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ealgyldenI tripped lightly out to my mailbox this morning (okay, I trudged. It's about 300% humidity here), and who should be scowling up at me from the cover of EW but Russell Crowe. Russell, with long blond hair and a snazzy Royal Navy uniform. Jack Aubrey!
Which is to say, the Fall Preview issue (#724/725, Aug. 22/29) has a three page "exclusive" interview with Himself. It's not online, but I don't know if that's "not yet" or "not ever". Photos are, well, nice but not amazing- cover pic (he's scowling), big splash pic (scowling), pic of him in battle (and scowling), pic of him standing around with Paul Bettany waiting to film something (and scowling. Paul looks cold), pic of the two of them and Peter Weir looking relaxed (but he's still scowling), and pic of a ship being filmed (the ship looks happy, at least).
"The history of the film itself is an epic, spanning 10 years and five studios (it began at Samuel Goldwyn, then moved to Disney, moved again to Twentieth Century Fox, which brought in Universal and Miramax as coproducers) and costing boatloads of cash ($135 million, spent mostly in Mexico, where Master shot in the same giant tank in which James Cameron sank his Titanic). And now, with a Nov. 14 release date looming, it's sailing into the most treacherous waters yet, with fans of O'Brian's 20-novel series already circling cineplexes like sharks. A fiercely loyal lot- they exhaust nearly as much bandwidth with their Web pages as Trekkies- they've been grousing about the film's patchwork plot (combining elements of the 1st and 10th novels), complaining about the casting of the too tall Paul Bettany (Crowe's A Beautiful Mind costar) as Aubrey diminutive shipmate Dr. Stephen Maturin, and even raising questions about Crowe- or at least his waistline (in the books, Aubrey is a bit of a fatty)."
"'I'm hoping they've all seen Adaptation,' half-jokes director Peter Weir (The Truman Show), who cowrote the film with John Collee (Mind screenwriter Akiva Goldsman did some uncredited doctoring). 'I've tried to give the audience the experience of being at sea, of inhabiting this other world, which is what I enjoyed most about the novels. But it's rare for people who love a book to love the movie made from it.' Still, Weir has no doubts about one thing: His hero couldn't have been more perfectly cast. 'The minute Russell walked into the room I thought, 'There he is,' he says. 'He's got this natural authority. He likes to command. He's the captain of actors.'"
EW: "You didn't jump at this part, did you?"
Crowe- "I walked away from it several times. When I first heard about it, I thought it sounded like something Harrison Ford should do. Then I read the books, and I thought it would be impossible to do. The expense would be too enormous. And then I saw the script, and it didn't read that well to me." (emphasis mine. And let us pause for a moment and give thanks to whatever kind spirit kept that casting from happening.)
EW: "What did you have to do to make the script work for you?"
Crowe: It wasn't a matter of pulling apart what Peter had done but of putting things back. Making it a truer reflection of the books and the spirit of the characters. Making people understand what it was like to be on these ships. I mean, this was the NASA of the time. Being on these ships was the interplanetary travel of the 19th century."
EW: "The seafaring jargon in the books can be impenetrable. Stuff like 'hands to the jears' and 'tops'l clewlines.' It's like a different language."
Crowe: "But the jargon is important to the genre and to accuracy. And there's no point in translating it. People have to come along for the ride. And, you know, you could say the same thing about Star Wars. George Lucas made up a whole bunch of stuff to make that world fully exist for people."
EW: "But you have taken some other liberties with the books. The bad guys are French, not American. And some fans have been upset with the casting of Paul Bettany."
Crowe: "There are fans out there who are disgruntled because I didn't do the role at 17 stone (238 lbs.). In the books, Aubrey ranges from 14 to 17 stone, sometimes on the same voyage."
EW: "Did you gain that much weight for the role?"
Crowe: "We were going in that direction. But about six weeks out Peter said, 'You know what, I think we should cut down the weight.' He wanted Aubrey to be active, to be able to go up the rigging and be a sailor."
EW: "How big were you thinking of going? Brando big?"
Crowe: "No, but that's what 17 stone would have looked like on my frame. And that would have been untenable, just in terms of getting up and down the f---ing stairways. So we didn't go that far. I'm not Adonis, but I'm not Rumpole of the Bailey either."
EW: "What else did you do to get into character?"
Crowe: "The first day of rehearsals, I got every man in the cast three shirts. Different colors, depending on what rank they were on the ship. And I gave them name tags, a length of thread, and a needle. They had 12 hours to report back in uniform with a name tag sewn on. It wasn't for my ego. I just felt the experience would be bigger and better if we all allowed ourselves to play the game. To get into character and remain that way, because those small details of belief will translate on the screen."
