"Charlotte's Web" is a tangled labour of love

NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) E B White envisioned a movie of his novel ''Charlotte's Web'' with real animals behaving realistically. Now, 54 years later, his vision has come to life.

The live-action film version of the classic children's book is true to the original, tugging at the heart and teaching life lessons about mortality, the power of friendship, and the cycle of life.

The cinematic adaptation opens December 15 starring Dakota Fanning as young Fern, and an all-star barnyard community voiced by Julia Roberts (Charlotte), Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, John Cleese and Steve Buscemi (as Templeton the rat).

''E B White talked about making a movie about 'Charlotte's Web', if it could be made realistic with real animals. And I guess that in 2006 we can do that,'' said director Gary Winick.

Stars flocked to the project, a faithful stab at the story of Wilbur, the runt of the litter, who seems destined for slaughter before first being rescued by Fern and later by Charlotte, the spider who lives in the rafters of the barn that is also home to geese, sheep, cows, horse and rat.

Charlotte befriends the young innocent pig and saves him from a butchering by spinning words into her miraculous webs to convince the farmer that Wilbur is ''some pig'' and worth saving.

''I've read the book many times. It is such a classic story,'' said 12-year-old film veteran Fanning. ''Everyone can apply some of the lessons of the film to their life.'' The book, published in 1952, has sold 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It also spawned a 1972 animated, musical feature with Debbie Reynolds voicing Charlotte, Henry Gibson as Wilbur and Paul Lynde doing a delicious turn as the gluttonous rat, Templeton.

Visually beautiful, the new version is set in a timeless New England farming community and was filmed outside Melbourne, Australia.

Despite the familiar story, the jarring effect at first of the voiced-animals, the scary look of the computer-generated Charlotte and the predictable swelling of inspirational music, it is hard to be unmoved by the film.

The project was a labor of love for many in the cast, but turned out to be a tortured task for director Winick, who made his name as a producer and director of low-budget independent films before taking on the challenge.

''When I got the job I said I'm going to be true to the book and I'm going to make it as real as possible,'' Winick said. ''I had no idea about the frustrations and patience that using real animals would entail.'' What was meant to take 14 months of work turned out to be more than double that commitment for Winick, who worked with 47 different pigs covering four different sizes of Wilbur as he grew older in the story.

Producer Jordan Kerner, who conceived the project six years ago, sympathized with Winick. ''It's a calculus that is on some level unimaginable as a director,'' he said, noting that besides needing performances from animals the director had to cope with the worst weather to hit that area of Australia in 156 years.

Winick had to micromanage scenes involving the pigs.

''We shot for 41 days without completing one scene. We went to 27 different scenes because it took so long to get them to do what I wanted. We shot one million, 500,000 feet of film for a 9,000-foot movie. Like 'Apocalypse Now' or something.'' Fanning said she and the rest of the cast felt very much appreciated by Winick once they arrived on set. ''He was happy to work with the actors,'' she said. ''He was so happy to have human contact.'' Editing the film took a year and a half.

''There was a four-month period where I was working 'til midnight every night,'' the director said. ''If I had a family they would have left me a long time ago. I gave up my life for this. I had no idea what I was in for.'' Fanning was happy the director stuck with it. ''I love it. I'm so proud to be a part of it. This one is for everyone.'' Reuters SSC RS0903