Last August, a handful of supremely lucky reporters hopped on a bus from London headed for just one of the many sets of 'Clash of the Titans.' Over at Longcross Studios in Surrey, we ventured forth into the armory and the huge wardrobe department, peeked at Charon and his boat across the river Styx, and sat down with stars Sam Worthington (Perseus), Gemma Arterton (Lo) and Mads Mikkelsen (Draco), as well as producer Kevin De La Noy.
We also managed to sneak in some time with director Louis Leterrier on one of the sets full of extras who were soon to be terrified by the Kraken as we cowered in the background. Here's what you need to know before heading into the theater this April, besides, of course, that now you'll be able to see these Titans in 3D.
1. We have seen Bubo, and he is marvelous.
Although the prop masters hedged on whether or not the Bubo we saw would make an appearance in the movie, it seemed obvious that the ornate new Bubo, who can move his head, wings, eyes and beak, was ready for his close-up. (In fact, Film School Rejects got the scoop from the film's screenwriters that Bubo is in the movie after all.) On set, Leterrier and Worthington both indicated that the iconic owl was somehow involved. Worthington noted, "Bubo's not necessarily liked," and Leterrier later added, "Bubo came onset one day, and it was quite tense between us. I must say this, I begged Sam not to destroy Bubo."
2. Pegasus is a diva.
Bubo isn't the only one with an attitude. Worthington admitted the horse playing Pegasus was rather hard to wrangle. "I can't get near the f**king thing without it eating me. It tries to bite me. It's got an attitude problem. It's done more movies than me. It's done 'Alexander' and f***ing 'Prince of Persia,' so it's all f***ing hot s**t now, isn't it. It doesn't come out of its trailer, mate." This translated into an interesting dynamic between them in the movie, in that Pegasus reflected Perseus' own anger and confusion. On the other hand, Arterton asserted that the horse loved Worthington. Only Pegasus knows the truth.
3. This is not Sparta.
De La Noy noted that early on it was decided the film would use in-camera effects as much as possible, similar to the project he and special effects advisor Neil Corbould had previously worked on together, 'The Dark Knight.' As opposed to using "green screen and composite digital landscapes," aka the "'300' route," De La Noy said, "It's absolutely obvious we can't make a Kraken [in-camera]; there are certain things that have to be in the realm of the digital, but where we can, we're using practical effects." That meant hours and hours of makeup for extras, Calibos, who'd been zapped by Zeus' thunderbolt, the witches, and other characters. It also meant Charon himself is an animatronic puppet controlled by three people. And, of course, epic landscapes...
4. Travel the world and leave your passport at home.
'Clash of the Titans' was filmed in Tenerife on the Canary Islands, in mines and quarries in Wales, and the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia from above. Leterrier said, "I believe that these movies need to be shot somewhere else than Burbank." Well, Tenerife was certainly far from Burbank; the cast and crew lugged their stuff up and down a volcano 9,000 feet high every day until they were literally above the clouds. Gemma Arterton described one scene where "there's a shot... of the boy, looking out on the horizon, and there are clouds beneath them. And everyone will think we put them in in post-production but we didn't, and it's the most beautiful shot." The altitude sickness must be a killer because the last movie that was shot there was 'One Million Years B.C.,' starring Raquel Welch -- released in 1966. (Interestingly enough, that movie had special effects by Ray Harryhausen.)
5. There are more clashes to come
Leterrier admitted that he had initially written "a big, long storyline" as part of the original script treatment and that "this was a little bit too small for a single movie." De La Noy agreed there are more adventures to be had in the world of Perseus and other myths. Arterton, a true mythology enthusiast, said "The great thing about the Greek mythologies is there's the underworld, so there's heaven and hell, so if somebody dies, like with [one of] the boys, that means they can come back. Or we can go to the underworld and find them or something, and people are morphing and changing all the time. There's talk that Io comes back as an evil character in the next one, and I love that, that's brilliant. Like, she becomes corrupted or something. And you can completely do that because it's Greek mythology and that sort of stuff happens all the time."
6. It takes time to look this ugly.
The same makeup artists who created the Joker's scars in 'The Dark Knight' also did the extensive makeup for Calibos, who endured 3 hours a day to put on and take off the mixed media creating his burn-victim look. Hades' lost souls took three hours each, and the witches took four hours at a time with two people doing their makeup at once. In comparison, 15 minutes to put on and take off the Joker's scars seems like a piece of very uncomfortable cake.
7. Perseus and his crew were a little worse for the wear at the end of the day.
Former gymnast and dancer Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Draco, a new character that's the head of Andromeda's guardsmen and goes with Perseus to save her, did almost all of his own stunts. "I think actually I've done it all. I don't think there's anything I haven't done. It's been a priority for the stunt guys that if they could make us do it ourselves and look good, that's what they were aiming for. Obviously, if it didn't look good in the end, or [was] too dangerous, they would take over. And the stuff I've done has been pretty tough but not dangerous. They've allowed me a chance." Meanwhile, Worthington admitted, "I just tend to run headlong into it and see what happens." As far as boasting who has the most bumps and bruises at the end of the day, "I think any actor that talks [his] beatings up is just talking himself up. I tend not to kind of bring them up, right? I know what I've took. The boys know what I've took... Let them whinge about their little knee scrape! They know who took the most." Ouch!
8. They're fans of the original, too. (Mostly.)
Seems as though Mikkelsen is alone in not having seen the original. Leterrier told us, "Just like you guys, I grew up watching this movie. I think I saw it before 'Star Wars,' so this was like my first, like, 'Wow!' experience, you know what I mean?" But the hugest fan, perhaps, might surprise you. Arterton confessed, "My mum is an astrologer, as a hobby, and so when we were growing up, instead of reading us bedtime stories, she'd read us Greek myths from this little book we had which is falling apart, and I loved them, absolutely loved them!" She added, "I was a massive fan of the [original] film, 'Clash of the Titans,' because Mom had taped off the TV 'Jason and the Argonauts' and 'Clash of the Titans' and we had them on video, but not all of them -- you know when you tape something and you get the adverts in there and you haven't got the end 'cause something else is taped over it or something -- so I had 'Clash of the Titans' but not in its entirety. We used to watch it all the time, me and my sister, to the point where we could, I can still recite bits from the film, so when they asked me to read for this part for the film, I was like over the moon." Her mom was really excited, too.
9. Being a demi-goddess is hard work.
The classically trained actress and Bond girl had some trouble wearing a giant cloak through a crowd of 300 extras. Unfortunately, trying to be elegant and ethereal when people are stepping on your cloak can be really stressful. "At the end of the day, I just took the cloak and went, 'I hate this cloak!' [laughs] And Louis said, 'You diva! I love it when you're like that. Oh, I love it!' And I said, 'No, you don't understand. The cloak's pulling away from my performance!'"
10. There's no rest for the director.
Because of the time constraints, in-camera effects, CGI effects, travel, and everything else involved in getting those Titans to clash, Leterrier was working almost around the clock. ""I'm shooting, I'm cutting, I'm doing visual effects. Yeah, I'm working 20 hour days, seven days a week." Let's hope he gets some sleep before 'Clash of the Titans' opens on April 2.
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