He says he knew he was on the right track when the writing “felt logical even as it seemed insane. As he was shaping the storyline for each Guardian, Joyce felt like he was “reporting in facts,” as though filling in material that simply wasn’t common knowledge yet. The chapter books would expand upon each character’s story, while forging a larger concept of the world that they inhabit together. The picture books would introduce each character in an accessible, highly visual way. That “taming” happened around eight years ago, when the author made the initial decision to divide the series into both picture books and chapter books. “Every bit of mythology that I’d read seemed to spill together in my head.” Eventually, “the beast,” as Joyce calls it, needed taming. In the process of planning the books, Joyce recalls, he drew inspiration from Tarzan, Greek mythology, constellations, folktales, Washington Irving, Hindu epics, and Harvey the rabbit, to name a few sources. The idea to write a series about the origins of Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and other childhood icons began to germinate, but it would be many bedtime stories and more than a decade before the books really took shape. Despite how intimately we think we may know them, Joyce realized that “there wasn’t much mythology to pass on” to his children beyond the basics.

When Joyce responded to his daughter’s question some 16 years ago (“why, yes, Santa does know the Tooth Fairy”), it got him thinking about these legendary childhood figures. The film, which premieres on November 21, is directed by Peter Ramsey and features voice work by Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, and Hugh Jackman, among others, with Joyce and Guillermo del Toro executive producing. An elated Joyce spoke with PW about the upcoming film, Rise of the Guardians, a DreamWorks Animation 3D production based on his Guardians of Childhood series of picture and chapter books. What began with a lost tooth and a challenging question from William Joyce’s daughter (“Does Santa know the Tooth Fairy?”) has since evolved into an epic multimedia project.

Rise of the guardians book series