EW: "Did any of the actors mutiny over the shirts?"
Crowe: "There were a couple who did a sloppy job. They were talked to."
EW: "Filming in that huge tank must have been rough."
Crowe: "The first thing we shot was a 12-day sequence during which you couldn't hear a word of dialogue. We were on the ship with eight giant fans and two jet engines blowing around. We were just talking into the noise. You couldn't hear a grunt. We could have been filming in Italian."
EW: "Did you get seasick at all?"
Crowe: "I didn't throw up once during the entire production. I'm very proud of that."
EW: "The word franchise keeps popping up with this movie. After all, there are 20 of these books. Any interest in a return trip?"
Crowe: "Well, we'll see how this one does."
And when I was checking the fansites to see if anyone had been super quick and gotten this interview online already (no luck obviously, but of course it just came out), I found this article about some fans' reaction to the film, or at least to the idea of the film. This "Growlbunny" dude should probably step back and take a moment to breathe. I might have quibbles with some of the things we've heard so far, but without having seen the movie, I can't get too upset yet. I just want to see it. A lot. And if it doesn't match the books, fine, it's not the books. I still have them. It's not like Peter Weir's going to come snatch them off my shelves and burn them (he can come visit me though. Come over, Peter! I'll make you a pie, and you can tell me about filming Picnic at Hanging Rock and Witness. Dead Poets Society was the biggest thing to hit my junior high clique in years! I'm a big fan [but not a scary one, honest]!)
Neat thing of the day: the ship "playing" the Surprise is HMS Rose (isn’t she lovely?). That's the ship that James. L. Nelson, author of the "Revolution at Sea" series that I’ve been enjoying so much, worked on (and then cannibalized his experiences on to help write the books) The original Rose is a character in the first book in the series (and pops up occasionally in later books), so it'll be nice to see the reproduction in action.
(Speaking of Nelson, I'm on All the Brave Fellows, the last book of the series thus far, it’s only 1777, and Nelson's website says, "There are no immediate plans for more books in the series, though the author intends to eventually get Captain Biddlecomb through the entire war." Gah! Eventually? When's that?! Okay, I'm glad he's writing about pirates and about the Civil War navy now. I'm sure they’re interesting and I plan to read both series. But I want Isaac to get through the war safely first! Poor guy, stuck at sea as a "damned rebel colonial" while his creator plays with shiny newer toys.)
Ten days until Two Towers! Yay!
Which is to say, the Fall Preview issue (#724/725, Aug. 22/29) has a three page "exclusive" interview with Himself. It's not online, but I don't know if that's "not yet" or "not ever". Photos are, well, nice but not amazing- cover pic (he's scowling), big splash pic (scowling), pic of him in battle (and scowling), pic of him standing around with Paul Bettany waiting to film something (and scowling. Paul looks cold), pic of the two of them and Peter Weir looking relaxed (but he's still scowling), and pic of a ship being filmed (the ship looks happy, at least).
"The history of the film itself is an epic, spanning 10 years and five studios (it began at Samuel Goldwyn, then moved to Disney, moved again to Twentieth Century Fox, which brought in Universal and Miramax as coproducers) and costing boatloads of cash ($135 million, spent mostly in Mexico, where Master shot in the same giant tank in which James Cameron sank his Titanic). And now, with a Nov. 14 release date looming, it's sailing into the most treacherous waters yet, with fans of O'Brian's 20-novel series already circling cineplexes like sharks. A fiercely loyal lot- they exhaust nearly as much bandwidth with their Web pages as Trekkies- they've been grousing about the film's patchwork plot (combining elements of the 1st and 10th novels), complaining about the casting of the too tall Paul Bettany (Crowe's A Beautiful Mind costar) as Aubrey diminutive shipmate Dr. Stephen Maturin, and even raising questions about Crowe- or at least his waistline (in the books, Aubrey is a bit of a fatty)."
"'I'm hoping they've all seen Adaptation,' half-jokes director Peter Weir (The Truman Show), who cowrote the film with John Collee (Mind screenwriter Akiva Goldsman did some uncredited doctoring). 'I've tried to give the audience the experience of being at sea, of inhabiting this other world, which is what I enjoyed most about the novels. But it's rare for people who love a book to love the movie made from it.' Still, Weir has no doubts about one thing: His hero couldn't have been more perfectly cast. 'The minute Russell walked into the room I thought, 'There he is,' he says. 'He's got this natural authority. He likes to command. He's the captain of actors.'"
EW: "You didn't jump at this part, did you?"
