Eight things you never knew about The Book Thief

IT’S the gripping war drama that took the box office by storm, starring Australia’s own Geoffrey Rush. Here’s eight interesting facts about the Aussie book turned major motion picture.

IT’S the gripping war drama that took the box office by storm, starring Australia’s very own Geoffrey Rush.

The Book Thief follows a young girl who finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others during the horrors of World War II Germany.

Here’s eight interesting facts you may not have known about the Aussie book turned major motion picture:

* The Book Thief, while based in Nazi Germany, was actually written in Sydney in 2005. The story and its characters sprang from the imagination of Aussie author Markus Zusak whose novel of the same name was published in his locally in 2005 and throughout the rest of the world in 2006.

The Book Thief’s Geoffrey Rush and Sophie Nelisse.

* Zusak rewrote the Book Thief 200 times because he believed it made the writing stronger. It went on to sell eight million copies worldwide, remain on the New York Times bestseller list for almost seven years and be translated into over 30 languages.

* For the famous book-burning scene over 15,000 books were destroyed in the bonfire with over 15 gas jets placed underneath them all to add flames for fiery effect.

* When the filmmakers started casting, they decided to first focus on finding their Liesel. The filmmakers saw almost a thousand candidates for the role. In the end they chose Sophie Nelisse because of her performance in the Canadian movie Monsieur Lazhar.

Sophie Nelisse, Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush in a scene from film The Book Thief.

* They were lucky to snag Nelisse because she had been training in gymnastics since she was four with the ultimate goal of competing in the Rio Olympics. She wouldn’t give up on her dream and only auditioned for the part just for fun, assuming she wouldn’t actually win the role.

* When Nelisse was told she was acting with Emily Watson, she thought they meant Emma Watson from the Harry Potter franchise. She told everyone she would act next to Hermoine until her mother eventually told her that wasn’t the case.

Nico Liersch, Sophie Nelisse and Emily Watson in a scene from film The Book Thief.

* For Geoffrey Rush, the greatest challenge in this production was working with a child. Rush almost didn’t accept the part because he was so reluctant.

* Emily Watson decided to stay in character all day, which meant that in between takes she was still acting as a Nazi woman. It caused her to get into a fight at the airport when she reacted like her character would do at check-in which caused her some problems.

Watch Sophie Nelisse discuss how she researched her role of ‘Liesel’ for the film in the video below.

The Book Thief is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD May 7th 2014.

Originally published as Eight things you never knew about The Book Thief