Probably a stupid question but....
...why wasn't the 'sonny' character in 'Once were Warriors'. It kinda threw me that suddenly a new son appeared.
Did anyone else think that was strange?
I have no idea... it's really odd. I put it down to bad continuity. Clearly the actor didn't want to sign a new contract up, for whatever reasons.
shareActually, I just looked at the cast list for Once Were Warriers. There isn't a listing for "Sonny". Maybe it's a nickname like "boogie". I think "Sonny" is supposed to be Nig, with unbraided hair and no tats. Maybe?
shareNig is in both films, as is boogie....'tis strange!
shareupon further inspection (god i sound pompous! :P) Sonny is a "new" younger son. He didn't appear at all in the first film, apart from ONCE when Jake says "come and have a feeding sonny" in the beginning, and Sonny (?) walks out. Jake then gets angry, but that's besides the point.
Weirdly enough when I searched around the actor who plays Nig has a nickname of Sonny and is actually credited as Sonny in his filmography. Very odd.
Jake says that to Nig and it is Nig who walks out.
shareJake and Beth had 5 children that appeared in Once Were Warriors, Nig, Grace, Boogie, Polly and Huate. Grace died in the first, Nig died in the second and the other 3 are all accounted for in the credits and were at the funeral of Nig. Sonny seems to have appeared from nowhere...
shareJust a short remark, but Boogie is seen in What becomes of the Broken Hearted in the funeral scene
shareMaybe a sixth child whom just had had enough of Jake's s@#$ and walked out?
shareYeah, Sonny definently appears from no where.
I think Sonnys role in the movie was meant for Boogie but Boogies actor did not want to sign on again (apart from the funeral scene).
Thats my suggestion.
when you read the books,starting with "once were warriors" you find that sonny is a character named abe...he wasnt very much involved in the frst movie, and in the book he is a "young adult" and living away from home.
in the book of "what beomes of the broken hearted", boogie, ie mark heke, is hardly involved as his character has moved on to university... and as for nig heke, well, i found out that julian arahanga, the actor, is my uncle...
Nig died at the end of the first book; Once Were Warriors. And it seems strange that his girlfriend wants to avenge his death in What Become Of The Broken Hearted because she seems to be a real bitch towards him in the novel.
shareAlot of the continuity problems between installments I was told by some insiders in the NZ film community had to do with Alan Duff, the writer of the books taking total screenwriting control on "broken hearted".
I had an opportunity to meet one of the people on the NZ Film Commission who had been on when the original warriors came through for funding. The script had been submitted 3 times under Duff but was deemed too harsh to take to screen. Riwia Brown was brought on board and made adjustments to the story that took it away from the original novel significantly.
Aside from Abe being removed from the story completely. The original story had Jake being accused of Grace's rape, not Bully. Jake didn't remember if he did or not and this is what sent him on his downward spiral into homelessness and despair.
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As earlier stated by someone, Nig died in the end of the first book with Jake and a young tag along he acquired looking on from a distance.
I was told that because the success of the first one was so unexpected that control over the sequel was really squabbled over. Duff, feeling slighted on the first movie, took to writing the script and was backed by Temuera (Jake). With Lee Tamahori gone from the scene the choice was made to bring Ian Mune on to direct which is why Broken Hearted seems more like a made for TV movie then the very cinematic original.
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A few of the scenes I was looking forward to seeing that weren't in the movie were the scene of an aging Jake being harassed on the rugby field by Toot (the homeless friend of Grace in the 1st) and the scene where Polly (younger daughter) goes out searching for her dad. The ending of the series felt so much like an A-Team episode that the investment in Jake as a character seemed very slighted. It seemed the second book was more about his redemption and it just didn't come across very well. Perhaps using this as a learning experience, Alan Duff could turn "One Night Out Stealing" into a worthy screenplay.
sonny is one of the two children crying underneath the bed when Jake goes schizo down stairs in the first one
The two children hudled under the bed in "Once Were Warriors" were Polly (girl) and Huata (boy). The character of Sonny does NOT exist in the first film.
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I felt the character of Sonny should have been the character for Mark "Boogie" Heke. Who knows why the character of Sonny was created for this film.
well since polly and huata didnt make an appearance in the second one either i suppose we can presume they have some relative that the children stay with or somthing (if you really could be arsed that is)
shareBoogie was in both the second and first film - his name is Mark, and you can see him talking to Sonny in the second film. Nig is not Sonny. They are completely different characters.
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