-old psyche that is a lot of fun and also very poignant as a point of view, because it's such a transformative time in everybody's life," says Levin. "For us, there was also a lot of joy that came from being able to use so much imagination in all of Nim's world."

Levin and Flackett have always found that they prefer to work together, rather than apart, and by the time they were done with the screenplay for NIM'S ISLAND and heading into production, the duo notes that they, just like their characters, had been brought even closer as a family by the process. "For me and Jennifer this is the best possible way to live and create," sums up Mark. "What's so exciting about doing this together is that we have the opportunity to let our imaginations wander to the same wild places. It's a very creative partnership."

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