Crowe- "I walked away from it several times. When I first heard about it, I thought it sounded like something Harrison Ford should do. Then I read the books, and I thought it would be impossible to do. The expense would be too enormous. And then I saw the script, and it didn't read that well to me." (emphasis mine. And let us pause for a moment and give thanks to whatever kind spirit kept that casting from happening.)
EW: "What did you have to do to make the script work for you?"
Crowe: It wasn't a matter of pulling apart what Peter had done but of putting things back. Making it a truer reflection of the books and the spirit of the characters. Making people understand what it was like to be on these ships. I mean, this was the NASA of the time. Being on these ships was the interplanetary travel of the 19th century."
EW: "The seafaring jargon in the books can be impenetrable. Stuff like 'hands to the jears' and 'tops'l clewlines.' It's like a different language."
Crowe: "But the jargon is important to the genre and to accuracy. And there's no point in translating it. People have to come along for the ride. And, you know, you could say the same thing about Star Wars. George Lucas made up a whole bunch of stuff to make that world fully exist for people."
EW: "But you have taken some other liberties with the books. The bad guys are French, not American. And some fans have been upset with the casting of Paul Bettany."
Crowe: "There are fans out there who are disgruntled because I didn't do the role at 17 stone (238 lbs.). In the books, Aubrey ranges from 14 to 17 stone, sometimes on the same voyage."
EW: "Did you gain that much weight for the role?"
Crowe: "We were going in that direction. But about six weeks out Peter said, 'You know what, I think we should cut down the weight.' He wanted Aubrey to be active, to be able to go up the rigging and be a sailor."
EW: "How big were you thinking of going? Brando big?"
Crowe: "No, but that's what 17 stone would have looked like on my frame. And that would have been untenable, just in terms of getting up and down the f---ing stairways. So we didn't go that far. I'm not Adonis, but I'm not Rumpole of the Bailey either."
EW: "What else did you do to get into character?"
Crowe: "The first day of rehearsals, I got every man in the cast three shirts. Different colors, depending on what rank they were on the ship. And I gave them name tags, a length of thread, and a needle. They had 12 hours to report back in uniform with a name tag sewn on. It wasn't for my ego. I just felt the experience would be bigger and better if we all allowed ourselves to play the game. To get into character and remain that way, because those small details of belief will translate on the screen."
EW: "Did any of the actors mutiny over the shirts?"
Crowe: "There were a couple who did a sloppy job. They were talked to."
EW: "Filming in that huge tank must have been rough."
Crowe: "The first thing we shot was a 12-day sequence during which you couldn't hear a word of dialogue. We were on the ship with eight giant fans and two jet engines blowing around. We were just talking into the noise. You couldn't hear a grunt. We could have been filming in Italian."
EW: "Did you get seasick at all?"
Crowe: "I didn't throw up once during the entire production. I'm very proud of that."
EW: "The word franchise keeps popping up with this movie. After all, there are 20 of these books. Any interest in a return trip?"
Crowe: "Well, we'll see how this one does."
And when I was checking the fansites to see if anyone had been super quick and gotten this interview online already (no luck obviously, but of course it just came out), I found this article about some fans' reaction to the film, or at least to the idea of the film. This "Growlbunny" dude should probably step back and take a moment to breathe. I might have quibbles with some of the things we've heard so far, but without having seen the movie, I can't get too upset yet. I just want to see it. A lot. And if it doesn't match the books, fine, it's not the books. I still have them. It's not like Peter Weir's going to come snatch them off my shelves and burn them (he can come visit me though. Come over, Peter! I'll make you a pie, and you can tell me about filming Picnic at Hanging Rock and Witness. Dead Poets Society was the biggest thing to hit my junior high clique in years! I'm a big fan [but not a scary one, honest]!)
Neat thing of the day: the ship "playing" the Surprise is HMS Rose (isn’t she lovely?). That's the ship that James. L. Nelson, author of the "Revolution at Sea" series that I’ve been enjoying so much, worked on (and then cannibalized his experiences on to help write the books) The original Rose is a character in the first book in the series (and pops up occasionally in later books), so it'll be nice to see the reproduction in action.
(Speaking of Nelson, I'm on All the Brave Fellows, the last book of the series thus far, it’s only 1777, and Nelson's website says, "There are no immediate plans for more books in the series, though the author intends to eventually get Captain Biddlecomb through the entire war." Gah! Eventually? When's that?! Okay, I'm glad he's writing about pirates and about the Civil War navy now. I'm sure they’re interesting and I plan to read both series. But I want Isaac to get through the war safely first! Poor guy, stuck at sea as a "damned rebel colonial" while his creator plays with shiny newer toys.)
Ten days until Two Towers! Yay!
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Date: 2003-08-22 03:42 am (UTC)