'Peter Pan' — on the big screen at last

In the past century, J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" has spawned a peanut butter brand, a syndrome for emotionally stunted men and even a popular girl's name. (Remarkably, there were no Wendys before Barrie's play debuted in London on Dec. 27, 1904.)

But outside of a 1924 silent movie, nobody has — until now — mounted a faithful film version of "Pan," a fact that seems to be lost on the general public.

"A lot of people say, 'Wasn't that already done?' " says producer Lucy Fisher. "And you say, 'No, that was "Hook." ' And they go, 'I hated "Hook." ' And you say, 'Well, this isn't "Hook." ' "

No, it isn't. Fisher's "Peter Pan," which she produced with her husband and partner Douglas Wick, remains true (with some minor nods to political correctness and narrative clarity) to Barrie's popular play and book. So where Steven Spielberg worked out his father issues in "Hook" (1991), wallowing in the importance of the "inner child," and Disney aimed its 1953 animated version at the tiny tot set, this new "Pan" has somewhat loftier goals, not to mention an actual boy playing the title character for the first time.

"It's nothing like the cartoon or Spielberg's version," says Jason Isaacs, who plays both Capt. Hook and Mr. Darling in the new film.

" 'Peter Pan' is a great romantic adventure and love story between two kids on the edge of growing up," Isaacs says. "It's not about middle-age men on cell phones. And it doesn't have a menopausal woman slapping on green tights and inviting everyone to sing along. There's a very good reason why it was the 'Harry Potter' of its day and, 100 years later, continues to enchant children all over the world. It's a genius story."

The character of Peter Pan first appeared in Barrie's 1902 adult novel "The Little White Bird." The plot, as we now know it, evolved over time from the stories that Barrie told to the five young boys of Llewelyn Davies. When Davies and her husband died, Barrie became the boys' unofficial guardian, although biographers say he was more like a brother than a father.

The play debuted at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1904 and Barrie continued to refine and expand the text over the next several years, eventually publishing a novel, "Peter and Wendy," in 1911. Freudians have had a field day with the material, given that the heroine, Wendy, travels to Neverland and finds a nightmare version of her father, representing all the scary and seductive aspects of leaving childhood behind.