As for the director’s punishing schedule, “Gore has been on these two movies for so long without a break that I’m not sure if he remembers the names of his kids at this point,” says Bruckheimer, half-jokingly. “He’s a consummate professional and perfectionist, so every little frame receives his complete attention. That’s the kind of director you want to work with.”
Two years is a long time in anyone’s life, and for the cast and crew that made it through all 284 combined marathon shooting days of “Dead Man’s Chest” and “At World’s End,” approaching wrap brought a bagful of seriously mixed emotions. “I’m proud of the journey we’ve all made over the past two years on these two movies,” states executive producer Eric McLeod. “It’s been a huge part of our lives, and I think in the end the crew will look back on the sacrifices they made and feel that it’s worth it, because a film like this is not a job. You make it through with a great group of people, and we’ll all be asked about them for years to come. We’ll all be telling stories about what it was like to work on the second and third `Pirates of the Caribbean’ films. To survive these two years, it was about getting along with others and being able to deal with constant change. A lot of people have come and gone on these films…we’ve had over 4,000 people work on both movies, but there was a core group that stayed on the whole time. These were films that could wear you out if you didn’t just focus and keep moving forward.”
Adds unit production manager Doug Merrifield, “Our crew are the top guns of the movie industry, the best of the best. There’s a certain type of crew that you need to be able to pull off these big pictures, and we certainly had that across all departments.” That, of course, included the cast. “It was a very physically challenging picture, and it’s a long time over the course of two years to stay in character,” notes Merrifield.
“It’s been such a chunk of my life,” notes Mackenzie Crook. “It’s not just been a job, like other films I’ve done. This is the `Pirates Period’ of my life, like my childhood, or youth. “It’s going to be like breaking up with your girlfriend,” said Martin Klebba incisively just before he wrapped his role. “There are no egos on set, everybody gets on together, and it’s a really nice working atmosphere,” adds Naomie Harris. “With all of the special effects and stunts, sometimes the shooting was really tough, but the nice thing is that everybody works together as a team and pulls together at those moments. It’s also nice to do a movie that my brother and sister, who are 11 and 7 years old, can to go see and enjoy with the rest of the family. That means more to me than breaking box office records.”
“Because I am a fan of the first and second `Pirate’ movies,” confesses Chow Yun-Fat, “working with Johnny, Geoffrey, Keira and Orlando was just like a little child walking in dreams. Working with them gave me great pleasure, and I was very, very happy.”
Adds Jack Davenport, “It’s been an odyssey, an experience that’s unrepeatable, the end of an era in terms of filmmaking. It has a kind of `Apocalypse Wow’ factor. I think my greatest treasure on this job has been watching the crew conquer the logistical and artistic demands. It’s beyond anything I’ve ever seen in any group of filmmakers in my life.”
Once again, the actors had nothing but praise for their fearless leader, director Gore Verbinski.
“I honestly don’t know how Gore is able to be upright after all that he’s done,” says Johnny Depp of his director. “Everything that he retains in his brain…it’s weird. The truth of the matter is that, as an actor, you could almost not read the script at all and just rely on Gore. He’d never steer you wrong. He knows exactly every point that needs to be made. He’s just a wizard. It’s shocking and mind-boggling what Gore is capable of.”
“Gore is one of the greatest directors I’ve ever worked with,” profers Bill Nighy, who should know after his long international career on both stage and screen. “Every actor on the film will tell you the same thing. Nothing gets past him in terms of the authenticity of performance, and Gore knows that no matter how many special effects, wonderful landscapes or ships, what it comes down to are two people communicating. Not only can he spot what’s wrong, but he can really help you. I just can’t say enough about him.”
“Gore never ceases to amaze me with the energy and focus that he has,” says Mackenzie Crook. “On this, which must be one of the most complicated film projects ever undertaken, to make two incredibly plot and character-driven movies simultaneously, so that some days we’d be doing a scene from `Dead Man’s Chest’ in the morning and a scene from `At World’s End’ in the afternoon, or vice versa, he at all times knows what comes immediately before and after the scene you’re shooting, and where you should be in the scene emotionally, even if you’ve forgotten…which I often did.”
“I would argue that the crew we had on these two movies, many of whom were on the first film as well, is the finest ever assembled in Hollywood,” says screenwriter Terry Rossio. “Everybody is A-list all the way.” Adds writing partner Ted Elliott, “And Gore is a superstar. He’s the heart and soul of the whole production. He has abilities that just seem almost impossible to see. I’ve never seen the right person be in the right place so profoundly as Gore on these films. His ability to multitask, to have expertise in the worlds of acting, screenwriting, cinematography, studio politics, is beyond the capabilities of normal men. The guy is an alien creature.”
