Ends of the Earth - 2006/2007. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 6.
Ends of the Earth - 2006/2007. Из дневников Терри Россио,
сценариста фильмов «Пираты Карибского моря». Часть 5.
MySpace Blog Entry
by Terry Rossio
Перевод: Край земли - 2006/2007. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 6.
On location out in Utah for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (AWE), executive producer Chad Oman tells a story from working on a previous film, shooting on the same location, the salt flats which are indeed perfectly, weirdly, amazingly flat in all directions. "What you do is go out at midnight with a case of beer and an SUV" he says, "and get going about thirty miles an hour, block the gas pedal down, and climb out the window up onto the roof. Lie back with the car rolling along, no driver, and look at the stars. After about half an hour, climb back through the window, turn the car around and head back the other way. Repeat until you run out of beer."
For the Utah shoot, they put us up in a local casino. Fine, but it's a labyrinthine maze to get from your room out to the designated pick-up spot for the crew bus. Sure enough, 5:30 in the morning, I start off smug thinking I'm easily going to make the bus on time, then get lost amid the stairs, slot machines, mirrors, gambling pits, elevators, escalators and walkways. I finally give up and just get out of the freaking building, of course on completely the wrong side, so then I have to hike around this huge building through the vast parking lot -- and luckily, there comes the crew bus, full, lumbering toward me. I swallow my embarrassment and flag it down.
The issue driving out on the salt flats is when you leave, there will be salt embedded onto the bottom of your vehicle, which will rust the metal away rather quickly. So the production team comes up with a clever system: just where the road ends, out in the middle of really nowhere, they've constructed what is essentially a car wash. You drive your car through and it gets sprayed, then workers come and high-pressure hose every nook and cranny. Trucks and RVs fit through, and the whole process adds to the surreal nature of an already surreal experience.
On this set you get burned from above and below, and the reflection from the white sand is perhaps worse than the sun overhead, the soles of your tennis shoes melt.
My daughter Janay comes to visit the set, and she brings a photograph of a horse, owned by a friend of hers, this particular horse is registered with the name "Captain Jack Sparrow." Janay wants me to have Johnny Depp sign the photo. I have never asked Johnny for anything, but how can I turn this down? The sun goes to my head and I agree to give it a shot. After a story meeting, I hang back in Johnny's trailer. Everyone else leaves and Johnny kind of looks at me. What else to say? I blurt out, "I have a picture of a horse." Right away he shoots back "Would you like to be alone?" I explain the situation, this is the only horse that can ever have this particular name, Johnny is amazed, befuddled, and happily signs.
On set, one of the crew takes me aside to debate the story structure of DEJA VU. He wants to explore what he thinks is an issue with the story structure -- and he even has a chart. I reassure him that there are no plot holes in that story, that everything was worked out -- at least in the screenplay. (Spoilers ahead.) He wants to know how there could be fingerprints at Claire's house at the beginning of the movie, in the reality where her body is found in the river, doesn't that mean Claire was killed in the shack, meaning Doug was not there to save her, meaning there would be no fingerprints for him to find? This is actually a fairly good question. He has a solution involving multiple timelines and multiple trips back, but our own explanation is much simpler. The answer (I tell him) is to ask just where in the timeline do events irrevocably change, and the film demonstrates that it has to change sometime after the apartment but before Doug and Claire go onto the ferry. In other words, when the film opens, Doug arrives at a crime scene where Doug did fail, but after saving Claire in the shack.
*****
Shooting AT WORLD'S END in Palmdale, today is a wrap for Bill Nighy. After the final 'check the gate' they wheel out a huge cake, topped by a painted-with-frosting rendering of Davy Jones, complete with squid beard. Bill cuts into it with glee. Hugs and champagne all around. Paper plate and plastic fork in hand, I finally get a chance to chat with Bill a bit, first time since the Bahamas. We get on the topic of music, and I find out, him being a Brit, he is a big fan of the rock group ORSON!
My ORSON connection: Jason Pebworth, lead singer and songwriter, ex-Broadway singer, is also my ex-personal assistant. Jason worked for me for several years, running errands and doing odd tasks during the day, working his ass off at night making the rock star thing happen, chasing the dream. After many shows, rejections, close calls, and trips to the dry cleaners with my wrinkled dress shirts, Jason was about to give up. "They want me to be younger," he said, "that's one thing I can't do." Then Jason takes $5,000 and a Mac computer and with a brilliant producer/engineer, he and the band record their own album ("Bright Idea") and the group takes a last-chance trip to Europe to play in a music festival. Where they promptly land a fancy publishing and distribution deal ("Bring me the standard fame and fortune contract!") and began a tour of Europe, opening for Robbie Williams, and go on to become Britain's Best New Artist of the Year.
So one night I'm flipping channels, sitting in our cool new screening room of our cool new house in Topanga Canyon paid for mostly by PIRATES films and there on MTV bigger than life is Jason and the guys playing to a stadium of screaming fans, and it hits me, anything is possible in this world my friends, anything.
My brother visits the PIRATES Palmdale set, seeing it all for the first time, and he happens to come on an odd day. All the actors are in the Black Pearl and the entire ship is filled to the brim with round blue plastic balls. It's the shot where the crabs overflow and pour out into the sea, but the crabs are created later via CGI, on set all we see are these blue plastic balls. So everyone is swimming around in these balls acting like kids, actors and crew in a goofy mood, a mock fight breaks out, people flinging the balls at each other, and they're bouncing everywhere. To my brother it must look like making a film is just goofy fun, and I guess it is.
Later, Michael Singer shows me a press release written on that day, titled "Blue Balls to Crabs."
Weeks later, we're still finding those blue plastic balls on the set. Gore's kids play with them, the extras and PAs throw them at each other. I stop by a group trying to juggle and offer a few tips, and impress them with my (limited) juggling skills. I show off a few moves and move on while they're still impressed, before I have a chance to screw up.
