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On Stranger Tides: Beyond the Trilogy

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 9:11 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Beyond the Trilogy

“When three films together bring in $2.6 billion dollars worldwide, you understand pretty quickly that a message is being sent to you by audiences,” notes Producer Jerry Bruckheimer of the international response to the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, subtitled “The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003), “Dead Man’s Chest” (2005) and “At World’s End” (2007).

“The numbers are wonderful,” Bruckheimer continues, “but what’s even better is that they tell you something of what these films have meant to moviegoers. Audiences fell in love with the pirate genre all over again after an absence of some three decades, and they certainly fell head over heels for Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow! There are more adventures for Captain Jack to take on, and our screenwriters, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, had already created a whole world to explore.”

And exploring that world is just what the audience will do when they travel with Captain Jack on his action-packed journey to the legendary Fountain of Youth. When Jack crosses paths (and swords) with the enigmatic Angelica (Penélope Cruz), a ravishing pirate with whom he shares a dubious past, she forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship belonging to the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane).

Finding himself a prisoner on an unexpected journey to the fabled fountain, Jack must use all his wiles to deal with the barbarous Blackbeard and his crew of zombies, Angelica, who can—and will—match him wit for wit and sword for sword, and beautiful, enchanting mermaids whose masterful cunning can lure even the most seasoned sailor to his doom.

Johnny Depp, who had fallen unabashedly in love with the character of Captain Jack Sparrow over the course of the first three films, was certainly game for another new adventure. “The idea of a fourth one after finishing ‘Pirates 3’ was somewhere in the back of your head, thinking, ‘I sure hope so,’” notes Depp.

“When you’re done playing Captain Jack, there’s a real decompression getting out of that skin, because I like being in that skin,’ says Depp. “There’s a great comfort in playing Captain Jack, because you have license to be completely irreverent, completely subversive, absolutely abstract in all situations. I know him so well that it just comes naturally.” Depp adds, “I was very happy with the work that Ted and Terry did on the screenplay for ‘On Stranger Tides.’ It was like the gates were reopened and it was all fresh. It really felt closer in spirit to the first film, getting from Point A to Point D to Point Z without too many subplots and complications.”

Depp was also enthusiastic to work for a fourth time with Jerry Bruckheimer, who had guarded the actor’s wholly original vision of Captain Jack Sparrow when the first film began to shoot. “We wouldn’t have been able to get away with a third of what we got away with on ‘Pirates 1’ without Jerry Bruckheimer,” states the actor. “Without Jerry’s support, and his understanding of the material, saying, ‘Okay, I know that some people are scared but this sure seems funny to me, why don’t we go with it,’ the first film would have been much more generic, not much fun, and I would have been fired!

“Jerry knows these films well,” continues Depp. “I’ve been in umpteen script meetings with the guy, and never a false note comes up; he always comes up with something interesting. And if you’re in a pinch, he’s always the guy who says, ‘Don’t worry about it; we’ll get it taken care of.’ Jerry really produces; he’s untamed all the time and allows us to be in an atmosphere that’s conducive to making something interesting and different. There have never been pressures in that regard; it’s always sort of, you know, ‘Bruckheimer’s got it.’ You know he’s handling it. It’s cool.”

Bruckheimer notes, “At this point, Johnny is the most popular actor in the world, one of the best actors in the world, and certainly the most committed and hard-working. He’s somebody you love working with, because every day, he comes on the set with a smile, ready to go to work and have a great time, yet work very hard.”
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Joining Johnny: The Cast Assembles

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 9:05 am {no comments}

Joining Johnny: The Cast Assembles

Jerry Bruckheimer, Rob Marshall, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio all knew the great benefits of developing new characters and continuing the arcs of pre-existing ones, but what was clear from the get-go was that Captain Jack Sparrow would remain, as ever, the once and future Captain Jack Sparrow.

“Well, you know,” adds Rossio, “Jack Sparrow is one of those characters who doesn’t change; the audience doesn’t want him to change, and I don’t want him to change. Instead, he affects change in the characters around him.”

Indeed, that aspect of the film was just one of the lures for Penélope Cruz, an Academy Award–winning star of international repute, as well as the notion of reuniting with Johnny Depp, with whom she had previously appeared in “Blow” some years ago. And it didn’t hurt that Cruz was already an admirer of the entire franchise. “I’m a very big fan of the first three movies,” she confesses, “and of what Johnny did in those movies. This is a great adventure for any actor to be a part of. It’s an adventure every day; you can never be bored.”

Marshall had worked with Penélope Cruz before, on “Nine” in 2009, and they have become close friends. He admits that when he first mentioned the idea to Cruz of taking the role of Angelica in “On Stranger Tides,” he wasn’t sure how the Oscar®-winning actress would react.

