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Captain Jack Sparrow
WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2007
Captain Jack Sparrow
Tinseltown comes to paradise again
Centuries ago, The Bahamas was a hideaway for many infamous pirates, among them Henry Morgan, the notorious Blackbeard and the bloodthirsty Anne Bonney. Today, an even better-known buccaneer sails the Bahamian seas under the skull and crossbones: Captain Jack Sparrow, aka Johnny Depp, hero of Pirates of the Caribbean.
In 2005, the waters off Grand Bahama and Exuma provided stunning locations for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man?s Chest, second in the series of three blockbusters and one of the most successful movies of all time.
On opening day (July 7, 2006), Dead Man?s Chest grossed $55.5 million, the biggest one-day take in box office history. It then netted $132 million over the three-day weekend, breaking the record set by Spider-Man in 2002. Thanks to big sales in Asia, Pirates is one of only three films to break the $1 billion box office sales record (with $1.03 billion to date); the others are Titanic ($1.8 billion) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.1 billion).
The Bahamas also lent its scenic splendour to the third instalment, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World?s End, scheduled for release in the spring of 2007.
While Walt Disney Pictures and Depp are enjoying sold-out houses around the world, The Bahamas is cashing in on the favourable exposure it received as a much sought-after location for making movies.
Getting a green light
Although world-famous for its sun-splashed vistas of sea and sand, The Bahamas was not an automatic choice for the powers that be at Walt Disney Pictures.
Film commissioner Craig Woods said it took a lot of persistence to land Dead Man?s Chest for The Bahamas.
?It all started in January 2004 when I read that Disney Pictures was going to make a Pirates of the Caribbean II,? says Woods. ?So, I sent them an e-mail.?
?I got a ?thank you for your interest, but we don?t have a script yet.? I wrote back saying, ?That?s fine, but we?re a small country and we don?t want to miss the boat.??
Woods says he kept e-mailing and then phoning Disney executives until he worried they were becoming annoyed. At that point, a Bahamian producer in Los Angeles, Cedric Scott, encouraged Woods to keep up the campaign or another country might get the movie.
To apply even more pressure, Woods and representatives of the Bahamas Film Commission set up a booth at a Pirates of the Caribbean location show, held in Los Angeles in April 2004.
Disney executives visited the Bahamian booth and encouraged Woods to film some locations back home and send the footage to LA. He quickly arranged for shooting in Exuma and Eleuthera.
?The next thing I know, they said, ?we like some of this?we?re coming down.?? Two months later, director Gore Verbinski, Disney?s president for motion picture production Bruce Hendricks, and unit production manager Doug Merrifield arrived for a look-see.
Woods took them by helicopter to sites in Exuma, Abaco and Grand Bahama. They liked it all, Woods says today, but they ?really loved the water in Exuma.?
Hendricks must have been impressed because he came back with his family for a vacation at the Four Seasons Resort in Exuma.
One big water tank
In addition to scouting beaches and other locations, Verbinski, Hendricks and Merrifield toured The Bahamas Film Studios at Gold Rock Creek, east of Freeport, Grand Bahama.
The Bahamas Film Studios is an ambitious project still under way on a 3,500-acre property that was once a a US Air Force missile-tracking station. In time, the project is expected to be a fully functioning facility that will service not only the film industry but television production and the music recording businesses. Also planned are a much needed film school for Bahamians and a cultural and historical village?all of which are expected to be a huge tourism draw.
The executives were impressed but said they would need a shooting tank for Dead Man?s Chest. It was at this point, said Woods, that in order to lock up the movie, the studio agreed to build what turned out to be the biggest tank of its kind in the western hemisphere: it?s 640 feet long and 400 feet wide.
Known as the Collyer Tank in memory of one of the studio?s original partners, it includes an artificial cove, partially submerged, which enables camera operators to shoot sea-level views, a crucial feature in filming ship scenes.
?A lot of the open water scenes where you see bright sky and blue water, that?s at the tank,? says Woods.
As the studio was gearing up for Pirates of the Caribbean, another Bahamian firm, Quality Services, was brought in to create three ships used in the movie: Flying Dutchman, Edinburgh and Endeavour. They were built with the assistance of Disney?s technical people but the Bahamian employees of Quality Services worked with them, gaining expertise.
Lights, camera, action
The arrival of the crew, actors, director and the production team signalled the start of filming in the summer of 2005.
