From the story point-of-view, it was very dark, and emotional material.
He was first attached to the film as its director for a short time.
By the time they started building creatures, he realized the film was too much for him.
He knew this was not his world.
I knew this was what I was looking for.
I think I auditioned around six or seven times before I got the part.
Finally, after like three or four more [auditions], I got hired again.
I must’ve read the script three dozen times and knew every line.
If they had sent him a photo of me, it couldn’t have been a more perfect rendering.
It was really spooky.
And so, it was a perfect fit.
Boy, what a gorgeous kid he was.
The character of Bastian was so different from Atreyu, which was the whole idea.
He was more of a nerdy character and the other is the hero.
The back and forth between them in the film were quite nice.
As kids and as actors, the two were just as different from one another.
Barret Oliver was always hanging and holding my hand, he was so sweet.
It was almost like I was his father.
He was so nice, warm, and loving, in a way.
And Noah had this attitude from the very beginning, he was Atreyu.
He walked his own walk and he had his own style, and that was good.
He held his head up high and he was a hero.
I loved being in productions, but I had no idea what I was auditioning for.
When I asked my mom, she took me over to the audition.
I didn’t have an agent, so I didn’t understand what the stakes were.
She’s the queen of everything and the most powerful, but also vulnerable because she’s so sick.
I can imagine little girls saw her and were in awe that that was possible.
So, what a surprise it must have been for them.
It was just such an awesome, awesome thing to watch.
It was so smart that Michael Ende created this character, that he made this little girl an empress.
She reigns and she is the top.
And if she’s sick, the whole world is in trouble.
STRONACH:I loved having Wolfgang as a director.
It was so wonderful to be around an adult that didn’t underestimate children.
In some ways, that’s the heart of the story.
Bastian is underestimated by everyone and he’s capable of so much: imagination and compassion.
And if you want to create your own name, you don’t have to say Moon Child.
Moon Child is her chosen name in the book and in the script.
I remember Barrett really concentrating and thinking and deciding what he was going to say.
It was such a sweet process.
This is a serious business and they were serious actors.
STRONACH:We all got along really well which was lucky.
We are all very different.
I would say Noah was very athletic and he was a dancervery confident.
Barret was a little more into his G.I.
Joe action figures, and a little bit more introverted.
It was just a very strange age for us as kids.
But we’re all stuck in the middle of nowhere in Germany together and we became these unlikely friends.
He showed me a drawing or a cell of [Falkor].
I immediately saw this furry luckdragon and the voice came to me.
He told me, “That was fine,” and they made arrangements to fly me to Munich.
I went into the studios and they played the film for me and I put a voice to it.
After I completed the whole thing, I asked them for a playback.
They ended up using my second take in the film.
When I finished, Wolfgang asked me to have a look at the Rockbiter.
I immediately identified with the Rockbiter and knew just what I would do.
It was so easy to give him a voice and I love that character.
As I finished up that one, Wolfgang tells me, “Wait, there’s one more!
Would you do the character of Gmork?”
So, I saw this wolf-like creature and I did this deep voice for himthat was Gmork.
And I said, sure and I did these few lines as the narrator.
That day, Wolfgang got four voices for the price of one and I really loved it.
I just really love that movie.
Especially because he’s a luckdragon, a creature full of positivity and that is very, very friendly.
But on the other hand, he should also have a smile in his voice with warmth.
He really brought to life the last and probably the most important character left, Falkor.
He brought this rich, beautiful, and warm voice.
The way he read those lines was truly unforgettable, just beautiful.
HATHAWAY:Riding Falkor wasn’t as glamorous as you might imagine.
Sometimes, it would overheat, and it would start going out of control probably once every 20 minutes.
It ended up being like riding a bucking bronco.
I just had to hold on for dear life from time to time, but it was fun!
Being a 12-year-old maniac like I was back then, it was a blast.
We had to create all these beings and creatures, build them and animate them mechanically.
For example, with the luckdragon Falkor, he’s this huge creature that we had to build.
You could actually touch it; it was not a computer animation.
It took about 15 people to animate this creature, but they were all invisible, of course.
There was a little monitor they had where they could check their work.
Altogether, they had this concerto grosso of movements with 15 people to bring this creature to life.
This task was very, very unusual and very difficult to coordinate it all.
It was just fascinating to watch that and how that came together.
The actors had to work directly with the creatures.
That’s the special thing aboutThe NeverEnding Storythat gives the whole project its special charm.
It was truly magical.
I’m really so lucky that it wasn’t shot with CGI.
There’s something really charming about the fact that the human hand was really involved in everything.
My only regret from working on the movie is that I never got to ride Falkor.
PETERSEN:Anyone can ride Falkor in Germany, even Tami!
One of the most popular rides in Europe is located in Germany’s Bavaria Film Studios.
An astonishing amount of people go every year and visit the luckdragon.
There’s also some sets from the film available for visits, too.