Blue Balls is the name of the kitten who lives (illegally) in the 'office' in the middle of the hanger. The officer is not really an office, but rather a giant cubicle created by the stacks and stacks of crates that were used to deliver the blue balls. The cat lives in there somewhere, every now and then you can look in through the boxes and see her.
Overheard at Palmdale, entering the hangar to spend another day beneath the rain machines "Clever of us to shield ourselves from all this sunny weather!"
Hollywood likes to trumpet success, especially to others in Hollywood, so everyone reminds everyone else who is doing well, in the hope it will translate to clout, and further success. Which is why ads are taken out in the trades to announce box office milestones. "$30 million, first five days," or "$200 million worldwide to date,' etc. Trick is, you don't want to start crowing too soon, there's no point in putting an ad in Variety that your film did $450 million if in a few more weeks it will pass $475! On DEAD MAN'S CHEST, there was no ad forthcoming for the longest time...
Opposite the lunchroom in Jerry Bruckheimer's production company, there is an entire wall of framed trade ads trumpeting the success of his work, from FLASHDANCE to TOP GUN, etc. And I'm proud to say that the first PIRATES film, at $650 million, turned out to be the top grossing number among a lot of very high numbers. So I was especially looking forward to the DEAD MAN'S CHEST trade ad, as it promised to be even higher...
Finally! The powers-that-be are certain that DEAD MAN'S CHEST will top $1 billion and the ad was purchased and ran, in both Variety and Hollywood Reporter. I bought a copy to see it... and I have to say was a bit bummed. Yes it was a big colorful two-page ad, and it had a big pirate skull... but... here we are with probably a once in a lifetime event, and they didn't even mention the film's name! And no credit block! Just a skull with the number $1,000,000,000 underneath. The minimalist approach, which I found not so frame-worthy. Also, me, personally, I would have added the last two zeros (after the dollar decimal point) just for overkill. It would have looked better, don't you think... $1,000,000,000.00? Ah, vanity. But how often would you ever get a film to top $1 billion dollars? Got to enjoy it when it happens!
Report from Jason Pebworth, ex-assistant: he attended a movie premiere in London, IT'S A BOY GIRL THING, produced by David Furnish and exec produced by Elton John. Part way through, when the big football training montage comes on, Jason is surprised to recognize the soundtrack song, "Tryin' To Help" by ORSON. At the after party, he gets up his nerve and goes to introduce himself. He makes it as far as "My name is Jason and I'm in this band called ORSON..." when Elton just raves, says how much he loves the ORSON album, how thrilled he is that an ORSON song is in the movie. How cool is that?
*****
What do you get Johnny Depp for his birthday? I wanted to make sure he saw what I think is pretty much the coolest bit of PIRATES merchandising out there, the Jack bobblehead figure. Bought one, gave it to Johnny through Buck his driver, along with a signed ALADDIN DVD for his kids.
So I'm in Johnny's trailer, and he tells a story about being on stage at a Disney function, and Dick Cook puts him on the spot, and asks about a PIRATES 4. Johnny answers by using one of his favorite phrases and says "I'm in!" But here in the trailer he looks at me and asks, "So what about a fourth film?" We talk about it a bit and both agree, there should only be a fourth PIRATES film if there is a story that begs to be told. Better to leave the audience wanting more than make another film because the money is great or the character is fun to play. I have to point out it kind of all depends on the screenplay, the pressure is on us, not because the screenplay is the most important aspect, but because every other element is guaranteed to be top notch and effective -- the acting, directing, stunts, art design, etc. The one unknown variable is the story, and it's also (perhaps) the variable of most intense interest from the audience.
*****
During one of the difficult ship-tilt shots, there is a sudden scaffolding collapse, five stories up in the air. Not a complete collapse, more of a tilt and a kind of compression, but enough to send some stunt people tumbling and grabbing for purchase. So over lunch, a temporary platform is built to replace the scaffolding... and the new platform, made of wood 2x4s looks far less stable than the original. With discretion over valor I choose to view the filming safely standing on solid hangar cement. SET RUMORS: Ted and I are told, with complete conviction and certainty, that there will definitely be a PIRATES 4 movie, that all the deals have been closed, the contracts have been signed, it's decided, and even a start date has been picked! Of course the first people the studio would first approach would be us, the screenwriters -- and our agents have heard nothing. And Gore won't talk about anything past the two films he has to make, he can't afford the distraction. But this fact shall not be allowed to get in the way of the facts. Speaking of rumors, I'll pass along one that I heard. We've known for several months that the release date has been bumped off our beloved good luck day of July 7th, and moved up to Memorial Day -- but why? Why the change? It's a bad date, as it robs over a month of post-production time. And it lands us square against SPIDER-MAN and SHREK 3, two films with the same audience demographic. And Memorial Day is not a great holiday weekend for box office. RUMOR has it that Disney did not want PIRATES to go up against TRANSFORMERS and HARRY POTTER, so the plan was to 'scare' SHREK off of its release date. RUMOR also has it that the plan worked -- and Katzenberg made the decision to shift away. But, according to Mister RUMOR, DreamWorks had already planned a marketing campaign and signed a deal with McDonald's, and McDonald's wouldn't allow the release date to be changed. And that's how you get three big franchises coming to theaters within three weeks of each other!
