Thirty - four age after disaster film producer Irwin Allen inverted a sail ship in the name of entertainment , Wolfgang Petersen – who knows a bit about boat - themed movie theater – has upend another Poseidon and drowned thousands with $ 160 million worth of watery effects .
Petersen , the director of " Das Boot " and " The Perfect Storm , " aimed to close down out his maritime trilogy " using all the pecker we have to make it truly frightening and really realistic and really get across the idea what disaster is . That ’s what I wanted : naturalistic , very hard - edged , scary like underworld . " His version , based on Mark Protosevich ’s screenplay , keeps the original conception but fight just about everything else from Paul Gallico ’s novel and the 1972 film , including the characters . " Neither would work today , " he excuse .
The assemblage of would - be escapee now includes Josh Lucas as a professional gambler , Kurt Russell as the ex - Mayor of New York travel with his girl ( Emmy Rossum ) and her fiancé ( Mike Vogel ) , Richard Dreyfuss as a despondent architect , Jacinda Barrett as a unmarried mom and Mia Maestro as a stowaway .
Vogel like the idea of being in a vast catastrophe flick . " We ’re drawn to cataclysm for some reason and we want to go through that without having to really experience it . I opine that ’s why films like this and ' The Day After Tomorrow ' are wildly popular , " he excogitate . " You realize how small a part you really play . The star of this movie is that gravy holder , that urine , and that ’s what Wolfgang does best . "
Those elements came to life with the aid of more than 600 visual effects , depart with the computer - generated sea and ship exterior that opens the film . Lucas ' solitary jog was filmed against a green cover at the Sepulveda Dam in Los Angeles and integrated with CGI created by the team of visual effects supervisor Boyd Shermis .
The Poseidon ’s interior took massive shape on five soundstages at the Warner Bros. Studio flock in Burbank , California , where Stage 16 housed a 95 - by-100 - by-22 pes tank with a capability of 1.3 million gallons , flesh out since Petersen made " The Perfect Storm " there .
The crew build most sets in both correct - side - up and upside - down reading , the latter requiring unequalled specification . It took 100 crewmembers five months to establish the 72 - foot high inverted ship foyer , using 750,000 pounds of I - beamsteel , 10,000 sheets of plyboard , and rust - resistant machine body rouge . The bunch built most of the set atop hydraulic gimbal that tilt side to side , stem and aft , and could pitch and yaw . The ship ’s bridge was too turgid to splay in one part without scraping the soundstage ’s ceiling so it was build and shot in two sections .
" The first time we walked onto the upside down vestibule curing , everyone start express mirth because they ’d never seen anything that elaborate , " remembers Vogel . " Then Wolfgang put on ' Thus Spake Zarathustra ' and pop directing to this loud music . It was all surreal . "
The inverted surroundings were disorienting at first , allege Rossum . " You do get used to having the lights on the floor , although they ’re really red-hot and sometimes would burn through our shoes . "
Firecame into child’s play in several sequences , including one sport Lucas diving under piss aflame with burning oil . John Frazier ’s special gist squad treated flat piece of metal with propane and suspended them two in above the water ’s airfoil to achieve the fiery effect as fancy from below .
Other scenes required monolithic quantity of water . Ten 8 - foot - diam culvert pipework served as the conduit for the 90,000 gallon of body of water used to submerge the ship ’s dance hall . camera operator in stiff causa and goggles operated five camera set at dissimilar amphetamine – and seal in watertight housings – becharm the action .
The actors also spent a lot of clock time submerged in water . Jacinda Barrett described a grueling 10 - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. shoot imply Lucas and her trapped son : " To make us sink a bit in the weewee they would put weight belts on us . They put an added exercising weight belt on me because I was n’t suffer low enough and they put extra on Jimmy and I did n’t know they did that . I preserve live on lower and lower and I had this kid in my weapon , and my eardrums sense like they would erupt . The water supply safety citizenry rushed in , but it was really chilling . Your normal senses of judging things are out the windowpane once you ’re underwater . You ca n’t see anything . I was always worried that if I was really panicked they ’d just think I was doing a good task acting ! "
The actors also had to contend with air hoses blowing in their faces under pee to get their hair out of the way . " And because there was so much bubbling , they had to tie all the debris with fishing conducting wire so it would stay in office , " state Barrett , take down that Petersen " wanted us to do as much of the stunts as we could . The only moments where I realize it was n’t me and was a CGI person , was in the ballast armoured combat vehicle – I could see CGI consistency in the waterfall . "
Next , we ’ll take a look at how the " Poseidon " actors train for their character and the difficulties of working underwater .
