Katja Brandis Woodwalkers books are a literary fantasy phenomenon in Germany, with over 18 novels. Moviepilot dropped by the set of the film adaptation a year ago.
It’s a summer day in August 2023. A squirrel sits on a rock in the forest and doesn’t move an inch. Which is perhaps because the red ball of fur is a stuffed cuddly toy. There’s even a price tag dangling from its tail. “Squirrels are hard to train,” explains an animal trainer next to me, “if you filmed them here in the forest, they’d run away in five minutes.”
“Here in the forest” is an idyllic piece of nature in the Harz Mountains, north of Blankenburg, where the filming of the first film in the Woodwalkers series, based on the books by Katja Brandis, started a few days ago. In Germany, a country that tends to shy away from genre films, this is finally a major German fantasy project again. And Moviepilot is right in the thick of it.
Harry Potter with animals? Woodwalkers is based on a huge fantasy book series
The Woodwalkers book series by Katja Brandis is about shape-shifters: people who have both a human and an animal form and can switch between the two. To finally meet other shape-shifters, the boy Carag (Emile Chérif) comes to a boarding school for “shifters” – Clearwater High. There he is to learn, among other things, to better control his animal form: a puma. But in addition to classes, there are also plenty of adventures with friends like squirrel shifter Holly (Lilli Falk) and bison shifter Brandon (Johan von Ehrlich) on the program.
What has already been successful with Harry Potter also works here: the Woodwalkers universe with all its offshoots now includes over 20 books that have sold a total of over 2.5 million copies. A second and third film adaptation are already planned.
The squirrel in the forest that day is not real. But the puma that plays Carag’s animal form is. And to witness the birth of a new movie franchise live in the Harz Mountains with this real big cat, Moviepilot was invited to film for a day.
There’s a lot of movie magic involved in shooting the animal transformation scenes
Once you leave the base of the Woodwalkers film set with all the trucks, star caravans and cars full of equipment behind you, a hiking trail leads straight into the German wilderness. But if you follow the path over root-studded terrain into a valley basin, you might just as well believe you have actually ended up in the remote nowhere of the USA. Pine forests like this can also be found in Yellowstone National Park, where the story of Woodwalkers takes place.
The natural backdrop of the Harz Sandstone Caves, with their dune landscape, stands in for the Rocky Mountains in the fantasy adaptation. More specifically, it is the transformation place of the Clearwater High School, where students practice switching between their animal and human forms. Just a few fake, but deceptively realistic-looking rocks were added to the center of this natural arena.
The fake squirrel will not be seen in the finished movie. It is just a placeholder to show the camera where to pan. Later, this transformation scene will be edited together with Holly actress Lilli Falk and a real red squirrel filmed elsewhere. The only reminder of the actress today is a purple T-shirt, which is filmed in the sand. She will only wear it in the finished scene, and then leave it behind after her transformation. After all, squirrels don’t need T-shirts.
The camera team passes the time with little shoots like this. There are generally no actors on set that day. Instead, the cougar is making its big appearance today. If something doesn’t go as planned with him, a lot of the cast would have to be rescheduled as well.
No loud noises: This is how the Woodwalkers shoot with a real cougar
The area of the Woodwalker set was cordoned off with a kilometer-long electric fence. The line producer, who takes me through the guarded barrier, tells me that the puma came from Spain and was brought here several days ago. So he was able to get used to the unfamiliar surroundings and mark his new territory.
The fence is not only supposed to keep curious hikers away, but also to prevent the puma from running away. In principle, I enter a huge animal enclosure: the cave of the (mountain) lion. In advance, everyone present was warned: no sudden movements, no noise and, above all, no food that the animal could smell.
Due to technical difficulties with the cameras and difficult data transmission in the WLAN-less forest, the start of shooting is delayed. Anyone who has been on a film set before knows that hours of waiting are not uncommon. A lot of patience, a lot of chaos and a lot of reacting to the unexpected are part of the filming process. “There’s always some kind of problem,” actor Dimitrij Schaad once said to Moviepilot about the challenges of a film shoot. The actual shooting of a specific scene takes up the least time.
Today there are about 20 people on site, ranging from the cameraman, countless assistants, set coordinators, the VFX man for later visual effects and the line producer to a wide variety of animal trainers. Author Katja Brandis is also visiting on this day and gives me an interview in between in the sandstone cave. But actually everyone is waiting for the puma.
The Woodwalkers puma bites into the safety fence – and I’m standing right behind it
In the afternoon, the time has finally come: the puma is brought on a leash to the sandy hollow. Now everyone has to be quiet. Unlike Woodwalkers main character Carag, the animal is actually a she. Her Spanish name (“Jama”) is pronounced with a raspy hiss at the beginning of the word, as is typical in her country.
From a distance, the big cat is surprisingly small. Nevertheless, for our own safety, we motionless observers were “hidden” behind a one-meter-high fence (for sheep!) in the sandstone caves. We were warned that Jama is curious. And sure enough, despite the distraction maneuvers of her two trainers, the mountain lioness is the first to saunter over to us, to test bite the mesh of the fence. Up until now, I thought the improvised obstacle was electrified. Which apparently is not the case. Suddenly, the elegant, golden animal doesn’t seem so small to me.
A fight scene is on the agenda for Jama today. The transformed Carag attends the fight lessons at his school and, in puma form, takes on his fellow student Berta, who is a bear. Jumps and blows with the paws are to be filmed for this fight. At first, however, it doesn’t look as if the lady puma is particularly keen on performing tricks. She would rather chase a bird that makes the mistake of landing near her. Finally, her handler is able to persuade her to play with a white bag on a rope and a plastic bottle on a fishing rod.
After that, it’s time for the close-ups. In the movie, you should be able to see the magnificent big cat’s whiskers and pointed teeth. Carag may be a likeable main character, but as a cougar, he is at the top of the food chain and no one should forget that a mountain lion is a dangerous predator.