*****
In Palmdale, Gore calls me to set, he needs a quick exchange between Pintel and Ragetti as they pass by camera, and he needs it in the next two minutes, as the shot is up. I confer with Lee and Mackenzie, none of our ideas are particularly inspired. We finally hit on the "And in case you haven't noticed, it's raining," "I think that's a bad sign" exchange, which struck us as funny -- as if the appearance of a fifty foot tall goddess isn't a bad sign, or the fact that they face an unbeatable Armada, etc. So it gets shot and it's in the movie, and for me it doesn't quite work, it's one of those lines that's only funny in theory, not really that funny in fact. Also one of those lines you keep re-writing long after the film is done... maybe it should have been, Pintel "...EVERY ten years he can come ashore..." Ragetti "No, AFTER ten years, if his love is true..." Nina Jacobson, our longtime executive on the PIRATES films and others, came to visit the set, this after she left the studio, she runs into Bruckheimer, who says, "You look rested." To which Nina promptly replies, "Why wouldn't I?" Each said with a smile -- do they love each other or hate each other or what, who tell what's going on with these heavyweights? So I take a quick meeting with Nina, who has set herself up with a producing deal at DreamWorks. We discuss a new paradigm for filmmaking, brand protection by creators, ownership of the copyright by creators, then license the motion picture rights.
The J.K. Rowling model. "Who better than the creator to protect the brand?" Nina points out. It makes sense, if you create a Harry Potter writing a novel, no one would think to do a sequel with another writer or with 'executives' in charge of the content. And that works out better for all around, including fans, as well as the companies who distribute the property. FLASHBACK: Bahamas. How Ted and I squandered several hundred thousand dollars. In the course of many revisions, our screenplay scene numbers were off, and so the costume department did not know the correct order of the scenes, resulting in part of a morning shoot done with Keira wearing the wrong outfit. The blame falls mostly to us, but when you're shooting two movies at the same time and revisions are being done as each film is being shot, and with a script approval process, first to Gore, then to Jerry back in L.A., then scenes getting published for the department heads, that's a lot of paper flying around, not everyone is working from the same draft and it's easy for different drafts to have conflicting scene numbers. I think it was either Martin (Rosenberg; visual effects director of photography) or Sharron (Reynolds; a script supervisor) who caught the outfit mistake, or both. So the shots had to be re-scheduled and re-staged, and on a production this large, even for half a day, that is a lot of money! FUN SET FACT #1: shooting in Palmdale, in the maelstrom scene, the water that sprays down from the roof -- fourteen hour days, shooting weeks and weeks on end -- is freezing cold. After a particularly brutal session, a drowned-rat-looking Kevin McNally gets on our case again, "Why are the writers always trying to get me wet?" The technology to spray all that water is truly a marvel.
Just outside the aircraft hanger is a pumping station that looks like it could handle the City of Long Beach. Part of the system is a path for the used water to run down into drains, and make its way back to the pumps, get filtered, and then sprayed again. I heard a rumor that they were trying to figure out some way to heat it, but I'm not sure if they were able to pull that off. In the parking lot at Palmdale, I go out and buy some cool PIRATES sweatshirts, caps, and shirts. Really great stuff, well made, lots of compliments. It's only later I find out these are contraband, the reason they're a being sold in the parking lot is they're not authorized. Trouble its, they're better quality than the Disney stuff. Love the double credit for Dave Venghaus on DEAD MAN'S CHEST. Second Assistant Director: Dave Venghaus. First Assistant Director: Dave Venghaus. What happened was, our AD from CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL couldn't finish the DMC shoot, and so Dave was promoted about halfway through. Overhead on the walkie-talkie: "What happened to the smiling Dave Venghaus?" Dave: "He died and he's never coming back." Watching the scene where Beckett walks down the stairs as they explode, I'm chatting with effects expert Charlie Gibson. The cameras record at high speed and move along the track at high speed, to create the slow motion effect.
"Wow, you've got it timed down to the second!" I say. "No, to the increment of a second" Charlie corrects. Security is tight at this airfield... every now and then you can see one of the Stealth fighters take off or land. So many of the cast and crew have other talents than what you see on set... one of the prop designers shares my love of body painting... Scott Saunders plays in the rock and roll band "Full Throttle"... Gore plays amazing guitar, Disney head of production Bruce Hendricks plays base in a band... Vee, award-winning makeup artist throws an annual Christmas party, complete with snow machine... the more you get to know everyone, you realize these are all amazingly cool people. My worst day in Palmdale: While picking up my Volkswagen from the repair shop at the dealer there, I mistakenly leave my backpack sitting on the ground, since I had been dropped off with all my stuff. I notice it's missing when I get home, so I drive all the way back out there in the middle of the night, and sure enough, the backpack is gone. Subsequent checks with the dealer turn up nothing. I had a lot of recent files and photos, story ideas and information not backed up -- such as these blog notes, which I had to try to re-create. So if this entry feels a bit disjointed, it's because all my notes were lost, and whatever loser found my backpack didn't have the decency to turn it in.
*****
Okay. Confession time. Truth is, I tend to make really really bad toasts. So if you know me and you had it in your head to gently take me aside to let me know just how bad they are, trust me, I know already. They sound great in my head when I'm planning them, they just don't come out right. But I am nothing if not determined, and so I will continue on -- CASE IN POINT, FLASHBACK: I try to give a toast at the table at Orlando's surprise birthday party, on the night we left the Exumas (after the production team had failed to get the needed shots on two previous occasions). I start off with, "Congratulations to Gore for finally wrapping the movie --" and everyone jumps, shocked -- "The movie? The movie is wrapped?" "No, I mean, wrapping this location, the Exumas, after three previous efforts, we were turned away..." "You mean two previous efforts." "Right, but on this third effort Gore has prevailed..." Rather than sounding like a compliment it came out sounding like everyone was inept... I should have just shouted, "The Exumas have been defeated!" CASE IN POINT, FLASH FORWARD: I raise a glass at the dinner, opening night for AT WORLD'S END... I have the grand idea to do reverse compliments, like, "Should we toast to Jerry? No, with that amount of charisma, his job must be easy. Should we toast to Johnny? No, with that amount of talent, how hard can acting be?" It sounded good in my head but was a disaster in execution. I muddled through "Chad and Mike, no, that's just work ethic," and ended it by saying "Instead let us raise a glass to the genius of Gore Verbinski..." Bad as these were, I will not be deterred, I will continue to toast!
