Last week, Jeff Kinney, creator of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" novel-in-cartoon series and executive producer of the film version, said he didn't fear the impending confrontation between "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" and "Sucker Punch." (Both opened Friday.) "Not only are we poised for a good run with this movie, but we're planning for the future; we want to tell more stories," Kinney told me.
That shouldn't be a problem, because history has repeated itself -- in a good way, for a change. Just as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" ultimately whipped "Kick-Ass" last year, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" took in $22.4 million during its opening weekend, leaving 'Sucker Punch" in the dust (with $19 million).
"We've got a family comedy with a strong ensemble cast," Kinney continued. "I spent a lot of time in Vancouver during the shooting with the kids, and just when you walked down the street with them you felt you were with an iconic group of actors. When you see them together -- Fregley (Grayson Russell), Patty Farrell (Laine MacNeil), Chirag Gupta (Karan Brar), Greg (Zachary Gordon), and Rowley (Robert Capron) -- they look like a classic ensemble. That's why I feel very confident about this movie and the next as well."
This time around, the older characters were the biggest question marks. Rodrick, the bullying and manipulative brother of the Wimpy Kid himself, Greg Heffley (Gordon), had a minor role in the first film. For "Rodrick Rules," he had to step into the spotlight. "I guess they had the same issue in the 'Twilight' series," Kinney said, enjoying the semi-incongruous comparison. "They weren't sure that Taylor Lautner could play the big bad wolf in the second film, but he stepped up to the task. Devon Bostick had to step up, too, and he does a great job."
Then there was the parent trap. "Part of the key of the books is that you don't really know a lot about the parents; you experience them only through Greg's point of view. In the books, Greg doesn't even know what his father does for a living. If you asked him, he would say, 'You know, he puts on a tie in the morning and leaves, then he comes back around dinner.' In a movie his parents have to be more complete people. They can't be seen through Greg's eyes only."
Kinney is proud of the movies, but said "I love that [my stories are] books, first and foremost. They're books! There's something quaint about holding books in your hands and something beautiful about that, and I hope they're around for a long time. The books are sort of low-tech, aren't they? When I reference technology I'm having a harder and harder time with that. When I started drawing my books, televisions were mostly cathode-ray. Now they're all flat-screen, so even the mere image of a television in one of my books, when it's got more than eight inches to it, probably looks ridiculous to today's kids. And the video games have wires that connect to the game console. I realize that even though I've tried to avoid references to technology, I'm making the books look outdated as I go."
The books' hand-made style suits their spare and sometimes cryptic humor. "Part of the fun of the books is you can see things through such a narrow scope. But for the movie the adult characters have be more fully fleshed out; you have to understand their motivations as well. At the heart of 'Rodrick Rules' is that Mom believes in family and bringing everybody together. I'm always amazed whenever I see the performances of Rachael Harris and Steve Zahn as Greg's mother and father – I pinch myself that we got these actors to play these parts. They turn just about every line into gold."
For more of my interview with Jeff Kinney, click here.
