Though it wasn’t the blockbuster success Fox hoped for, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” — which celebrates its 15th anniversary on Wednesday — is still fondly remembered by those who worked on it, including James D’Arcy, who spoke with TheWrap about his first experience making a big-budget Hollywood film.
D’Arcy recalled he wished Russell Crowe hadn’t risked killing himself for the sake of his craft.
The “Broadchurch” star discussed how the crew spent 10 days at sea filming aboard a faithful replica of a 19th century naval ship (a ship that is still docked in San Diego and open to visitors, by the way). For one scene, D’Arcy and Crowe had to climb up to the crow’s nest for a helicopter shot and were given safety harnesses for climbing up the rigging.
D’Arcy, having never worked on a sprawling studio film before, gladly took the harness. But Crowe, the “Gladiator” veteran, decided to film his scene, climbing up, without the safety gear so it didn’t have to be edited out of the footage. Crowe then put the harness up in the crow’s nest before climbing back down, D’Arcy recalled.
“But when we got to the top he asked, ‘James, can you see my harness?'” said D’Arcy. “I told him I could sort of see the belt, and he just said… ‘Take it off.’ And I told him that they could just remove it from the shot with computers, and he just gave me that Russell Crowe look and said ‘Take. It. Off.'”
“And as I’m taking it off I’m wondering, if Russell falls… does that make me an accomplice?”
For more from D’Arcy and producer Duncan Henderson about “Master and Commander” on its 15th anniversary click here.
A Brief History of James Cameron Dumping on Beloved Movies, From 'Avengers' to 'Star Wars' (Photos)
A lot has happened in the two decades since James Cameron said he was "King of the World." In place of obsessions with terminators, aliens and Na'vi, superhero franchises have taken over the pop culture landscape. And as we await four "Avatar" sequels from Cameron, he's had plenty of time to throw some shade at some of our more recent movie landmarks. He most recently said this past weekend that he hopes we all get "Avengers" fatigue very soon, but he's also had criticisms for "Star Wars," "Wonder Woman," "Iron Man 3" and more.
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3-D Conversions in "Man of Steel" and "Iron Man 3"
The craze to make movies in 3D was real after the wild success of "Avatar." But films like "Man of Steel" and "Iron Man 3" weren't shot in 3D, just converted to it. Cameron took notice. “One thing is shooting in 3D and another is to convert to 3D," he said in 2013. "If you spend $150 million on visual effects, the film is already going to [look] spectacular [and] perfect.”
Marvel
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
Maybe he was just sore that "The Force Awakens" took over "Avatar's" throne. But Cameron chided director J.J. Abrams for the film's lack of "visual imagination." “I have to say that I felt that George’s group of six films had more innovative visual imagination, and this film was more a retrenchment to things you had seen before and characters you had seen before,” Cameron said in 2016. He added that Abrams took "baby steps" with new characters but was excited to see where they would go with it.
Disney/Lucasfilm
"Titanic" Fan Theories
Cameron broke a lot of hearts when he debunked a popular fan theory about his film "Titanic" that suggests Leonardo DiCaprio's character Jack might've also been able to fit on the floating door along with Kate Winslet's Rose. “Here’s the answer: it says in the script on page 147, Jack dies,” Cameron said on “The View." “So maybe we made the door a little too big when we made the movie, but Jack’s always going to die, folks! There’s no other version of reality.”
Twentieth Century Fox
"Wonder Woman"
Cameron disputed whether Gal Gadot and her iteration of "Wonder Woman" should be held up as feminist. “All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over ‘Wonder Woman’ has been so misguided,” Cameron said in August of 2017. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie, but to me, it’s a step backwards.” He defended his "Terminator" heroine Sarah Conner as not a "beauty icon" in the way he said Gadot is, and he even doubled down on his criticism, earning a sharp response from the original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter.
Getty Images/DC
Netflix
Between the Cannes vs. Netflix feud, we know what side Cameron falls on. Cameron took issue with the streaming service's day-and-date release strategy. “I’m not into it -- I think it’s a stupid idea. The sanctity of the theater-going experience is something I never really want to see go away,” he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper (via the Toronto Sun) in August 2017. “I actually don’t think it will go away, but people shouldn’t be denied the option of seeing a film on the big screen.”
TheWrap
"Terminator" sequels
Upon announcing a new sequel to "Terminator," Cameron revealed that the film would be an updated continuation of where "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" left off. Well, what of the three "Terminator" sequels since then? “We’re pretending the other films were a bad dream,” Cameron said in September of 2017. “Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse.” Not a Christian Bale fan are we?
Warner Bros. Pictures
"The Avengers"
Cameron's critique of Marvel's "The Avengers" and the superhero genre more broadly required a dictionary to understand. “I’m hoping we’ll start getting ‘Avenger’ fatigue here pretty soon,” Cameron said this weekend. “Not that I don’t love the movies. It’s just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!” A "gonad," for those playing at home, is a sex gland such as a testicle.
Marvel
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The ”Avatar“ director has thrown shade at some of our favorite pop culture staples, and even sequels to his own blockbuster
A lot has happened in the two decades since James Cameron said he was "King of the World." In place of obsessions with terminators, aliens and Na'vi, superhero franchises have taken over the pop culture landscape. And as we await four "Avatar" sequels from Cameron, he's had plenty of time to throw some shade at some of our more recent movie landmarks. He most recently said this past weekend that he hopes we all get "Avengers" fatigue very soon, but he's also had criticisms for "Star Wars," "Wonder Woman," "Iron Man 3" and more.
Getty Images
Marvel
