A real-life quest finally leads to fairy-tale ending

It’s taken the equivalent of a fairy tale quest for Barry Josephson, producer of Disney’s “Enchanted,” to arrive at a happy ending for his live-action/animated musical, which opens Nov. 21.

Ten years ago, Josephson read screenwriter Bill Kelly’s script for “Enchanted” and was taken with the tale of an animated innocent named Giselle who finds herself in the live-action world of contemporary New York after her fiance’s evil stepmother throws her into a magical portal. But after attraction came struggle. “As you know, there have been many different regimes at Disney and all of that impacted it,” says Josephson. “It seemed like a movie they wanted to make and then, for two years, they definitely didn’t want to make it. After many directors touching it and many writers touching it, I said to myself, ‘I’m going back to the original writer.’ ”

A rewrite based on notes from the studio and another draft by writer Rita Hsiao finally got Disney’s green light.

Josephson says he persevered because the high-concept spin appealed to him (he’s a veteran of “Men in Black” and “The Fifth Element”) and because he connected with Giselle’s emotional journey.

“It relates to a lot of things,” he says. “It’s about a girl growing up, honestly, from childhood and being a young adult.”

“Enchanted” stars Amy Adams as Giselle, James Marsden as Prince Edward, Susan Sarandon as the evil Queen Narissa and Patrick Dempsey as a divorced divorce attorney with a young child who falls for Giselle. Kevin Lima, who has directed animated film (“Tarzan”) and live action (“102 Dalmatians”), helmed the project.

-- Susan King