Disney looks at sites for big-budget Pearl Harbor movie

The live-action picture about

the WWII attack is budgeted

at $145 million

WALT Disney studio

executives have begun scouting locations at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base for a Michael Bay-Jerry Bruckheimer film about the 1941 attack that, with its $145 million budget, is being called the most expensive live-action movie in motion picture history.

Bay, who directed “Armageddon” and “The Rock,” and Bruce Hendricks, president of physical production for the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, were in Honolulu in December with two other Disney executives.

The film, tentatively titled “Pearl Harbor,” was given the green light by Disney in November, reportedly with an “officially sanctioned $145 million budget” - $lO million more than “Armageddon,” which until now had the highest budget ever. Other films have cost more, including the $2OO million “Titanic” and $lB5 million “Waterworld,” but those pictures originally were budgeted for less.

“Pearl Harbor” will be written by Oscar nominated screenwriter Randall Wallace, who wrote “Braveheart.” Sources said that film production in Hawaii is expected to begin in the spring. Jerry Bruckheimer, with his late partner Don Simpson, made several financially successful films, including “Flashdance,” “Top Gun” and “Crimson Tide.” The production team looked at several facilities at Pearl Harbor.

They were accompanied by two officers from a Navy office in Los Angeles that serves as liaison with the entertainment industry, who came to escort the production team while on the base. Lt. Cmdr. Rod Gibbons, Navy public affairs officer at Pearl Harbor, was the local liaison. Also accompanying the group was Randy Spangler, Hawaii’s top location coordinator.

Despite the reputation of Bay and producer Bruckheimer for making successful big-budget films, Disney backed off from its initial enthusiasm, leading to weeks of discussion, according to sources.

Entertainment trade papers in Los Angeles reported the film’s original budget was as high as $2OO million, before being cut to about $154 million and then to $145 million.

Bay told the Star-Bulletin in September that the movie’s budget would be $lOO million to $125 million.

Bay said the film’s expense is due to some 300-plus highly technical special effects that will be used. Much the film’s special effects, including the sinking of the USS Oklahoma, will be shot at Fox’s Baja Studio, where “Titanic” was filmed.

Bay has insisted on completely re creating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which pushed the United States into World War 11. The director said he wants to use “a lot of live explosions” rather than just computer-generated ones, including taking “real ships and twisting them up and through the air.”

He had hoped for top-dollar actors such as Gene Hackman and Gwyneth Paltrow but, because of the cut in the film’s budget, will have to find stars without A-list salaries, sources said.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, part of the negotiations with Bay and Bruckheimer ended with the pair having to make several financial concessions to get their picture made, including neither of them receiving their regular first-dollar gross deal.

Their back-end participation also will be less than on previous pictures. And they also will be held personally responsible for budget overruns, the publication reported.

The story of “Pearl Harbor” begins months before the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack, and focuses on two brothers who love the same woman. One brother stays in America in the US Air Corps, and the other travels overseas to fight in the United Kingdom.

Bay said he and writer Wallace in June began interviewing veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack.

“Tennessee” was used as a code name for the film to prevent information about it from getting out, as happened with “Armageddon.” When word leaked out about that project, Dream Works and Paramount quickly put a similar story into production: “Deep Impact.”

Navy officials in Los Angeles must review and approve the “Pearl Harbor” script before granting permission for the production to film on a Navy base or lending other support.

Georgette Deemer, the state’s Film Office manager, and Walea Constantinau, Honolulu’s film commissioner, also met with the production executives during their stay.

Neither Bay nor Hendricks immediately returned several messages left at their Honolulu hotels. ■

A US warship anchored at Pearl Harbour