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Tales from A conservative, corporate lawyer, Michael Bux has his hands very full when he moves back into the family house to take care of his son Bastian, after the boy's mother, Laura, dies in a car accident. "He and Laura had separated a year before the accident. He was always a provider and used to see Bastian every other weekend, but he wasn't really around much for his son," explains Noel Burton who portrays Michael Bux. "All of a sudden he has to learn to be a housekeeper and bring up his child." At first they eat hotdogs and make a mess in the kitchen but gradually father and son learn to put a meal together and to keep the house tidy. But when Bastian begins to see his mother's ghost, Michael decides to put the house up for sale. This does not comfort Bastian one bit. It just makes him more upset. In his imagination, the real estate broker, April, becomes an agent of evil, one of Xayide's devilish emissaries from the Dark City of Fantasia. "Luckily Michael is not completely out of whack. He wakes up in time to see that the house means a lot to Bastian and he doesn't sell it," says Burton. But April becomes a lingering problem. Even after the house is off the market, she stays around because she's taken a fancy to Bux. "She's an attractive young woman and Michael falls for her flirtations because he's lonely," Burton explains. "But again, Michael is blind and does not see that she is deliberately trying to stir things up and trying to get Bastian and Michael on opposites sides." And Michael does not know what Bastian knows: April is after "The Neverending Story" book and will do anything to take it from him. Michael is very straight and awkward around Bastian. One reason for that is the large age gap between them. He is 40 years older than Bastian. "My own father was 42 years older than I was. In the 1960's, when it was fashionable to have long hair and wear bell-bottom pants, he had short hair and wore conservative ties. I am very conscious of what it is like to have an older, more rigid father," Burton explains. Like his son, Michael grows and changes as The Neverending Story unfolds. Burton explains: "Michael had been weighed down by the separation from Laura, by living alone and by the feeling that he was getting old. Her death is a crisis for Michael. It's a wake-up call to reality. He gradually unwinds and becomes less tense with Bastian. He starts to feel and act younger as he gets more and more involved in Bastian's life." Among Burton's numerous television credits are The Sign of Four, PT. Barnum, Varian's War, Misguided Angels, Lassie, Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and The Doris Duke Story. Some of his feature credits include Lost and Delirious, Terrified, Battlefield Earth and The Art of War. Burton also works in French-language films and television.
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