*****
SET RUMORS: So, I am told in all seriousness, the ending of the third film has been leaked, and apparently the way the trilogy is going to end is, Jack sails off in a small boat, alone save for his most trusted pirate friend... Marty! (Not sure if perhaps Marty himself started this one...) Many of the actors are not happy about the extended schedule to complete AWE. Shooting the films back-to-back, the original idea was to be finished with principle photography in January, before the release, even, of DEAD MAN'S CHEST. That was before the two hurricanes and various other production issues. First everyone was asked to contribute a couple of weeks for free, then a month, and in the end it turned out to be ten more weeks for a lot of people, cast and crew. That's an entire film worth of extra work, as most feature acting gigs don't go ten weeks. We're all in the same boat, everyone is putting in extra time, but that's hard if you have to turn down paying jobs, and especially if it takes you away from spouses and kids. FUN SET FACT #2: Palmdale is so huge, there is a microphone/PA system on set, and sometimes when kids visit they get to call out set commands, and it's really cute to hear... how great to be twelve years old on the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN set and call out, "Rolling rolling!" or "Check the gate!"
I think it was one of Gore's sons who got to call out, "Johnny Depp is wrapped!" Helping to edit the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Visual Guide, we get to see a proof copy. We're able to add small details, like AnaMaria's boat's name is the Jolly Mon, which is a Jimmy Buffett reference, tribute to the song of the same name. (And once again I feel compelled to note that AnaMaria's name was not chosen as a combination of Ann Bonny and Mary Reid, instead, it's my daughter's middle name!) Everyone loves Buck, Johnny's driver-slash-assistant. He's an old school actor (showed me his residuals check from THE WILD BUNCH), ladies man (in his mind certainly) and all around raconteur. He's the only person I know who can talk about his 'man in Singapore' and mean it. Something to do with missing WWII gold... you'd have to get him to tell the story. It happens often enough on set that we need some sort of period sailing command, period personal insult, or exclamation, I come up with the idea of the 'cheat sheet.' It's a listing of various flavorful expressions of the era, organized by category, for myself and for Gore to keep in his back pocket, in case he needs to have a character call out something more interesting than "Raise the mainsail!" I'm always trying to add to it because we're always running out, scanning Shakespeare lines, writing down colorful expressions the Brits use on set, stuff like "ill-bred hugger-mugger" and "Mother Carey's chickens!" and "Toad-spotted bum-baily!" Johnny particularly likes the commands that sound vaguely scatological, like "Furl all futtock-shrouds abaft the girtline!" Though there is a line in the film, from Kevin, "Slap me thrice and hand me to my mama!" which I like because it sounds authentic, like it had to be period expression of some sort, but it's not, it's completely invented.
*****
What do I remember of Keira's last day on set? The celebratory cake and applause, yes. But then, smiling, she came over to me and gave me a hug and a kiss... wow I got kissed by Keira Knightly! Mental snapshot: I watch as she walked, actually sort of danced away from the PIRATES set for the last time, in this cavernous soundstage, looking very small against those huge five story tall curtains, hand in hand with her boyfriend, head on his shoulder, and then she was gone. We're back on the Disney lot today, and finally, after all the crazy speculation and endless queries, "So, is Keith Richards in the movie?" it comes to pass that indeed, Keith Richards himself is there on the set of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, in full pirate garb. The world (and Johnny Depp) pretty much willed him onto this film. When I see him the first thing that hits me is... boy, what a mustache. Yeah, he looks exactly like the character design in the concept drawings, but in real life, when you see it, boy, what a mustache.
Either it's a bad idea to take away Keith's signature look, that upper-lip bit of a sneer, or a great idea to give him a different look to push him into the reality of the film. Never seen Gore so happy as when he gets a good take from Keith, and most of the takes are good. Later I see the dailies, and it turns out the mustache is not nearly so pronounced on screen as it is in person. Yep, those art design and make-up folk know what they're doing. So eventually rumors swirl, stories hit the Internet that Keith was drunk on set, and that Gore had to prop him up to keep him in frame. Then a backlash, where others contest that these rumors are not true. Inside scoop: absolutely true, Gore was just out of frame, holding him by the legs, helping him not sway out of the composition of the shot. In the midst of filming, we all become more and more aware of the fan base. People are talking about something called 'shipping' which, if you're working on a pirate film, can be a bit confusing, as we do have a lot of ships, and they do have personalities.
Eventually it becomes clear that 'shippers' and 'shipping' is derived from the word, 'relationship' and is shorthand for fans who are promoting different romantic entanglements among the characters. So if you were in favor of the Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann pairing, that would make you a Sparrabether, or Sparrabeth shipper. As opposed to the Willabethers, who were in favor of Will and Elizabeth romance. I explain it to Gore in between shots and he responds with a bemused, pained look and goes back to work... Someone at Disney had a great idea, I'm not sure whom, they planned and put together a 'storytellers' conference. Two days of seminars down at the Disneyland Hotel, with people from all divisions of the company in attendance. Ted and I speak on the topic of Mental Real Estate (to a much larger audience than expected, I confess I would have prepared better if I had known). We got to re-connect with Ron Clements and John Musker and hear about their new project, I was tongue-tied meeting one of my idols, John Lasseter. Highlight for me, Michael Arndt comes up and says hello, and even compliments our Wordplay website. This guy just won the Academy Award, again I confess I was pretty much tongue-tied. Then Michael went on to give an eye-opening presentation on the art of creating a movie ending -- really well done.
Карибские сказки (2005). Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 1.
Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season (2005). Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 2.
Прогулка по доске - 2005. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 3.
Прогулка по доске - 2005. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 4.
Девять восьмёрок - 2006. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 5.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 1.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 2.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 3.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 4.