?I?ll never forget that,? says Woods. He recounts that a charter flew in from Los Angeles and ?a hundred and some-odd people got off the plane, got into their cars and went to their various hotels. The next morning, they went straight to the site.?
That site was Sandy Cay, also known as White Cay, located in the southern Exuma cays with stunning beaches and electric blue water.
Woods relates that the crew had to be careful not to disturb a local colony of endangered iguanas. Disney worked with BEST, the Bahamas Environment Science and Technology Commission, to protect the animals, with the help of an on-site wildlife biologist who kept the colony under observation during filming.
Sandy Cay was the backdrop for a complicated sword-fighting scene that included a three-way duel between Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and James Norrington (Jack Davenport). The scene also featured actress Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann.
?That scene was four minutes in the movie but it took about 10 days to shoot,? says Woods. ?But in that scene you see the beauty and magnificence of the water.?
Woods visited the sets and met most of the film crew and actors, including Depp, Davenport and Knightley. He says all the actors praised the location and The Bahamas as a whole. ?I have a DVD of Keira saying, ?out of all the places I shot, Exuma was my favourite.??
Depp was so taken with the site that he bought his own cay, where he said he intends to spend a lot of time with his family.
While parts of the two movies were shot in Dominica, St Vincent and California, the crew spent a total of 160 days in The Bahamas. Woods remembers that filming was halted briefly when Hurricane Wilma hit Grand Bahama in September 2005.
?They had to shut down for about five days, fly everybody out to Los Angeles, then they came back, re-prepped and continued to work.?
Opportunity of a lifetime
Just as The Bahamas had a chance to shine in one of the biggest movies of all time, some Bahamians had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire or sharpen their film production skills, learning from the best in the business.
Woods explains that film-makers shooting in The Bahamas are required to use and train Bahamian production workers. The Commission insists on a minimum of eight trainees to work on each film but ?we had about 15 trainees working on this project,? says
Woods. Some lucky Bahamians got to work with Oscar winner Penny Rose in the wardrobe department.
?This is something we?re trying to do because we don?t have a film school. What this (training) does is enhance their resumes and their marketability,? Woods says.
That?s a wrap
Filming wrapped up in February 2006 and when Dead Man?s Chest opened to big box office acclaim that summer, Woods and the Bahamas Film Commission had much to celebrate.
Woods says the beauty of The Bahamas helped make the movie such a huge success and added that Disney executives were ?very positive? about filming there.
Hendricks, who took part in a panel at the Cineposium, an annual event hosted by the Association of Film Commissioners International, lauded the Bahamian crew members and how well they worked with the professionals.
There is now a solid relationship between Disney and The Bahamas, says Woods, which could lead to more movie producers using the islands as a location. ?We?re in discussions with them for two things,? Woods says.
?One, to leave one of the ships, the Flying Dutchman, in The Bahamas as a prop; and two, to ask them to consider filming (a possible) Pirates IV and V here.?
In the meantime, audiences can look forward to seeing more of The Bahamas in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World?s End, set for a US release on May 25, 2007.
Sidebar:
For almost 100 years, producers wanting a tropical backdrop for their films have turned to The Bahamas, lured by the archipelago?s near-constant sun, colourful waters and unspoiled beaches.
Underwater photographer John Ernest Williamson was the first. Using a special diving bell called a photosphere, Williamson shot footage of boys diving for coins in 1914. His feature, Thirty Leagues Under the Sea, was a sell out in Chicago, London and New York.
Here are just a few of the many successful films that included scenes shot in the sunny Bahamas.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World?s End ? Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man?s Chest ? Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom (2006)
Casino Royale ? Daniel Craig, Judi Dench (2006)
Three ? Billy Zane (2006)
Into the Blue ? Paul Walker, Jessica Alba (2005)
After the Sunset ? Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek (2004)
Open Water ? Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis (2003)
The World is Not Enough ? Pierce Brosnan (2001)
The Insider ? Russell Crowe, Al Pacino (1999)
Speed 2: Cruise Control ? Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric (1997)
Zeus and Roxanne ? Steve Guttenberg, Kathleen Quinlan (1997)
Flipper ? Paul Hogan, Elijah Wood (1996)
The Silence of the Lambs ? Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster (1991)
Jaws: The Revenge ? Michael Caine, Mario van Peebles (1987)
Cocoon ? Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy (1985)
Splash ? Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah (1984)
Never Say Never Again ? Sean Connery, Kim Basinger (1983)
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