“I saw Penélope in that role immediately,” he says. “I couldn’t think of anybody else. It had to be an actress who could go toe-to-toe with Johnny and match him on every level. There had to be a sensuality to the character; there had to be humor, strength—a female pirate who is as smart, crafty and as clever as Jack Sparrow. Angelica needed to be all those things and, honestly, Penélope was the only choice.

“I remember asking Penélope when we were in a restaurant in London,” says Marshall. “John DeLuca, executive producer, and I took her to dinner and I didn’t bring it up until the end of the meal and I kept thinking, ‘I wonder whether she will be interested…’ And I tentatively said, ‘Penélope, would you ever be interested in the idea of doing “Pirates”…’ and I didn’t even finish the words. She jumped up—in the restaurant—and screamed, ‘I would love to!’

“You see this with great actors; they want variety in their careers and they don’t want to play the same thing over and over. She was so thrilled, as I was, at the idea of doing a classic pirate adventure, a film that’s for families as well as everyone else. This was something completely different for her, and she embraced it,” says Marshall.

For Cruz, it was a reunion with both Depp and Rob Marshall, who directed her in “Nine,” for which she received an Academy Award® nomination. “Two of the greatest experiences I’ve had working with people in this industry were with Johnny and Rob,” says Cruz. “Rob can handle huge amounts of pressure and always be a gentleman to everybody. He’s a very special human being, and I think anyone you ask will tell you the same thing. Johnny and I really loved working together 10 years ago, and I’m so happy to be around him again. He’s so humble, smart and one of the funniest people I know. His talent is incredible, and he’s another gentleman, like Rob. The more you work in this business, you just want to be around nice people, and they are on the top of the list for that.”

“Angelica had a relationship in the past with Jack Sparrow, but he betrayed her and broke her heart,” explains Cruz. “Now she enjoys looking for revenge. I think she’s still in love with him, but she cannot admit it, not even to herself, that she still has these feelings. Angelica has the mind of a pirate, the daughter of the biggest and most dangerous pirate of all time, and she’s a great manipulator, a great liar and a great actress in life. She can really trick people, but she’s a very clean soul with a good heart. Her main purpose in life is to try and help her father. Angelica has hope that she can save him, repair all the damage that he’s done. And she needs Jack Sparrow, as he needs her, to get to the Fountain of Youth, where Angelica hopes to save her father’s soul.”

“It’s a kind of fevered love which is also beyond hatred,” says Johnny Depp of Captain Jack and Angelica’s relationship. Notes Geoffrey Rush, “Having Penélope on the film is absolutely fantastic, because I’ve always felt that it would be great for there to be a wild, erratic, deeply attractive, sexy female pirate that’s Jack Sparrow’s match. She’s fiery, very feisty and very precise in her work.”

For the challenging role of history’s most notorious pirate, Bruckheimer and Marshall turned to an actor whose remarkable career in film and television—which has now spanned nearly 50 years—has been hotter than ever since his thunderously acclaimed performance as Al Swearengen in HBO’s western series “Deadwood.” “Ian McShane is a consummate actor,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer. “He’s brilliant and he’s done it all. He’s won all kinds of accolades for his acting ability, and that makes it so much more fun for a director and for an audience to see people who are the best at their craft.”

Adds Marshall, “Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer and I sat down with a large list of actors, and when we went through the list and we got to Ian McShane, it was immediately clear that he was Blackbeard. He can play something evil, but there’s always humor behind it as well. He just has his own fresh take on things.”

“Blackbeard is probably the most infamous pirate who ever lived,” notes McShane. “There’s a legion of stories about him, and whether they’re true or not, he’s now part of pirate mythology. I was impressed by the script, which is very funny and charming.”

McShane was also keen to work with Rob Marshall, noting that “I think the phrase to describe Rob would be ‘charmingly relentless,’ which is a great quality if you’re directing a huge movie like this. Rob has a steely determination combined with an honest, personal charm, which is great.”

“The beauty of the character of Blackbeard,” reflects Johnny Depp on Captain Jack’s nemesis in ‘On Stranger Tides,’ “is that, on the surface, he seems to be a rational man. But then, the more you get to know him, the more you realize he’s a stone-cold killer without an ounce of heart. He would screw over anyone and everyone to get to his objective, which is what makes him so dangerous. And I don’t think there’s a better choice than Ian McShane, certainly, to play him.”