сценариста фильмов «Пираты Карибского моря». Часть 5.
MySpace Blog Entry
by Terry Rossio
Перевод: Край земли - 2006/2007. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 6.
On location out in Utah for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (AWE), executive producer Chad Oman tells a story from working on a previous film, shooting on the same location, the salt flats which are indeed perfectly, weirdly, amazingly flat in all directions. "What you do is go out at midnight with a case of beer and an SUV" he says, "and get going about thirty miles an hour, block the gas pedal down, and climb out the window up onto the roof. Lie back with the car rolling along, no driver, and look at the stars. After about half an hour, climb back through the window, turn the car around and head back the other way. Repeat until you run out of beer."
For the Utah shoot, they put us up in a local casino. Fine, but it's a labyrinthine maze to get from your room out to the designated pick-up spot for the crew bus. Sure enough, 5:30 in the morning, I start off smug thinking I'm easily going to make the bus on time, then get lost amid the stairs, slot machines, mirrors, gambling pits, elevators, escalators and walkways. I finally give up and just get out of the freaking building, of course on completely the wrong side, so then I have to hike around this huge building through the vast parking lot -- and luckily, there comes the crew bus, full, lumbering toward me. I swallow my embarrassment and flag it down.
The issue driving out on the salt flats is when you leave, there will be salt embedded onto the bottom of your vehicle, which will rust the metal away rather quickly. So the production team comes up with a clever system: just where the road ends, out in the middle of really nowhere, they've constructed what is essentially a car wash. You drive your car through and it gets sprayed, then workers come and high-pressure hose every nook and cranny. Trucks and RVs fit through, and the whole process adds to the surreal nature of an already surreal experience.
On this set you get burned from above and below, and the reflection from the white sand is perhaps worse than the sun overhead, the soles of your tennis shoes melt.
My daughter Janay comes to visit the set, and she brings a photograph of a horse, owned by a friend of hers, this particular horse is registered with the name "Captain Jack Sparrow." Janay wants me to have Johnny Depp sign the photo. I have never asked Johnny for anything, but how can I turn this down? The sun goes to my head and I agree to give it a shot. After a story meeting, I hang back in Johnny's trailer. Everyone else leaves and Johnny kind of looks at me. What else to say? I blurt out, "I have a picture of a horse." Right away he shoots back "Would you like to be alone?" I explain the situation, this is the only horse that can ever have this particular name, Johnny is amazed, befuddled, and happily signs.
On set, one of the crew takes me aside to debate the story structure of DEJA VU. He wants to explore what he thinks is an issue with the story structure -- and he even has a chart. I reassure him that there are no plot holes in that story, that everything was worked out -- at least in the screenplay. (Spoilers ahead.) He wants to know how there could be fingerprints at Claire's house at the beginning of the movie, in the reality where her body is found in the river, doesn't that mean Claire was killed in the shack, meaning Doug was not there to save her, meaning there would be no fingerprints for him to find? This is actually a fairly good question. He has a solution involving multiple timelines and multiple trips back, but our own explanation is much simpler. The answer (I tell him) is to ask just where in the timeline do events irrevocably change, and the film demonstrates that it has to change sometime after the apartment but before Doug and Claire go onto the ferry. In other words, when the film opens, Doug arrives at a crime scene where Doug did fail, but after saving Claire in the shack.
*****
Shooting AT WORLD'S END in Palmdale, today is a wrap for Bill Nighy. After the final 'check the gate' they wheel out a huge cake, topped by a painted-with-frosting rendering of Davy Jones, complete with squid beard. Bill cuts into it with glee. Hugs and champagne all around. Paper plate and plastic fork in hand, I finally get a chance to chat with Bill a bit, first time since the Bahamas. We get on the topic of music, and I find out, him being a Brit, he is a big fan of the rock group ORSON!
My ORSON connection: Jason Pebworth, lead singer and songwriter, ex-Broadway singer, is also my ex-personal assistant. Jason worked for me for several years, running errands and doing odd tasks during the day, working his ass off at night making the rock star thing happen, chasing the dream. After many shows, rejections, close calls, and trips to the dry cleaners with my wrinkled dress shirts, Jason was about to give up. "They want me to be younger," he said, "that's one thing I can't do." Then Jason takes $5,000 and a Mac computer and with a brilliant producer/engineer, he and the band record their own album ("Bright Idea") and the group takes a last-chance trip to Europe to play in a music festival. Where they promptly land a fancy publishing and distribution deal ("Bring me the standard fame and fortune contract!") and began a tour of Europe, opening for Robbie Williams, and go on to become Britain's Best New Artist of the Year.
So one night I'm flipping channels, sitting in our cool new screening room of our cool new house in Topanga Canyon paid for mostly by PIRATES films and there on MTV bigger than life is Jason and the guys playing to a stadium of screaming fans, and it hits me, anything is possible in this world my friends, anything.
My brother visits the PIRATES Palmdale set, seeing it all for the first time, and he happens to come on an odd day. All the actors are in the Black Pearl and the entire ship is filled to the brim with round blue plastic balls. It's the shot where the crabs overflow and pour out into the sea, but the crabs are created later via CGI, on set all we see are these blue plastic balls. So everyone is swimming around in these balls acting like kids, actors and crew in a goofy mood, a mock fight breaks out, people flinging the balls at each other, and they're bouncing everywhere. To my brother it must look like making a film is just goofy fun, and I guess it is.
Later, Michael Singer shows me a press release written on that day, titled "Blue Balls to Crabs."
Weeks later, we're still finding those blue plastic balls on the set. Gore's kids play with them, the extras and PAs throw them at each other. I stop by a group trying to juggle and offer a few tips, and impress them with my (limited) juggling skills. I show off a few moves and move on while they're still impressed, before I have a chance to screw up.