“Gore wakes up every day as if it’s day one of shooting,” says executive producer Chad Oman. “So even if you’re 100, 200 days into the schedule, he’s just excited as if it’s the first. He’s running around the set like a kid, cheerleading everyone, trying to get the best out of the cast and crew. Gore’s as smart, if not the smartest, of all the people I’ve worked with in any field. And at the same time, he has a great artistic sensibility. Ted and Terry laid the foundations of the tone, and then it goes through Gore’s filter, with its very interesting intellectual and absurd sensibility.” Adds Mike Stenson, “Gore is absolutely a perfectionist. Any director who gets to that level of success has to have a kind of mini nuclear power plant inside of them that just keeps them going.
Adds first assistant director Dave Venghaus, “Gore brings an energy to the set that’s addictive. He wants the best, not only for the film, but from everybody. I’ve never seen Gore sit down. He’s involved in all aspects of filmmaking. He never runs and hides in his trailer, but is on set from the beginning to end of every day. He’s there in the mix, gets as wet as everyone else, gets as dirty as everyone else. He dives in, and expects you to keep up with him, to anticipate, and to give 200 percent.”
Everyone was also glad to have spent another large chunk of their lives in the world of a Jerry Bruckheimer film.
“Jerry is sort of the Great Protector,” explains Johnny Depp. “He wards off all and any evil spirits. And if anyone had anything really grave at stake in the beginning, it was Jerry. Talk about rolling the dice. I mean, for an actor, you come in, do your bit, and if works it works, and if it doesn’t it doesn’t, and it’s on to the next one. But Jerry really took a risk.”
Adds Orlando Bloom, “It’s funny, because Jerry Bruckheimer is huge, a gigantic force in the industry, but he’s also a mate, a really good guy with a wealth of work behind him, but just a man loving his work and loving life.” Says Lee Arenberg, “Jerry is the last true Hollywood producer/storyteller in that he allows his filmmakers to go for it. He’s like the best poker player in the world, who holds all the cards, but knows when to use them.”
“What’s great about Jerry is his calm,” says Eric McLeod. “I mean, a film like this is its own maelstrom, and Jerry is the calmest person on the set. He’s approachable, you can always go to him with problems. He’s been doing large films like this probably longer than anyone else in the history of film, and he has a world of experience in knowing how things work out in the end.”
Notes executive producer Mike Stenson, “Jerry is like a great NBA coach. He puts an all-star team together, pushes for the best from everybody, and calls the plays. Jerry tends to be more hands-on than most producers, which is why, when you look at his body of work over a 25 year period, there is a certain sensibility to it all.”
“It’s been quite a ride,” mused George Marshall Ruge. “It was an odd feeling to come to the end, because everybody became family, and we’ve poured a lot of emotion and soul into this project. On the one hand, there was relief, because at the pace and with the length of the shoot, we were eventually going to drop. But there’s also great sadness that we’re leaving our `Pirates home.’ Hopefully, we’ll be able to reunite many times over the years, and out paths will cross many times. So it was a time for reflection, proud of what we did, sad, happy, relieved and looking forward to reunions.”
“Jerry Bruckheimer came up to me at one point and said `It’s pretty big, isn’t it?’ And I said, `Yeah, it’s all downhill from here. And he said me, with a grin on his face, `That’s what they told me when I did `Beverly Hills Cop.’”
In the end, as Bruckheimer explains, it all comes down to the fundamentals of what brings people into a movie theatre, which has changed little despite the enormous leaps in technology from the time audiences stared wide-eyed at the Melies Brothers’ special effects spectacles at the turn of the 20th century, howled uproariously at the comic exploits of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, or sat at the edge of their seats at fantastic feats of derring-do by Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn.
“Our biggest challenge for `At World’s End’ is to entertain the audience,” says the producer, “and just make sure that they have a great time. The film is even more intricate than `The Curse of the Black Pearl’ and `Dead Man’s Chest.’ It has enormous battles, character turns, romance and humor. It’s what we all make movies for, and all of the elements of why people have gone to the movies for the past hundred years or so. We want to suck the audience into our magical world on that screen, take them to places they’ve never been before with characters they fall in love with…and in the end feel a little better than when they walked into the theatre.”