Penélope Cruz was anxious to explore the very unorthodox father-daughter dynamic between Blackbeard and Angelica. “Angelica doesn’t want to admit that she cannot trust her father. “She cannot confront that, she cannot accept it. It’s too painful for her, so she keeps finding justifications for everything he does. She keeps fighting him so that he would stop killing. She wants to give him a chance to change and keeps fighting for that. Her mission is to change her father, and she cannot confront the fact that she can’t trust him.”

On Stranger Tides: Returning Actors

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 8:57 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Returning Actors

Returning for the fourth time as Hector Barbossa is Geoffrey Rush, who in the previous “Pirates” films had created one of the most wickedly beloved characters of the series. “I was very excited when I heard that there was going to be a fourth film because I love working with Johnny,” says Rush. “I find the Jack Sparrow-Barbossa ongoing conflict very delightful to engage in. And Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio seem to constantly come up with something new. You know, I thought that after the first three—in which they’d explored every possibility from the world of swashbuckling, including buried treasure, the Aztec curse, and big, Wagnerian dimensions of sea monsters, gods and goddesses, and the East India Trading Company—that there would be nothing else left about the Golden Age of Piracy, or the mythology associated around it, for them to write about. But I hadn’t thought about Blackbeard… or mermaids!

“The other thing that is very pleasing to me as an actor,” continues Rush, “is that Barbossa has been increasingly revealed in each successive film. And in ‘On Stranger Tides,’ by the very fact that, deep in his nature, Barbossa is a very calculating survivor, he’s got himself onto what he thinks is a very satisfying pension plan: because he’s not getting any younger, he’s joined forces with King George and has become a privateer. In the third film, he had already revealed more of his devious, self-serving politician-type qualities, and not just being a mangy, old pirate.”

“Even when Captain Jack and Barbossa are on the same side,” notes Johnny Depp, “they’re always on opposite sides somehow. I always felt like these two characters bicker like a couple of old housewives at a bridge club, just picking each other apart by the tiniest little morsel and detail. That’s how Geoffrey and I have approached it from day one, and he’s most definitely a worthy opponent. Geoffrey is a fantastic actor, who’s constantly investigating the possibilities of a scene. It’s always fresh, always new, always interesting with Geoffrey.”

Geoffrey Rush adds, “Let’s just say that Jack and Barbossa think of themselves as an old married couple. If these two could actually collaborate and not lock horns all the time, they would be the most fantastic, unstoppable team. But they’re worlds apart because Barbossa is purely a strategic thinker, but not the brightest person, I should think. Jack bobs along the river of life, improvising, taking huge daring risks which always pay off for him, even if he’s being blown from one ship to another. He always lands and ends up looking like Bugs Bunny leaning against the mast. And it will ever thus be so, so that’s a really fantastic actorial dynamic to engage with.”

Also returning to the “Pirates” fold, as classic sea salt Joshamee Gibbs, is Kevin R. McNally, now a veteran of all four “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. “When they came and asked me to do another ‘Pirates’ film,” McNally confesses, “I was surprised, because all those years ago when we started, I never, for a moment, thought we’d still be making them! It’s a real thrill, because it’s very rare in features that you get a chance to revisit characters and have a look at them again, particularly when you’ve got writers who are very keen to bring out some new aspects to the characters and not just trot out the same stuff time and again. It’s a wonderful, exciting plot that Mr. Gibbs is involved with from the beginning, which is really enjoyable.”

On Stranger Tides: The New and Fresh Characters

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 8:32 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: The New and Fresh Characters

To portray the two younger leads of the story—the beautiful and enigmatic mermaid Syrena and stalwart missionary Philip Swift—Bruckheimer and Marshall, along with U.S. Casting Director Francine Maisler and U.K. Casting Directors Lucy Bevan and Susie Figgis, embarked on a classic worldwide talent search. Selected from thousands of candidates were France’s Astrid Bergès- Frisbey and England’s Sam Claflin, both in their early 20s and with some experience in their respective countries (Bergès-Frisbey, of French/Spanish parentage, had appeared in films both in France and Spain), but as yet unproven on an international level.

“That was a real search because we were looking for fresh faces— new, young actors,” Marshall says. “We looked everywhere. We saw candidates in Europe and in the States too. It was a long process, involving hundreds of actors. But as it came down to the final few, it became pretty clear who stood out. Sam is a marvelous actor and handsome as well, but he’s also so fully rounded—he has humor, is as charming as can be, and is incredibly physical too; he’s actually a really good football [soccer] player. Astrid is playing a mysterious mermaid in the film, and we were looking for someone otherworldly. We saw that immediately in Astrid—she had this ethereal quality. She is incredibly grounded and very true, and so beautiful as well. And when we finally put the two of them together, we knew it was right.”