Blue Balls is the name of the kitten who lives (illegally) in the 'office' in the middle of the hanger. The officer is not really an office, but rather a giant cubicle created by the stacks and stacks of crates that were used to deliver the blue balls. The cat lives in there somewhere, every now and then you can look in through the boxes and see her.
Overheard at Palmdale, entering the hangar to spend another day beneath the rain machines "Clever of us to shield ourselves from all this sunny weather!"
Hollywood likes to trumpet success, especially to others in Hollywood, so everyone reminds everyone else who is doing well, in the hope it will translate to clout, and further success. Which is why ads are taken out in the trades to announce box office milestones. "$30 million, first five days," or "$200 million worldwide to date,' etc. Trick is, you don't want to start crowing too soon, there's no point in putting an ad in Variety that your film did $450 million if in a few more weeks it will pass $475! On DEAD MAN'S CHEST, there was no ad forthcoming for the longest time...
Opposite the lunchroom in Jerry Bruckheimer's production company, there is an entire wall of framed trade ads trumpeting the success of his work, from FLASHDANCE to TOP GUN, etc. And I'm proud to say that the first PIRATES film, at $650 million, turned out to be the top grossing number among a lot of very high numbers. So I was especially looking forward to the DEAD MAN'S CHEST trade ad, as it promised to be even higher...
Finally! The powers-that-be are certain that DEAD MAN'S CHEST will top $1 billion and the ad was purchased and ran, in both Variety and Hollywood Reporter. I bought a copy to see it... and I have to say was a bit bummed. Yes it was a big colorful two-page ad, and it had a big pirate skull... but... here we are with probably a once in a lifetime event, and they didn't even mention the film's name! And no credit block! Just a skull with the number $1,000,000,000 underneath. The minimalist approach, which I found not so frame-worthy. Also, me, personally, I would have added the last two zeros (after the dollar decimal point) just for overkill. It would have looked better, don't you think... $1,000,000,000.00? Ah, vanity. But how often would you ever get a film to top $1 billion dollars? Got to enjoy it when it happens!
Report from Jason Pebworth, ex-assistant: he attended a movie premiere in London, IT'S A BOY GIRL THING, produced by David Furnish and exec produced by Elton John. Part way through, when the big football training montage comes on, Jason is surprised to recognize the soundtrack song, "Tryin' To Help" by ORSON. At the after party, he gets up his nerve and goes to introduce himself. He makes it as far as "My name is Jason and I'm in this band called ORSON..." when Elton just raves, says how much he loves the ORSON album, how thrilled he is that an ORSON song is in the movie. How cool is that?
*****
What do you get Johnny Depp for his birthday? I wanted to make sure he saw what I think is pretty much the coolest bit of PIRATES merchandising out there, the Jack bobblehead figure. Bought one, gave it to Johnny through Buck his driver, along with a signed ALADDIN DVD for his kids.
So I'm in Johnny's trailer, and he tells a story about being on stage at a Disney function, and Dick Cook puts him on the spot, and asks about a PIRATES 4. Johnny answers by using one of his favorite phrases and says "I'm in!" But here in the trailer he looks at me and asks, "So what about a fourth film?" We talk about it a bit and both agree, there should only be a fourth PIRATES film if there is a story that begs to be told. Better to leave the audience wanting more than make another film because the money is great or the character is fun to play. I have to point out it kind of all depends on the screenplay, the pressure is on us, not because the screenplay is the most important aspect, but because every other element is guaranteed to be top notch and effective -- the acting, directing, stunts, art design, etc. The one unknown variable is the story, and it's also (perhaps) the variable of most intense interest from the audience.
*****
During one of the difficult ship-tilt shots, there is a sudden scaffolding collapse, five stories up in the air. Not a complete collapse, more of a tilt and a kind of compression, but enough to send some stunt people tumbling and grabbing for purchase. So over lunch, a temporary platform is built to replace the scaffolding... and the new platform, made of wood 2x4s looks far less stable than the original. With discretion over valor I choose to view the filming safely standing on solid hangar cement. SET RUMORS: Ted and I are told, with complete conviction and certainty, that there will definitely be a PIRATES 4 movie, that all the deals have been closed, the contracts have been signed, it's decided, and even a start date has been picked! Of course the first people the studio would first approach would be us, the screenwriters -- and our agents have heard nothing. And Gore won't talk about anything past the two films he has to make, he can't afford the distraction. But this fact shall not be allowed to get in the way of the facts. Speaking of rumors, I'll pass along one that I heard. We've known for several months that the release date has been bumped off our beloved good luck day of July 7th, and moved up to Memorial Day -- but why? Why the change? It's a bad date, as it robs over a month of post-production time. And it lands us square against SPIDER-MAN and SHREK 3, two films with the same audience demographic. And Memorial Day is not a great holiday weekend for box office. RUMOR has it that Disney did not want PIRATES to go up against TRANSFORMERS and HARRY POTTER, so the plan was to 'scare' SHREK off of its release date. RUMOR also has it that the plan worked -- and Katzenberg made the decision to shift away. But, according to Mister RUMOR, DreamWorks had already planned a marketing campaign and signed a deal with McDonald's, and McDonald's wouldn't allow the release date to be changed. And that's how you get three big franchises coming to theaters within three weeks of each other!
