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The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary is a book that delves into the production of the first three live-action Wimpy Kid movies, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules, and Dog Days. Originally released on March 16, 2010, this book offers insights into the inception of Greg Heffley's character, the behind-the-scenes process of creating the entire movie (plus extra pages for the other two), filming locations, and various aspects of movie-making.
The book's cover features a white color scheme, and it contains a special scrapbook section at the end, showcasing scenes from the movies. The book is dedicated to actors Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron, who portrayed Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson, respectively, in the films.
The first edition, released on March 16, 2010, only included the making of the first movie. It also had a few extra pages that were deleted in the future versions.
Later, on February 15, 2011, a re-print of the book was made. It covers the making of both Rodrick Rules and the first movie.
Then, on June 26, 2012, another re-print of the book was made. It covers the making of the original trilogy, which now includes Dog Days.
It's worth noting that unlike the typical Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, this one has a unique texture, adding to the novelty and experience of exploring the world of movie-making with Greg Heffley and his friends.
Description
If you’ve ever wondered how a movie gets made, you’re not alone. Author and illustrator Jeff Kinney didn’t know either, but when his bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series was turned into a live-action movie by 20th Century Fox, he learned how books get adapted for the screen in not one but three major motion pictures.
Complete with photographs, script pages, storyboard sketches, costume designs, and original art by Jeff Kinney, The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary is the perfect companion to the bestselling series.
Synopsis
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
The book starts with Jeff Kinney saying that one day he drew a character named Greg Heffley in January 1998. The next month, Zachary Gordon was born on the other side of the USA. Greg and Zach did not have many things in common back then but 11 years later these two will come together when Zach was cast to play Greg in the live-action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. The ideas for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series was written down in a sketch pad that took four whole years to fill up, then each page was put together into a 1,283-page book that was published online, the following year later an editor decided to publish the book as a printed book. Now, Zachary Gordon is working as an actor in film and television. A few months later, he read the book and told his mom that if someone made the book into a movie, he wanted to play the role of Greg Heffley. A few people in Hollywood were thinking of making Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a movie but with different ideas, eventually, a movie studio came up with an idea that the film should be live-action that worked. While producers, studio executives, and writers work on the screenplay, they were also looking for a director, they finally chose Thor Freudenthal as the director for Diary of a Wimpy Kid because he had interesting ideas on how to adapt the book into a movie and kept a journal with illustrations. The studio then searched for the kid who would play Greg Heffley, and they eventually chose Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley for "nailing" his audition. The studio then cast Robert Capron as Rowley Jefferson.
After Zach and Robert proved they understood their roles in the movie, the producers searched for a place that looked like a typical American town, they settled on Vancouver, Canada because the schools and suburbs looked like a typical American town. Then a crew was hired to operate cameras, design costumes, work with sound and lightning, and basically anyone who is not an actor but is involved in the making of the movie. By the time the studio green-lit the movie, Steve Zahn, Rachael Harris, and Devon Bostick had been cast as Frank, Susan, and Rodrick Heffley. The cast met in Vancouver and got to know each other. More roles in the movie were filled like Harrison Houde as Darren Walsh, Karan Brar as Chirag Gupta, Laine MacNeil as Patty Farrell, Grayson Russel as Fregley, and Connor and Owen Fielding as Manny Heffley. The moviemakers then put a slice of Swiss cheese as the cheese on the blacktop to study the effects of the sun, and the cheese in the final version of the movie was actually computer-generated with a piece of silicone as a starting point then stages of decay was added by the VFX department. After the line producer works on the shooting schedule and the director worked on his own storyboards, the costume designers created costumes for the actors.
The original cover
Location scouts then looked for a school, they chose three schools, Shaughnessy Elementary School was used for its exterior, Van Tech Secondary School was used for its gymnasium, and Templeton Secondary School was used for its classrooms, hallways, and auditorium, all were used to create Westmore Middle School. Graphic designers then created school colors, a mascot and a logo, print materials, fake trophies, posters and student-created artwork, comics, and much more for Mr. Winsky's office. It was time to start filming the first scenes on September 14, along with filming the child actors also learn in a special school created inside a trailer, the child actors also get acting coaches to guide them on acting. Background people called "extras" were added in filming.
For The Wizard of Oz play, everything that had to be done for a real play was done for the one in the movie. In the scene where Manny says Bubby, it was complicated. The producers said Bubby over and over, hoping one of the twins would catch on, and Owen did 10 Bubbys. They earned Tootsie Rolls for their efforts.
The second version of the cover
The Mother and Son Sweetheart Dance wasn't in the book. The reason the scene was written was to add emotional firepower to help tell the story. Most of the mother and son pairs were real-life moms and sons, which made it awkward. The person playing Rowley's mom wasn't an actor - it was Kaye Capron. Robert and Kaye practiced a dance routine with a choreographer for a week. The scene where Collin gave Rowley an ice-cream cone was one of the hardest scenes to film. It was hot in the gym, and the ice cream was kept 100 feet away from where the actors were standing. As soon as Thor yelled action, a prop man made 2 ice cream cones as fast as possible and handed them to Collin as soon as he came in the scene.
Rodrick Rules (2011)
Diaper explodes all in your face!
A new and updated version of the book was released on February 15, 2011. The new edition has a few pages of how the second movie, Rodrick Rules, was created. It includes pictures from the movie, and behind the scenes pictures. In behind the scenes, This edition starts off talking about the success of the first movie, so the film team started working with the sequel. Most of the actors came back but there's new actors such as Fran Kranz (Bill Walter) and Peyton Roi List (Holly Hills). We also learned that Zachary Gordon (Greg Heffley) secretly pinned clothes pegs on crew member's backs, so as revenge, after Zach's last recording the whole crew give him a piece of his own medicine.
These extra features are at the very end of the book. The cover of the book is the same, except it has a blue circle with Rodrick's head in it above the cheese. "How Greg Heffley went [to] Hollywood" is also above Greg's head instead of below him.
Dog Days (2012)
The dog acts up.
In the month of July, a Dog Days edition of the Movie Diary was released. It includes extra pages with behind-the-scenes for the third movie. It also features a new cover representing Greg touching the Cheese in the first film.
Trivia
- According to the first Movie Diary, Kinney said that Greg was originally a made-up stick figure character that he used to like to doodle.
- He also said that he gave Greg his name because his mom wanted to have another son named Gregory, but she never did.
- This is the second book to not have Greg appear on the character page. However, Zach Gordon appears instead.
- The Rodrick Rules edition only had 15 pages added due to the fact they had to do the same stuff they did in production for the first film. However, the edition also had one removed.
- The Dog Days version has 32 new pages added due to the fact that Dog Days has more slapstick.
Goofs/Errors
- The cover says “How Greg Heffley went Hollywood”, however it’s supposed to be “How Greg Heffley went to Hollywood”.
- In the first book it states that because of Halloween and Thanksgiving are celebrated, the book series is set in the United States. But Halloween is celebrated in other countries, too.
- On page 147, there is a comma before a quotation mark.
- On the copyrights page at the beginning, the Rodrick in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" is spelt "Roderick".
- On page 33, Rachael's right leg is not colored in. Zach is also crossing the foul line.
Deleted Pages
Greg Heffley, Movie Star
The original version had two pages about the photos taken in Greg's day-dream about being on magazine covers and in newspapers. These were removed in the next two versions.