Adds Jerry Bruckheimer, who knows a thing or two about discovering new talent, “Astrid had already done some wonderful work in both French and Spanish films, and has a radiant beauty and is very soulful as well. Sam was a very recent drama-school graduate in London, classically trained, very handsome, and had already had major roles in two big television miniseries, ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ and ‘Any Human Heart.’ Astrid and Sam both did screen tests that excited us enormously. We just knew that they both had what it takes to make a major impression on the big screen and were proven more than right in that regard.”

“I play a missionary named Philip Swift who stands up for what he believes in and tries to right Blackbeard’s wrongs,” notes Claflin. “In the course of the story, Philip goes through a surprising journey, especially when he meets Syrena. He’s never really had any contact with women, so that’s quite a turn of events, to say the least.”

Bergès-Frisbey was just as gobsmacked as Sam Claflin when she learned of her selection to star in the newest “Pirates of the Caribbean” epic. “I couldn’t believe I was part of it until I arrived in Kauai for the first fitting,” she admits. “Syrena is different from the other mermaids because, in the story, she connects to the human characters, which changes her. Philip changes Syrena, and Syrena changes Philip because, from the first moment, they see in the other something similar to themselves. Syrena is different to the other mermaids as Philip is different to the other humans. He’s a really good person, and Syrena responds to him differently than to other sailors and pirates, who are at war with the mermaids.”

Before filming, Bergès-Frisbey set forth on researching the legend and lore of mermaids. “From the time of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey,’ everywhere in the world, there are myths about mermaids,” she notes, “seducing with their charm and then killing sailors. Then these myths began to change in the 19th century when Hans Christian Andersen wrote ‘The Little Mermaid,’ which was a more romantic view. That’s now become more common, especially with the Disney animated film of that story and other films like ‘Splash.’ I think that Syrena is a link between the frightening older stories and the more romantic, recent versions of mermaids.”

During the entire two months of filming in Hawaii, Bergès-Frisbey—in order to retain the pale complexion that a mermaid must have, living as they do mostly underwater—was not permitted to have fun in the sun. “I had to live like a vampire,” laughs Bergès-Frisbey, “staying indoors during the day and only able to come out at night!”

The remainder of the huge cast was assembled from a pool of renowned international talent which included Great Britain’s Stephen Graham, who had worked with Depp on Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” as the scrappy Scrum. “My character was originally from the Greenwich area of London,” notes Graham, “a true sailor who’s been out to sea since he was a kid. I kind of think of Scrum as being like the Artful Dodger of the pirate world, always looking for something to do, always with his hand in something. He’s always looking for another way to make more money, or go on another adventure. Scrum is a great, fun character to play, and after playing a few psychos lately, it’s great to be able to let all that go and just really enjoy myself.”

Joining the company were other distinguished international actors, including Richard Griffiths, Roger Allam, Greg Ellis and Damian O’Hare (the latter two repeating their earlier roles as Groves and Gillette), and 15-year-old Robbie Kay, the first kid to portray a pirate in the series; Spain’s Oscar Jaenada and Juan Carlos Vellido; Japan’s Yuki Matsuzaki; and Australian supermodel Gemma Ward as the mermaid Tamara.

Also returning to the “Pirates” fold is Keith Richards, legendary guitarist of The Rolling Stones, once again portraying Captain Teague. Depp, who has openly stated that Richards was one of his key inspirations for Captain Jack Sparrow, says, “After having Keith on the third film, I knew that he had to come back. I spoke to Jerry and the screenwriters early on, and everyone agreed. The global reaction to Keith’s presence as Captain Teague was monumental. Keith was more than ready to come back, as long as it made sense within the context of the story. I thought the way Ted and Terry handled it was wonderful, because yet again, he comes in just at the right moment.

“He’s a fascinating man, you know,” continues Depp. “I’ve known him for a long time, and to get periods like that where it’s just him and me hanging out, sitting around in the trailer yakking about music, movies, whatever, was a real pleasure.”

“Johnny was the engineer,” adds Richards. “He said to me, ‘Are you in?’ And I said, ‘Just give me the rig, baby.’ It’s so much fun.”

Rob Marshall was also thrilled to be working with the rock legend. “He is a very sweet man and very funny, very self-deprecating,” says the director.

“After we shot his scene, I said, ‘Keith, that was fantastic. I’m so impressed.’ And he said slyly, ‘You should see my Hamlet.’ It was a joy to work with him, because he’s such fun. He’s terrific in the movie and Johnny adores him. They have this amazing chemistry.”