*****
In Palmdale, Gore calls me to set, he needs a quick exchange between Pintel and Ragetti as they pass by camera, and he needs it in the next two minutes, as the shot is up. I confer with Lee and Mackenzie, none of our ideas are particularly inspired. We finally hit on the "And in case you haven't noticed, it's raining," "I think that's a bad sign" exchange, which struck us as funny -- as if the appearance of a fifty foot tall goddess isn't a bad sign, or the fact that they face an unbeatable Armada, etc. So it gets shot and it's in the movie, and for me it doesn't quite work, it's one of those lines that's only funny in theory, not really that funny in fact. Also one of those lines you keep re-writing long after the film is done... maybe it should have been, Pintel "...EVERY ten years he can come ashore..." Ragetti "No, AFTER ten years, if his love is true..." Nina Jacobson, our longtime executive on the PIRATES films and others, came to visit the set, this after she left the studio, she runs into Bruckheimer, who says, "You look rested." To which Nina promptly replies, "Why wouldn't I?" Each said with a smile -- do they love each other or hate each other or what, who tell what's going on with these heavyweights? So I take a quick meeting with Nina, who has set herself up with a producing deal at DreamWorks. We discuss a new paradigm for filmmaking, brand protection by creators, ownership of the copyright by creators, then license the motion picture rights.
The J.K. Rowling model. "Who better than the creator to protect the brand?" Nina points out. It makes sense, if you create a Harry Potter writing a novel, no one would think to do a sequel with another writer or with 'executives' in charge of the content. And that works out better for all around, including fans, as well as the companies who distribute the property. FLASHBACK: Bahamas. How Ted and I squandered several hundred thousand dollars. In the course of many revisions, our screenplay scene numbers were off, and so the costume department did not know the correct order of the scenes, resulting in part of a morning shoot done with Keira wearing the wrong outfit. The blame falls mostly to us, but when you're shooting two movies at the same time and revisions are being done as each film is being shot, and with a script approval process, first to Gore, then to Jerry back in L.A., then scenes getting published for the department heads, that's a lot of paper flying around, not everyone is working from the same draft and it's easy for different drafts to have conflicting scene numbers. I think it was either Martin (Rosenberg; visual effects director of photography) or Sharron (Reynolds; a script supervisor) who caught the outfit mistake, or both. So the shots had to be re-scheduled and re-staged, and on a production this large, even for half a day, that is a lot of money! FUN SET FACT #1: shooting in Palmdale, in the maelstrom scene, the water that sprays down from the roof -- fourteen hour days, shooting weeks and weeks on end -- is freezing cold. After a particularly brutal session, a drowned-rat-looking Kevin McNally gets on our case again, "Why are the writers always trying to get me wet?" The technology to spray all that water is truly a marvel.
Just outside the aircraft hanger is a pumping station that looks like it could handle the City of Long Beach. Part of the system is a path for the used water to run down into drains, and make its way back to the pumps, get filtered, and then sprayed again. I heard a rumor that they were trying to figure out some way to heat it, but I'm not sure if they were able to pull that off. In the parking lot at Palmdale, I go out and buy some cool PIRATES sweatshirts, caps, and shirts. Really great stuff, well made, lots of compliments. It's only later I find out these are contraband, the reason they're a being sold in the parking lot is they're not authorized. Trouble its, they're better quality than the Disney stuff. Love the double credit for Dave Venghaus on DEAD MAN'S CHEST. Second Assistant Director: Dave Venghaus. First Assistant Director: Dave Venghaus. What happened was, our AD from CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL couldn't finish the DMC shoot, and so Dave was promoted about halfway through. Overhead on the walkie-talkie: "What happened to the smiling Dave Venghaus?" Dave: "He died and he's never coming back." Watching the scene where Beckett walks down the stairs as they explode, I'm chatting with effects expert Charlie Gibson. The cameras record at high speed and move along the track at high speed, to create the slow motion effect.
"Wow, you've got it timed down to the second!" I say. "No, to the increment of a second" Charlie corrects. Security is tight at this airfield... every now and then you can see one of the Stealth fighters take off or land. So many of the cast and crew have other talents than what you see on set... one of the prop designers shares my love of body painting... Scott Saunders plays in the rock and roll band "Full Throttle"... Gore plays amazing guitar, Disney head of production Bruce Hendricks plays base in a band... Vee, award-winning makeup artist throws an annual Christmas party, complete with snow machine... the more you get to know everyone, you realize these are all amazingly cool people. My worst day in Palmdale: While picking up my Volkswagen from the repair shop at the dealer there, I mistakenly leave my backpack sitting on the ground, since I had been dropped off with all my stuff. I notice it's missing when I get home, so I drive all the way back out there in the middle of the night, and sure enough, the backpack is gone. Subsequent checks with the dealer turn up nothing. I had a lot of recent files and photos, story ideas and information not backed up -- such as these blog notes, which I had to try to re-create. So if this entry feels a bit disjointed, it's because all my notes were lost, and whatever loser found my backpack didn't have the decency to turn it in.
*****
Okay. Confession time. Truth is, I tend to make really really bad toasts. So if you know me and you had it in your head to gently take me aside to let me know just how bad they are, trust me, I know already. They sound great in my head when I'm planning them, they just don't come out right. But I am nothing if not determined, and so I will continue on -- CASE IN POINT, FLASHBACK: I try to give a toast at the table at Orlando's surprise birthday party, on the night we left the Exumas (after the production team had failed to get the needed shots on two previous occasions). I start off with, "Congratulations to Gore for finally wrapping the movie --" and everyone jumps, shocked -- "The movie? The movie is wrapped?" "No, I mean, wrapping this location, the Exumas, after three previous efforts, we were turned away..." "You mean two previous efforts." "Right, but on this third effort Gore has prevailed..." Rather than sounding like a compliment it came out sounding like everyone was inept... I should have just shouted, "The Exumas have been defeated!" CASE IN POINT, FLASH FORWARD: I raise a glass at the dinner, opening night for AT WORLD'S END... I have the grand idea to do reverse compliments, like, "Should we toast to Jerry? No, with that amount of charisma, his job must be easy. Should we toast to Johnny? No, with that amount of talent, how hard can acting be?" It sounded good in my head but was a disaster in execution. I muddled through "Chad and Mike, no, that's just work ethic," and ended it by saying "Instead let us raise a glass to the genius of Gore Verbinski..." Bad as these were, I will not be deterred, I will continue to toast!
