Troy - Press Archive - Variety |
Source: Variety
Sun., Feb. 2, 2003, 10:55am PT
U.S. pix: Out of Africa?
Caravan of projects being mulled for Morocco
By JONATHAN BING
Studios have committed more than $1 billion to a thicket of tentpoles
scheduled
to shoot in Morocco in the next two years. But the drums of war
reverberating
from Washington to Baghdad are giving Hollywood an epic headache.
The Muslim
nation on the northwest coast of Africa has long been a mecca
for Hollywood
filmmakers. But not since the 1950s -- the golden age of sword-and-sandal
sagas
-- have so many producers descended on the desert to build casbahs
and
coliseums, marshal herds of camels and elephants, and costume
thousands of
extras in scabbards and loincloths.
The caravan of pics being mulled for Moroccan lensing includes
"Troy" from Warner
Bros.; "Tripoli" from Fox; "Alexander the Great"
and "Gladiator 2" from DreamWorks
and Universal; another "Alexander the Great" from Intermedia
and Warner Bros.;
and the next installments of "Star Wars" and "Indiana
Jones."
But there are storm clouds on the horizon, with a U.S. invasion
of Iraq possible
in the next two months.
At a fundraiser at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Los Angeles on
Jan. 29, former U.N.
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke delivered a sobering message to an
audience of
talent agency toppers and film studio heads.
"We have to assume that within eight to 10 weeks," Holbrooke
said, "we'll be at
war."
Holbrooke's speech capped weeks of military buildup in the Persian
Gulf and
rising war rhetoric from Washington that is spooking the industry.
The financiers, execs and talent behind pics set to shoot in North
Africa are
confronting the possibility that a conflagration in the region
could spread across
the Middle East -- inflaming tensions even in a moderate state
like Morocco.
While Morocco is seven hours by plane from Iraq, a war could have
a disruptive
effect on regional filming everywhere. Given the complex production
logistics and
climate constraints in the region -- the mercury in the Sahara
climbs above 110
degrees after March -- even a few months of production delays
could create severe
problems.
"Troy," the Wolfgang Petersen Trojan War epic starring
Brad Pitt, is scheduled to
start production in Europe in April, traveling to Morocco in the
scorching summer
months of July and August.
The studio has staked out turf near Ouarzazate where execs say
they hope to
build a set for the pic, which being made under the auspices of
its U.K.-based
Warner Bros. Productions subsid.
But it has also considered moving the
pic out of Africa to locations in Spain or Mexico.
"Whenever we undertake a production on location, we always
explore alternate
locations," a studio spokesperson said. "Should our
planned locations become
unfeasible for any reasons, we have other options."
Fox's "Tripoli," originally scheduled to shoot this
spring, has been pushed back.
Producer Branco Lustig says the threat of war hasn't yet affected
the schedule,
and the pic, helmed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe,
could start
shooting on the coast of Morocco in August.
But Lustig says that war insurance could
add weight to the budget. In the 1991
Gulf War, he says, war insurance cost $3.5 million.
Insurance troubles could torpedo smaller productions set to shoot
in Morocco.
Director Terrence Malick, who was recently in the region scouting
locations for his
next feature -- an as-yet untitled desert adventure -- has been
telling people
that he couldn't get the film bonded.
Nobody likes to travel overseas during wartime, which means that
even producers
with contingency plans to shoot in other parts of the world may
have to wait out
the next few months.
Local crews in Morocco and a handful of American filmmakers remain
optimistic
that international events won't derail their production plans.
Dino's determined
Dino De Laurentiis has a lot riding on the security of the region.
He is building a
studio in Ouarzazate to house "Alexander the Great,"
a $140 million biopic he's
producing with Universal and DreamWorks. Baz Luhrmann, a partner
in De
Laurentiis' Moroccan studio, is helming and Leonardo DiCaprio
is starring in the pic,
which the producer says will start rolling in October or November
and shoot for 24
weeks.
"Morocco is a no-risk country," says De Laurentiis,
who adds that if war is
inevitable, it will be over by summertime. He says the pic even
has the support
of King Abdullah of Jordan and could shoot segments in that country,
which borders
Iraq.
De Laurentiis is locked in a showdown with another "Alexander
the Great" biopic
from Intermedia directed by Oliver Stone and starring Colin Farrell.
Intermedia
says its pic will roll in June, though soaring temperatures and
a lack of prep time
could make it impossible for Stone to shoot in the summer; he
allegedly hasn't
even finished the script.
Worried Moroccan film crews have a heartfelt message for President
Bush: Please
don't go to war.
Under the solicitous eye of the film-friendly King Mohammed VI,
the nation has
sought to position itself as the Canada of the Eastern hemisphere.
A popular Hollywood location dating back to mid-1950s productions
like Alfred
Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and Orson Welles'
"Othello," Morocco
is alluring for big-budget filmmakers. There's cheap labor and
veteran film crews,
major production facilities such as Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate,
and landscapes
and light conditions as cinematic as any location in the world.
In recent years, Morocco has hosted such large-scale productions
as "Gladiator,"
"Spy Game," "Hidalgo," "Black Hawk Down"
and "Four Feathers." The Moroccan
film industry employs some 2,000 people and brings in $100 million
a year in
foreign exchange.
"Geographically, Morocco is farther West than France or Spain,"
says Hicham
Benkirane, a production consultant who serves as the Hollywood
rep of Souheil
Ben Barka, head of the Moroccan Cinematographic Center. "The
country is
secular and multi-ethnic. We have a great king who loves cinema."
But for American crews, it's still a far cry from Canada.
Two years ago, with the outbreak of the second Intifada, the producers
of "Spy
Game" aborted plans to shoot several key sequences in Israel,
moving the
production to Casablanca just weeks before shooting.
The Moroccan city had "the right look for Beirut," says
producer Marc Abraham.
"But at times it could seem dirty and unsafe. Let's just
say, it didn't live up
to the romance and glamour of its name."
Insurance companies are also balking at the prospect of shooting
in Morocco
during wartime.
Runaway factor
A growing aversion to overseas shoots is certain to have one salutary
effect
in Hollywood, however: It will help curb runaway production.
U.S. producers are already pondering locations in their own backyard,
even for
films about actual events in the Middle East.
Mace Neufeld is producing a film for Columbia Pictures based on
the battle in
2001 for control of the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the
uprising at
Qala-i-Jhangi prison.
"Even though we have the cooperation of the Afghan ambassador
to the U.S.,"
Neufeld says, "we'll probably end up shooting in Arizona
or the Mojave Desert.
We don't want to put our people in harm's way."
Neufeld is planning to shoot another pic, "Pathfinder,"
in Poland, but he adds,
"I've done so many locations that I would love to shoot something
close to
home. Almost any place over there can be a hotspot if war breaks
out."
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