THOMASVILLE — From finding one’s gifts to bringing the book “The Tiger Rising” to life to being made feel welcome, the team behind the movie “The Tiger Rising” held a meet-and-greet and question-and-answer session Sunday at the Thomasville Center for the Arts.

Shooting on “The Tiger Rising” is expected to wrap in Thomasville this week, though more production work remains. The idea for the film began 10 years ago, screenwriter and director Ray Giarratana said.

His background was in comedy and he was asked if he was interested in adapting something for the screen. He was handed the book, written by Kate DiCamillo. Giarratana was familiar with DiCamillo’s “Because of Winn-Dixie.”

“I immediately connected with the humidity in the woods. I could feel the sawgrass where this was taking place,” he said. “I really connected with the way Kate wrote every page of this. Every word is meant to be there, and there’s no extra.”

Though the movie centers around two 12-year-olds, both having recently suffered a loss and heartbreak, “we’re not making a kids’ movie,” said Giarratana, who also has worked on “John Wick Chapter 3” and “Captain America: Civil War.” 

“We’re trying to make a family film that is universal because the story is universal,” he said. “What I think Kate did wonderfully is she told a human story through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy. We all feel hurt and loss. It was important for us to show it in a bigger picture. This is dealing with heavy subject matter and there are not a lot of movies like this because it doesn’t fit into a box. It doesn’t fit into a superhero box, it doesn’t fit into a comedy box.”

“But it’s universal,” said Giarratana.

DiCamillo said home to her is connections.

“Stories are a way for me to find my way home and a way to find community,” she said. “I feel there is so much happiness and joy in the books too. Life is both things and I think we do a disservice to kids if we pretend that life is only good things. It is hard to be here but it is a gift to be there and we need to make art that tells them that.”

Giarratana asked the audience if they had read a book and then gone to see the movie based on the work, only to leave disappointed.  

“We’ve been all to movies and we’ve read the book and we go ‘they messed it up,’” he said, “and that bothers me a lot. We have to make a book into a movie. The two are not the same. It’s like saying I have a house and I want to make an airplane just like it. 

“An author can tell you how a character is feeling. In a movie, we have to show you that.”

He also said he approached capturing DiCamillo’s voice in the book “with fear and trembling.”

In the book, 12-year-old Rob and his father relocate to rural Florida motel, following the death of the boy’s mother. There, his imagination takes off and he spots a Bengal tiger the motel owner, played by Dennis Quaid, is keeping in the woods. He meets a girl, Sistine, and there is also the wise motel maid Willie May, played by Queen Latifah.

Deborah Giarratana, one of the movie’s producers, noted they visited Thomasville three years ago during Victorian Christmas and they were charmed by the town. 

“We felt like we were home,” she said. 

“And we’re city folks, too,” Ray added. 

Deborah Giarratana said they could sense the feeling of community as they made their way through the town.

“We wanted to come back,” she said. “That was a big part of it too — we could sense your heart, sense your soul. You wanted us here.”

Filming also is taking place in Tifton, and producer Ryan King said the cast and crew have loved both cities and both communities have embraced the project.

“It has been amazing, the reception,” he said. “It’s important that we treat the community in the right way. One of the most exciting things is having our crew embraced by the community. 

“Thomasville has been so good to us. And Tifton has embraced us. All of South Georgia has grabbled hold of our team,” King added. “Both communities have grabbed hold and loved on our teams and we’re so, so very thankful.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.