*****
SET RUMORS: So, I am told in all seriousness, the ending of the third film has been leaked, and apparently the way the trilogy is going to end is, Jack sails off in a small boat, alone save for his most trusted pirate friend... Marty! (Not sure if perhaps Marty himself started this one...) Many of the actors are not happy about the extended schedule to complete AWE. Shooting the films back-to-back, the original idea was to be finished with principle photography in January, before the release, even, of DEAD MAN'S CHEST. That was before the two hurricanes and various other production issues. First everyone was asked to contribute a couple of weeks for free, then a month, and in the end it turned out to be ten more weeks for a lot of people, cast and crew. That's an entire film worth of extra work, as most feature acting gigs don't go ten weeks. We're all in the same boat, everyone is putting in extra time, but that's hard if you have to turn down paying jobs, and especially if it takes you away from spouses and kids. FUN SET FACT #2: Palmdale is so huge, there is a microphone/PA system on set, and sometimes when kids visit they get to call out set commands, and it's really cute to hear... how great to be twelve years old on the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN set and call out, "Rolling rolling!" or "Check the gate!"
I think it was one of Gore's sons who got to call out, "Johnny Depp is wrapped!" Helping to edit the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Visual Guide, we get to see a proof copy. We're able to add small details, like AnaMaria's boat's name is the Jolly Mon, which is a Jimmy Buffett reference, tribute to the song of the same name. (And once again I feel compelled to note that AnaMaria's name was not chosen as a combination of Ann Bonny and Mary Reid, instead, it's my daughter's middle name!) Everyone loves Buck, Johnny's driver-slash-assistant. He's an old school actor (showed me his residuals check from THE WILD BUNCH), ladies man (in his mind certainly) and all around raconteur. He's the only person I know who can talk about his 'man in Singapore' and mean it. Something to do with missing WWII gold... you'd have to get him to tell the story. It happens often enough on set that we need some sort of period sailing command, period personal insult, or exclamation, I come up with the idea of the 'cheat sheet.' It's a listing of various flavorful expressions of the era, organized by category, for myself and for Gore to keep in his back pocket, in case he needs to have a character call out something more interesting than "Raise the mainsail!" I'm always trying to add to it because we're always running out, scanning Shakespeare lines, writing down colorful expressions the Brits use on set, stuff like "ill-bred hugger-mugger" and "Mother Carey's chickens!" and "Toad-spotted bum-baily!" Johnny particularly likes the commands that sound vaguely scatological, like "Furl all futtock-shrouds abaft the girtline!" Though there is a line in the film, from Kevin, "Slap me thrice and hand me to my mama!" which I like because it sounds authentic, like it had to be period expression of some sort, but it's not, it's completely invented.
*****
What do I remember of Keira's last day on set? The celebratory cake and applause, yes. But then, smiling, she came over to me and gave me a hug and a kiss... wow I got kissed by Keira Knightly! Mental snapshot: I watch as she walked, actually sort of danced away from the PIRATES set for the last time, in this cavernous soundstage, looking very small against those huge five story tall curtains, hand in hand with her boyfriend, head on his shoulder, and then she was gone. We're back on the Disney lot today, and finally, after all the crazy speculation and endless queries, "So, is Keith Richards in the movie?" it comes to pass that indeed, Keith Richards himself is there on the set of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, in full pirate garb. The world (and Johnny Depp) pretty much willed him onto this film. When I see him the first thing that hits me is... boy, what a mustache. Yeah, he looks exactly like the character design in the concept drawings, but in real life, when you see it, boy, what a mustache.
Either it's a bad idea to take away Keith's signature look, that upper-lip bit of a sneer, or a great idea to give him a different look to push him into the reality of the film. Never seen Gore so happy as when he gets a good take from Keith, and most of the takes are good. Later I see the dailies, and it turns out the mustache is not nearly so pronounced on screen as it is in person. Yep, those art design and make-up folk know what they're doing. So eventually rumors swirl, stories hit the Internet that Keith was drunk on set, and that Gore had to prop him up to keep him in frame. Then a backlash, where others contest that these rumors are not true. Inside scoop: absolutely true, Gore was just out of frame, holding him by the legs, helping him not sway out of the composition of the shot. In the midst of filming, we all become more and more aware of the fan base. People are talking about something called 'shipping' which, if you're working on a pirate film, can be a bit confusing, as we do have a lot of ships, and they do have personalities.
Eventually it becomes clear that 'shippers' and 'shipping' is derived from the word, 'relationship' and is shorthand for fans who are promoting different romantic entanglements among the characters. So if you were in favor of the Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann pairing, that would make you a Sparrabether, or Sparrabeth shipper. As opposed to the Willabethers, who were in favor of Will and Elizabeth romance. I explain it to Gore in between shots and he responds with a bemused, pained look and goes back to work... Someone at Disney had a great idea, I'm not sure whom, they planned and put together a 'storytellers' conference. Two days of seminars down at the Disneyland Hotel, with people from all divisions of the company in attendance. Ted and I speak on the topic of Mental Real Estate (to a much larger audience than expected, I confess I would have prepared better if I had known). We got to re-connect with Ron Clements and John Musker and hear about their new project, I was tongue-tied meeting one of my idols, John Lasseter. Highlight for me, Michael Arndt comes up and says hello, and even compliments our Wordplay website. This guy just won the Academy Award, again I confess I was pretty much tongue-tied. Then Michael went on to give an eye-opening presentation on the art of creating a movie ending -- really well done.
Карибские сказки (2005). Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 1.
Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season (2005). Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 2.
Прогулка по доске - 2005. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 3.
Прогулка по доске - 2005. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 4.
Девять восьмёрок - 2006. Из дневников Терри Россио. Часть 5.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 1.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 2.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 3.
Из дневников Терри Россио. О съемках фильма «Пираты Карибского моря: На странных берегах». Часть 4.