On Stranger Tides: The Visual World

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 8:15 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: The Visual World

“We definitely want to take the audience on a journey beyond and different than what they’ve seen in the previous ‘Pirates’ movies,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer. “With ‘On Stranger Tides,’ we have the great director of photography Dariusz Wolski, who has done all three previous ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films and, this time, works for the first time in digital 3D. We also have a brilliant Academy Award®–winning production designer, John Myhre, who was brought in by Rob Marshall, and we’ve filmed in all-new locations ranging from Hawaii to the Caribbean to London.”

For Myhre, the task to design the fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” epic was literally a dream come true. “Pirates of the Caribbean is just my favorite ride at Disneyland. I think I’ve been on the ride every year since it opened in 1967. I grew up in Seattle, but my family came down once a year to Disneyland.”

As soon as Rob Marshall was announced as director for “On Stranger Tides,” Myhre admits that he “literally started jumping around my living room like an 8-year-old boy.” The reason was that he had already collaborated with Marshall on all three of the director’s previous features, winning Oscars® for his dynamic re-creation of the Jazz Age in “Chicago” and an astounding evocation of Kyoto, almost entirely on California locations, for “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

Before filming began, Marshall, his longtime collaborator John DeLuca and Production Designer Myhre went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride but, this time, were able to stop and examine details as research for “On Stranger Tides.” “Rob and I are both fans of all the previous ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies,” notes Myhre, “but it’s fun to come in with a new creative team, because you have a chance to shake things out and bring your own thoughts to it. We wanted to bring a certain theatricality to ‘On Stranger Tides,’ which is very character-driven. We’re also expanding the ‘Pirates’ world by opening the film in London of the mid-1700s, then moving on to the islands, jungles and beaches of the Caribbean.”

Explains Myhre, “The film kind of divides into three chapters: the opening in London, the middle section on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and the last third is a trek through the jungle in search of the Fountain of Youth. Looking for those thick, dense, gorgeous jungles brought us to Kauai and Oahu in Hawaii, then a huge set for the mermaid sequence in Los Angeles, on to Puerto Rico for a tiny island and historic Spanish fort, and finally to the United Kingdom for London exteriors and a large number of sets built at Pinewood Studios.”

Joining Myhre to manifest ideas, concepts and dreams into three-dimensional reality were Set Decorator Gordon Sim, who shared his Academy Award® for “Chicago” and nomination for “Nine,” U.S. Supervising Art Director Tomas Voth, U.K. Supervising Art Director Gary Freeman, and a huge team of designers, draftsmen and artists on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the “Pirates” shoot.

On Stranger Tides: The Look of the Characters

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 8:10 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: The Look of the Characters

Captain Jack Sparrow, Angelica, Hector Barbossa, Blackbeard, Gibbs, Philip, Syrena and about a thousand other characters in “On Stranger Tides” represent a synergistic collaboration of (first and foremost) the actors who portray them and then the filmmakers and dozens of others who contribute to their wardrobe, hair, makeup and props.

The estimable Penny Rose, for the fourth time, combed the globe to appropriately costume not only the protagonists and supporting players of “On Stranger Tides,” but the hundreds of extras as well. Says Jerry Bruckheimer, “The devil is in the details, and Penny is as obsessed with the tiny elements as she is with the big picture. There’s really nobody else like her in her very specialized field.”

A creative hurricane, the British-born, multilingual Rose, along with her key associates (primarily Associate Costume Designer John Norster and Assistant Costume Designer Margie Fortune), left no detail unattended to. “When you’ve already done three,” says Rose, “there’s a kind of familiarity and a great sense of fun about doing a fourth. But we’ve got some new ingredients.”

In a pirate movie, dealing with water on a daily basis as well as a lot of stunts, results in a huge costume-manufacturing undertaking. Rose had 700 costumes made in Rome for all the background players. The busy bootmaker and hatmaker were also based in Italy.

Explains Rose, “I can’t ever have two pirates standing together in the same fabric or the same coat in the same color, so we go to Florence and buy 1,700 different fabrics. Our buttons come from a funny little shop in Paris, and I think, in one morning, we chose 4,800 buttons because I don’t want anyone to have the same buttons as somebody else. A very clever guy with a foundry makes our buckles, and since he also makes beautiful leather wares, he makes some of our belts and baldricks. Most of the pirate sashes are made with thin, Madras-style Indian cottons. We have a dye shop and try to use vegetable and fruit dying so that it looks authentic for the period. Then a lot of pieces go into the cement mixer with a few stones to break them down and age them properly. Then we take cheese graters and other methods to them to break them down even more. We wreck costumes for a living here.

“But the costumes are constructed absolutely authentically,” insists Rose. “There are no modern gimmicks within them. You’ll find no zippers or Velcro on these costumes!”