Water, Water Everywhere
work underwater presented unique physical and mental challenge for the thespian . Lucas is a certified diver , but allege that " Poseidon " was " the most unmanageable , strong-arm water work I ’ve done . The fact that you may not see was so ambitious . And being wet for five months – I ’d ride in a spicy tub or nestling ’s syndicate between takes rather than dry off – your skin sire so sonant that you’re able to reduce it with your fingernail . It ’s gross . It ’s absolutely amazing what happen to your body when you ’re in water for that period of time . "
For Kurt Russell , the difficult part was the inability to see underwater and having to look on the safety diver ' guidance and air . " Once you ’re in there , there ’s no way out . It ’s unmanageable to put your trust in someone , " he excuse .
All cast members underwent training prior to the moving picture and apply entertain their breath under water . " I had to check how toscubadive , freedive – some of the scary situations I had ever been in , " note Rossum . " To machinate to breathe underwater they would dip this Plexiglas regular hexahedron over my read/write head . It was quite claustrophobic . I ’d give them a sign when I was out of air . But I got to a minute and a half . "
talk of claustrophobia , Rossum and the other actors spent one of the most intensely nail-biting sequences in a narrowair conditioningduct . quarter were so tight that Petersen had to practice a 3 - inch diameter Panavision breather genus Lens , and the only light in the chronological succession came from flashlights carried by the actors . " We were in there for a week and a one-half , with water rear from below , " recalls Maestro . " We had to keep up the vim and the rip . It was exhausting . "
Despite precautions , the sets were still danger zone for the actors , who ended up baste , bruised and sick . In one underwater moment , Russell accidentally smashed Lucas in the eye with a flashlight , and that ’s Lucas ' actual blood you see in the scene .
" I was hospitalized on this pic for two different injuries , when I had stitches on my eye and when I snapped a musculus in my pollex , " elaborates Lucas . " We were hurt , everyone was sick . You ’re mete out with a human Petri dish . Those guard divers have been down there eight hour , and they ’re pass water in the water , definitely . "
Dreyfuss admits to that somatic subroutine , and Barrett order small fry worker Jimmy Bennett nab to it as well . " Plus you ’re tracking in all the dirt on your shoe into the water , " she points out , adding that she avoided illness with doses of Chinese herbaceous plant , but could n’t escape a nasty scrape on her peg .
Vogel develop swimmer ’s spike , and he and Russell both got pneumonia . " fortuitously I had ten days off so I could get healthy and be in honorable shape for the underwater stuff I had to do , " Russell says . Dreyfuss wrenched his back and would " crawl habitation " daily , and Rossum " was pretty much purple from the cervix down with contusion because the floors were so slippery and my shoes were so slippy . "
The scene where the escapees are waiting to see if a ballast tank hatching will spread was the scariest for Rossum . " We were really in that enclosed space and the top was rig to open on a pulley system . But what if the pulley-block system of rules failed ? Kurt was like , ' Just do n’t think about it , just do n’t intend about it , everything will be fine . ' It was the hard affair I ’ve done in my life physically , " she says of the shoot . " But fear is 80 percent mental and if you’re able to overcome it you ’ll be fine . Plus , I had to show the guy cable that girls are n’t wusses ! "
Levity on the set was a welcome and necessary tenseness - surf . accord to Rossum , Dreyfuss and Lucas were the biggest jokers . " Josh want to play a practical joke on Wolfgang and throw a bucket of water over his chief on one Clarence Day because we were five months in and he had never gotten cockeyed . But he did n’t do it . "
The cast member praised the conductor for his soft - going demeanor and mode of make . " I imagine maybe if we did n’t work with a director like Wolfgang the shoot would have been torturous , because if we had the normal 16 hour days a cinema takes we would all be so exhausted . We were in at 7:00 a.m. , had soup at 11:00 a.m. , luncheon at 1:00 p.m. , and were done almost every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. by 7:00 p.m. They were n’t really long days so we set out to lie . "
Vogel says Petersen and cast comradeship helped counteract the physical misery and were " what tug us through this for six months , all of us further one another and being wet and sick together . Wolfgang is so serene and relaxed , and that spread out over the integral work party . " He ’d promptly work with the theatre director again , as would his co - stars .
For more data on " Poseidon , " ascertain out the link on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
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