The whimsical Mr. Anderson

A Genuine Scout Camp

Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) lives in this unusually elaborate tent. ”We did a lot of shooting at a place in Rhode Island called Camp Yawgoog. There are some amazing old buildings, and they have lots of old furniture that looks like it’s made from branches rather than sawn wood. Quite a bit of the stuff in this tent we took from their offices and meeting rooms. It’s an amazing place.”

Books That Should Be Real

These book jackets look so inviting, you might find yourself trying to check them out of the library. Sorry! ”They don’t actually exist. But I thought it would be nice if they felt real. They’re a Madeleine L’Engle-type genre. We had a different artist illustrate the cover for each book. The main thing was to make them vivid, memorable, and mysterious.”

A Painstakingly Created House

The film’s centerpiece home is based on several real structures in Rhode Island, New York State, and other locations. ”The movie is set in a world that’s like a story where people find a secret map in some hidden corner of an attic with secret passages. I thought we could make a place that has that feeling.”

Ravishing Costumes

One of Moonrise Kingdom‘s highlights is a local production of an opera based on Noah’s Ark in which Suzy (Kara Hayward, left) performs. ”I was going to model the animal costumes on the original Benjamin Britten version of Noye’s Fludde, but in the end we did an American sort of school version, which is one that I was in with my older brother [when I was a kid]. I was an otter. My brother was something more horselike. My mother went to our school library and got the pictures, and we just based it all on that.”