Since, as Johnny Depp put it, “…old Captain Jack found himself long ago,” there was little need to tamper too much with the character’s now-iconic look. Yes, his dreadlocks have gotten longer, some have grayed, others lightened by the relentless sun of the Caribbean. And yes, somewhere along the line, he’s acquired a mysterious “x” scar on his left cheek and a gold tooth embedded with a black pearl (replacing one which is now dangling from his bandana). But the fundamental look established in “The Curse of the Black Pearl” is essentially intact.

“There is something special about creating a costume that is now worn by kids everywhere on Halloween,” says Penny Rose, “but I really can’t take credit, can I? I mean, it’s Mr. Depp’s rendering of Captain Jack that’s caught the imagination of everybody. We do have a new blue vest for Captain Jack, though,” she adds. “We thought the vest was a bit boring, and maybe Jack had stolen something along the line, so he’s got a very nice silk vest now. And we have 80 of Captain Jack’s head scarves, because we never want to run out.
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On Stranger Tides: Onto London and Back in Time

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 8:05 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Onto London and Back in Time

“One of the most exciting aspects of ‘On Stranger Tides,’” says Jerry Bruckheimer, “is that, for the first time, we have a London setting for part of the story, rather than the jungles, oceans and colonial outposts of the Caribbean. It really gives the film an entirely different look and feeling.”

Although the venerable Pinewood Studios outside of London would provide John Myhre, U.K. Supervising Art Director Gary Freeman and their mammoth art department with a gigantic playground in which to build their sets, some of the region’s most heralded historical buildings and other sites would also host the “On Stranger Tides” production. So ambitious was the effort to create the physical world of the film, the U.K. art department for the film numbered six art directors, five draftsmen and concept, graphic and storyboard artists. Construction Manager Andy Evans’ department included 62 carpenters, 29 painters, 71 plasterers, 36 riggers and 14 sculptors…not surprising when one considers that the production built huge sets on five different Pinewood soundstages, including the 007 Stage, the largest such facility in Europe, and a large exterior backlot set as well.

The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England, is an extraordinary collection of historic buildings dating from the late 17th to the mid 18th centuries—with its own piratical connections—which essentially became a backlot for more than three weeks of filming. The building standing in for the Old Bailey courthouse in the film is actually Sir Christopher Wren’s magnificent Painted Hall, which was partially financed with funds confiscated by the Crown from Captain Kidd’s booty after he was hung at Execution Dock across the Thames from the complex in Blackwall.

During actual filming, a huge blue screen was situated, with the image of Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral and sailing ship masts “painted” in by artists from Visual Effects Supervisor Charles Gibson’s department. “We needed a really wonderful opening establishing shot of deep in the heart of London,” notes John Myhre, “so we used the lower level of the buildings of the Old Royal Naval College for our extras, carriages and horses, but everything above the first level painted in through visual effects.” This included replacing the Painted Hall’s weathervane with a digital re-creation of Lady Justice, who strides atop the Old Bailey, holding a sword in one hand, the scales of justice in the other. A scene was actually filmed inside of Wren’s Painted Hall of Captain Jack being unceremoniously dragged through the entrance hall of St. James Palace by Royal Guards.

A huge swath of the Old Royal Naval College, including the exteriors of the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, Grand Square, Queen Mary Court and buildings which currently house the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music, were also utilized for the film’s thrilling carriage-chase sequence. Completely obscuring the modern pavement were copious amounts of realistic mud, with more than 500 costumed extras, 25 period carriages (85 percent of which were originals rather than replicas), 50 horses and untold crew members, from Jerry Bruckheimer and Rob Marshall onward, getting realistically filthy in the process, up to their ankles in muck. Trinity College also provided the company with often marvelously incongruous background music to the exciting goings-on, including jazz and modernistic twelve-tone.

A delightful sidebar to the filming in Greenwich was an unexpected event that became international news overnight. During the shoot at the Old Royal Naval College, 9-year-old Beatrice Delap, a bright little student at Meridian Primary School—spitting distance from the filming locale—sent Johnny Depp a hand-written letter with the following missive:

“Captain Jack Sparrow, at Meridian primary school we are a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we’re a right handful but we’re having trouble mutinying against the teachers. We’d love it if you could come and help. From Beatrice Delap, aged nine, a budding pirate”.

About a week later, Beatrice and her classmates were called into the auditorium, the students fearing a tongue-lashing or worse for some nefarious playground incidents. Instead, unannounced to anyone but the school’s principal, in strode Johnny Depp, fully attired as Captain Jack, on a lunch break from filming at the ORNC along with a few other crew members—including the film’s Oscar®-winning makeup designer, Joel Harlow—suitably attired as fellow buccaneers. For 15 minutes, the children and teachers were mesmerized by the presence of the iconic character and his creator, who spoke, sang and danced for the assemblage.

