Share Your Thoughts About Horatio Hornblower
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Sep 4, 2008 06:18 PM
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DianeGretnaGreen
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Hornblower Fan Fiction
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Aug 2, 2006 07:32 PM
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Celesteadora
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Discuss the Hornblower Cast
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Apr 18, 2006 09:17 PM
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usHHfan
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Hornblower/Forester Book Club - Share Your Thoughts
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Jul 23, 2005 09:28 PM
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Stasia
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A&E ANNOUCEMENT ABOUT HH3
Dear Hornblower Fans,
A&E* is proud and happy to announce the return of Ioan Gruffudd as HORATIO HORNBLOWER in a brand new, third installment of our Emmy-award winning miniseries. Returning with Ioan to recreate their original roles are Paul McGann as Lt. Bush, Paul Copley as Matthews, and Sean Gilder as Styles. Further good news will be forthcoming as additional cast members are confirmed. The 4-hour miniseries goes into production in the UK this June, and is drawn from and based upon the third book in C.S. Forster's Hornblower series, HORNBLOWER AND THE HOTSPUR. Most of the original production team are returning as well, including Director Andrew Grieve, Producer Andrew Benson, Production Designer Rob Harris, Costume Designer John Mollo, Editor Keith Palmer, and Executive Producers Michele Buck and myself.
We know many of you have been wondering about the status of a third HORNBLOWER series, and wondering why we had made no announcement. We felt it was important to wait until our key cast members had been set, and we appreciate your understanding and patience. Even more, we are most grateful for the lively support you have given the series over the years, and we look forward to giving you more to talk about over the next year!
Sincerely,
Delia Fine
Executive Producer, Horatio Hornblower
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Aug 8, 2008 03:47 PM
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pixiechic34
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HH3 production from Executive Producer Delia Fine
Dear Hornblower Fans,
Greetings and good wishes from the production of HH3.
First off, a news update on some additional casting:
We are very pleased to be able to confirm at last that Robert Lindsay will return as SIR EDWARD PELLEW. We are also delighted that Julia Sawalha (AB FAB) will be playing the role of MARIA. I know many of you thought she would be perfect
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Aug 2, 2008 04:11 PM
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pixiechic34
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Interview with David Warner (Captain Sawyer)
A conversation with actor DAVID WARNER (Captain Sawyer)
on the set of the A&E Original Movie.
QUESTION:
Who is Captain Sawyer?
DAVID WARNER:
Captain Sawyer is the captain of the ship that Hornblower joins in this particular miniseries. A man who has been a hero. A man who is highly regarded. But that's all before the story starts. Even Hornblower and all his friends say what a wonderful and great commander this man was. What happens is, he's starting to fall apart, and he's starting to make the wrong decisions. He's starting to get paranoid. He's starting to make everybody very uncomfortable. (Laughs)
QUESTION:
What was the most difficult part to play? I mean, he does really go off the deep end.
DW:
Once it's there in the script, you know, it sort of comes quite naturally. I really didn't like having to order the flogging of a young mid-shipman. (Laughs) When I read the script, I said "Oh, it's plenty of flogging," you know? I mean, he's not a cruel man, or anything like that. He's, as I say, falling apart. That was the most difficult thing for me to do, because the man isn't a villain as such. Although he is a heavy, because our heroes have got to try and find out how to deal with this man. Over the course of the four hours of the two episodes, they do.
The character I play makes some bad decisions. It hasn't been difficult, because the script has been so well written, and because the rest of the cast is so wonderful. I mean this quite sincerely. I've never really come across a group of people to work with that I've so really, really enjoyed being with. That's made it so much easier, as I am playing a kind of ... you know, hard man.
QUESTION:
When we first meet him, we don't have the benefit of knowing his past. So he's just a villain.
DW:
But then it's explained by Hornblower and everybody. How could this have happened? And there's no real explanation as to why. It's just a kind of an illness, a paranoia, or whatever. I mean, he's ill. Don't forget, in those days, captains were quite likely to be screaming and shouting and ordering and doing things. I don't think that's particularly out of the ordinary. It's just when he goes a little bit too far you start to question. They were quite ruthless in those days.
QUESTION:
How do you reveal these slight aspects of that sensitivity?
DW:
Well, I can't explain it technically. You’ve just got to get those little kind of things in. Not necessarily in the writing or the dialogue, but just in little moments on his own. Little looks he has. And then he has to snap out of it and be the Captain. Then you realize that he's got a vulnerability. He's also got two characters who have served with him for a long, long time before this, who are really dedicated to him. That couldn't happen unless he did have some really decent qualities, which unfortunately, you don't actually get to see too much in this. Maybe later on, you understand.
QUESTION:
Tell me about the Captain’s relationship with the ship doctor, Dr. Clive.
DW: Well, he served with him, he's a friend. Because he’s ill, Dr. Clive has been looking after him medically as well as serving with him on the ships. And then we have Hobbs, who's a gunner, who's been with him too.
You know, this Captain Sawyer prefers really the men to the officers. So, without getting into some kind of deep character thing, he may have had problems when he was a lieutenant that's made him this way. Because with ordinary seamen, he's absolutely fine. It's the officers he has a problem with. Which is quite interesting.