First of all, we had two identical white horses that played Artax.
They were so beautiful.
It did not go over their head, no horse would ever do that.
It took months to train them.
I’m always asked about this and the rumors aren’t true.
In the film, you never see the horse’s face go into the mud.
It’s really meant to be a sad scene; this was a crucial part of the film.
People always tell me that when that scene comes on, they have to close their eyes.
But yes, the horses were really good, and both were fine.
HATHAWAY:I feel like I sent people to therapy over that scene with Artax.
That’s something unfamiliar for them.
When it got to its chin area, we’d cut the scene.
That one scene took over two and a half weeks.
The real horse never really died.
They were more careful with that horse than they were with me!
I got hurt a hell of a lot more.
The horse was definitely looked after well.
It was scary for a little while; I had a couple of injuries on this movie.
I did a lot of my own stunts; it was just a very physical movie.
But how many kids that are 12 or 13 can even say they experienced something like that?
They gave me one of the horses and a saddle as a wrap gift.
He had the horse for 20-something years.
He sent me an email like 10 years ago letting me know that the horse had just passed.
It had a great and wonderful life.
They had a stable and a ranch in Germany.
The Auryn has magic powers and it’s a beautiful, beautiful prop.
He was a big fan ofDas Bootand we spoke quite a bit on the phone and talked about things.
To thank him for his help, I gave him the Auryn as a gift.
As a result, the American version is seven minutes shorter than the German cut is.
We decided to add music when we decided to take the movie outside of Germany into the world.
We hired [composer] Giorgio Moroder later in the process.
All of a sudden, there was all this added flavor that came from somebody else.
The main thing that Moroder added to the film was the theme song, which I loved.
I couldn’t believe it!
It was just so funny and so amazing.
LIMAHL (singer):The way I got the job onThe NeverEnding Storyis very interesting.
First of all, the producer Giorgio Moroder recorded all the early Donna Summer hits in Munich.
He was Italian and based in Europe before going to America to doFlashdanceandTop Gun.
My manager at the time was an Irish guy with a very feisty personality named Billy Gaff.
He’d managed Rod Stewart during his heyday.
Billy was very charming.
People would say he could sell ice to an Eskimo.
He convinced him that he needed to work with me.
I flew to Munich to record it.
My manager was on the phone just yelling at the guy.
I was really young at the time, only like 23 years old or something.
He played a big part in getting that song out.
He believed in me and told Giorgio about my voice, first of all.
And then he helped convince EMI that the song was a hit.
He was right, too.
1 in almost every country in the world, except America.
The movie came out and it was a hit and the song was too.
I’m telling you, there’s a reason why 35 years later we’re here talking about it.
I mean, what could we do?
The problem from the very beginning was that he just didn’t like the script.
He was a wonderful writer.
The book is really an amazing book.
When it came out, it was really a smash hit, and not only in Germany.
It was truly an unbelievable phenomenon; he was almost like Jesus Christ to them.
And all of that went to his head a little bit, as you’re able to imagine.
The story was sacred to him and you cannot change that.
If I needed to cut something out, he would not understand that.
There were a lot of things that at the time we could not do just yet, technically.
Maybe today it would be different.
He didn’t understand it and he didn’t want to understand it.
Later on, he became so angry that he wanted to take us to court if I remember correctly.
He wanted to go to court to stop the movie, but he didn’t succeed, of course.
He was not our friend; I can tell you that.
Hopefully, he came to enjoy it.
And regarding whether or not I would like to see a reboot…
I like the way the film is, with all its old fashion charmjust leave it alone.
It is such a beloved movie over the decades all over the world.
It’s truly a classic.
I know there are difficulties with the estate and the rights, there’s some litigations going on.
But that’s all I know.
STRONACH:I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
My understanding is that the rights are locked down tight.
It could be wonderful to remake it, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
The whole world is richer when all the people imagine.
I think the film is an invitation to grow the space of making and creating.
OPPENHEIMER:I think they need to leave it alone; it doesn’t need a remake.
The message is, go and change the world, you are important.
You are more important than you think.
you’ve got the option to do anything that you wish.
You have the power.
HATHAWAY:The love that people have for this film is so flattering.
It’s pretty amazing and sometimes even surreal sometimes.
Every couple of months, something pops-up like Peter Griffin riding Falkor and I’m just amazed.
It’s so surreal that a part of me is a part of pop culture.
This movie has a heart, and it’s nice to be a part of something like that.
I meet people at signings that are crying and just want a hug.
It was such a beautiful homage they did.
It wasn’t like some back music; they literally did an homage to the movie which was incredible.
God bless the Duffer Brothers, that was really great.
My girlfriend and I were literally in tears crying when we saw it from laughing so much.
It was such a feel-good scene.
It was so great.
Things are the way they are because we build them that way.
And if we could imagine them differently then we could build them differently.
I think the message of the film is to keep our imagination alive.