Recreating both the exterior and interior of St. James Palace in “On Stranger Tides” required the seamless melding of shooting at Hampton Court Palace for Captain Jack’s surprise arrest by Royal Guards, then the interior of the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich as the pirate is literally dragged by soldiers to King George II’s lavish dining room, followed by a built set piece of the St. James Palace exterior built at the ORNC. The king’s dining room, however, was in fact a splendid set on R Stage at Pinewood Studios.

“That becomes an amazing action sequence, and for that, you need to control the environment completely,” notes John Myhre. “When you have Captain Jack swinging on chandeliers and throwing chairs through 18th-century windows, you need to build it.”
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On Stranger Tides: The Queen Anne’s Revenge

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 7:52 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: The Queen Anne's Revenge

“It’s always a thrill, and very exciting, to be on a pirate ship,” says Jerry Bruckheimer. “I think every kid wants to be a pirate, and working on these movies, we all have the chance to live our dreams.” Even if that pirate ship is a floating nightmare. Imposing, terrifyingly beautiful, a brutal beast of the sea, the Queen Anne’s Revenge is Blackbeard’s vessel, and an extension of his own dark vision of life…and death.

Director Rob Marshall notes, “The Queen Anne’s Revenge is an incredibly evil vessel: It’s made of the skulls and bones of Blackbeard’s victims. It’s been prophesied that Blackbeard will die soon, so there is also a sense of doom on the ship. It’s a majestic pirate ship, so it was absolutely thrilling to sail.”

“The scale of it was unbelievable, and the craftsmanship was amazing,” comments actor Stephen Graham, who filmed many of his scenes aboard the craft. “It’s all hand-painted, hand-crafted, and it’s like being at Disneyland every single day.”

“How fabulous to work on a pirate movie and get to design a ship,” enthuses John Myhre. “We were handed the Black Pearl which was redesigned and built by Rick Heinrichs, the production designer of the second and third ‘Pirates’ films. Rick and his crew, plus the boat builders, constructed the Black Pearl around the hull of a modern steel boat, and it was completely navigable. And since the Black Pearl doesn’t figure into the story of ‘On Stranger Tides,’ Disney wanted us to use the ship as the base for the Queen Anne’s Revenge. So we basically sliced the entire top of the boat off, and were able to come up with whatever we wanted.”

Myhre looked at a lot of old pirate films and noticed that it was not always easy to distinguish one ship from another in battles, but he wanted to make the Queen Anne’s Revenge stand out and look like the most powerful ship on the seas. “The real Blackbeard captured over 20 ships,” says Myhre, “so I pitched the idea that he kept the one that was the most elegant and grandest. So we took the base of a two-story ship and turned it into a three-and-a-half-story ship.”

Before its transformation into the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the Black Pearl sailed an astonishing 2400 nautical miles in two weeks from San Pedro, California to Barbers Point, Oahu, (since it was constructed for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” built around the hull of an offshore supply boat called the Sunset, the Pearl has put in more than 8,000 nautical miles), under the expert seamanship of its captain, Glenn Hall, aka “Captain Kiwi” and his crew of seven very hearty shipmates.

For four months at The Phoenician shipyard in Kapolei, Greg Callas’ construction crew, in concert with Bruce Ross’ marine department, gave the Black Pearl its ultimate makeover. “The ship had sat in dry dock for five years, so she was tired in spots,” notes Callas. “We had to do a lot of deck replacement, with lots of sculpting of elements in Los Angeles and then shipped to Oahu.”

After its retrofit and redesign by Myhre and U.S. Supervising Art Director Tomas Voth, the Pearl re-emerged as something utterly unlike its previous incarnation. “We decided to make the stern of the boat as high as it could possibly be and still be able to sail,” notes Voth. “On the third deck, we’re 55 feet up in the air from the water line. We had to put several tons of lead weight in the front of the ship so it didn’t pop a wheelie, and the ship is now 100 tons heavier than it was as the Black Pearl.”

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On Stranger Tides: Locations and Sets

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 7:42 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Locations and Sets

“Although we filmed the first three ‘Pirates’ movies mostly in the actual Caribbean,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer, “for ‘On Stranger Tides,’ we required landscapes so beautiful, they’re almost otherworldly.” After extensive location scouts, the filmmakers settled on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu, each offering their particular attributes on both land and sea.

“Both islands, especially Kauai, have these extraordinary jungles, mountains and shorelines,” says Rob Marshall. “They’re so lush, oversized and just stunning. Oahu also has beautiful landscapes, and we also did all of our shooting at sea there of Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.”

“It’s a sign of things to come when the first day of filming a big adventure is almost as adventurous as what you’re putting up on screen,” laughs Bruckheimer in recalling June 14, 2010. The almost-inaccessible Honopu Beach on Kauai’s fabled Na Pali Coast is a magnificent stretch of sand surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs rising to 1,200 feet. As a protected site by the State of Hawaii, the only way into this natural wonder was either by helicopter—with Johnny Depp surreally emerging from a chopper in full costume, hair and makeup as Captain Jack Sparrow—or by sea.

However, since boats are not permitted to actually land on the beach, the only way in for most of the company was by Zodiac craft and then either transferring to Jet Skis or getting towed behind on water sleds through what turned out that day to be a rough, punishing surf. And since the Jet Skis weren’t permitted to actually stop, everyone had to jump off or get yanked off the skis or the sleds. Of course, most of the crew, with first assistant director Peter Kohn preceding them (as he would for more than 100 days to follow), was exhilarated when they finally made it to the beach. As for the needed equipment, most of it had to be sling-loaded and brought in by helicopter.

“We always like to say that if there’s an easy way and a hard way to do something,” notes Executive Producer Barry Waldman, “we’ll choose the hard way every time. Two days before we shot on Honopu Beach, the swells were only two feet. Of course, on the day that we started shooting, they were five feet. But filming on Honopu Beach is one of those things that, if you do it right, adds enormous value to the film.”

Adds Executive Producer Chad Oman, “I thought it was great seeing Rob Marshall being pulled up on a Jet Ski right up onto the beach for his first day of filming. What a great introduction to making ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ Most of us had all been through making three ‘Pirates’ movies, but for him, it was a whole new experience, and it was wonderful to see him bringing his excitement and enthusiasm to the project.”
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On Stranger Tides: Pirates in the Third Dimension

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 7:34 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Pirates in the Third Dimension

“The only way we would release ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ in 3D,” states Jerry Bruckheimer, “is if the film was actually filmed in 3D. This was very important to both Rob Marshall and me, because what we want to do is to give the audience a completely immersive experience in crystal-clear 3D that brings them right into the action, not hurt their eyeballs. And this is one of the first big adventure films to shoot in 3D on location rather than against green screen or entirely on soundstages.

With this one, we are actually in the jungles, on the beaches and on the streets of 18th-century London. “It’s a much different experience when you have to deal with the elements with two cameras rather than one, so it takes more time and adds to your budget,” Bruckheimer continues. “But shooting in digital 3D gives real dimension and size to the movie.”

“We felt very much like pioneers, I have to say,” adds Marshall, “because rarely has a film taken 3D cameras into these remote locations. We took these delicate cameras into locations like jungles, beaches, caves and ships. It was a challenge. We discovered a lot on our feet as we were going.”

Shooting in 3D presented numerous challenges to Director of Photography Dariusz Wolski (who had served in that capacity on all three previous “Pirates of the Caribbean” films on 2D 35mm film and whose collaborations with Jerry Bruckheimer go all the way back to “Crimson Tide”). “Jerry really threw a curveball at me when he said that we should shoot ‘On Stranger Tides’ in 3D,” Wolski admits. “It was a fairly new technology, and other big adventure films, like ‘Avatar,’ had been done primarily in the computer. No one had really done a movie from beginning to end, physically on location, in 3D. And especially a movie like ‘On Stranger Tides,’ which required exotic locations, big seats, boats, jungles, beaches and all the natural environments.

“It was very ambitious, and very scary,” Wolski continues, “because although everyone wants to make 3D movies, it wasn’t really figured out. We shot with two RED cameras rigged together, one shooting into a mirror. Everything has to be electronically coordinated, so there are a lot of cables, scientists and computers all over the set, and we also had a 3D monitor that we used to analyze the imagery while we were filming.”

The highly evolved RED cameras also allowed Wolski to film 3D with great attention to historic detail and lighting. “We’re trying to be very true to the period in retaining candle and natural light, as you see in 18th-century paintings. The RED is remarkable when it comes to low light level, which people relate to, as they do to a beautiful sunset,” adds Wolski.

As for the artful usage of 3D in “On Stranger Tides,” Dave Drzewiecki, the on-set stereographer, notes, “You can poke people in the eyes with spears and shoot water at the lens, but that’s not really what this movie’s about. It’s actually a very immersive and, in many ways, subtle use of the 3D experience, and it’s much grander in its depth.”

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