QUESTION:
There's a scene where Captain Sawyer actually confronts Dr. Clive. He says something like, "What are you doing? Why are you doing this?"
DW: Well, by then, I am ill. By then I am in a straight jacket, and I've been confined to my cabin. There's a kind of mutiny there. So you know, he says, "Why are you doing this to me? Why aren't you helping me?" And of course everybody's doing it for the good of the ship, and the good of him too. I mean nobody's trying to kill him or anything like that. But he doesn't know. So Clive, his doctor and friend, is doing it for his own good. He can't understand that.
QUESTION:
And Hobbs remains extremely dedicated to his Captain. He's ready to execute his every wish in keeping things out of control.
DW: I think this is what's so wonderful about this particular script. There are about 10 major characters, all of whom have interesting character developments. Apart from the battles, which are very exciting, and all the sword fighting, and all that’s going on, we also have human stories, which is absolutely wonderful. You mention Hobbs, who you think is a bit devious and all that. As you realize, at the end of the script, whatever he's been doing, he is heroic. It's about honor as well as adventure and character development and people changing. Even the most unlikely people turn up to have honor. I think even maybe Captain Sawyer, has a bit of honor. (Laughter)
QUESTION:
What about Wellard?
DW:
Captain Sawyer, you see, he's using Wellard as an example to keep the officers in line. Because he can't have the lieutenant flogged. That's just not allowed. But midshipmen can be. I assumed Sawyer was flogged when he was a midshipman. I mean, I'm sure they all were. I think that's the way of keeping the other officers in line -- saying, “I have the power of this young man.” It's terrible. I really feel bad having to do that.
QUESTION:
It seems like every character goes through these incredible changes over the course of the story. No one is strictly villainous.
DW: Absolutely. Hobbs, as I say, turns out to be a hero, but you wouldn't have expected that right at the beginning. We know our regulars are going to be heroes, sort of. Oh, I must emphasize, English heroes. It's a very rare commodity nowadays. (Laughs)
QUESTION:
These stories are seafaring adventures, classic English pictures. Why do you think they still so popular?
DW: Well, they're really popular in the States. Which is quite all right. I tell you why there's an audience for them. It's quite simple. There's an audience for this, because somebody has taken the challenge, of making them, and putting them on A&E. That's why there's an audience. If people are given quality stuff to watch, they'll watch it.
QUESTION:
Buckland is another interesting character. He's a threat to your character, but then you sort of turn him into an ally.
DW: I'm at him all the time. But then, I'm at all of them all the time, except Mr. Bush and Kennedy. Hornblower and Buckland are the ones I go after. Buckland's development is a whole other wonderful art for the character. I mean he goes everywhere, that character. And Nicholas Jones, he's wonderful in it. They're all great. And I mean that. They're all wonderful.
QUESTION:
Here’s a loaded one: Is there a real Captain Sawyer on the set?
DW: Oh, not to my knowledge. (Laughs) No, no, no. No, I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.
QUESTION:
We didn't talk about your relationship with Hornblower? What do you think about that?
DW: Hornblower and Sawyer hardly have any scenes together one on one. We have about two or three scenes where we're on our own. And those tend to be more gentle scenes, believe it or not. We have a scene where he's on watch, and it's in the middle of the night, and I'm slightly crazy. But that's a kind of low-key. There's another scene where he comes in and says, "You were a great man once." That's a low-key scene. The others, when I'm kind of at him, are when there are a lot of people there. So it's really a question of trying to put people down in front of other people, do you understand?
QUESTION:
Captain Sawyer does seem to recognize that Hornblower is his adversary, or potential adversary.
DW: Oh, absolutely, because he taunts Buckland in saying, “This boy is just fantastic.” He can admire qualities in other people. So he's not blind to all the qualities that Hornblower has. But he does put him down in public a lot, which a lot of people do. You know? On film sets, people get put down in public a lot.
QUESTION:
Talking about film sets, you've been in more than 30 films, Star Trek included. How does this fit into such a truly illustrious career?
DW: How does it fit in? It's another kind of a different genre, you know? Two Star Trek films, and then two of the episodes with Patrick Stewart. I've done a couple of sea pictures, you know, The Titanic, was a sort of sea picture. So, this is my sea picture genre. (Laughs) I've been in horror movies, I've been in silly comedies. Actually did a musical years ago. Kids' films....
QUESTION:
You know, the last ship you were on -- The Titanic -- didn't fare too well at sea.
DW: No, it didn't, did it. Did well at the box office, though. (Laughs)
QUESTION:
Would you consider doing more of these sea faring pictures?
DW: As long as I didn't have to go to sea. (Laughs) Let the camera do the rocking.
QUESTION:
One more question about Titanic. What was it like meeting up again with Ioan Gruffudd, who was in Titanic with you? And, here you two are again at sea....
DW: Well, in Titanic, I only saw Ioan as we were waiting endless hours through endless nights to do our bits. And Ioan was of course charming and lovely, because all the girls were just sort of standing there looking at him, you know, because he was just so beautiful, and gentle and charming and lovely. Didn't talk much to Ioan then. We were all sort of in our own little kind of boxes waiting to go on. But it's just so wonderful to see him now, having seen him there, which was a relatively small but memorable role. The guy who saved Kate, doing so well. He's a wonderful actor. A smashing young man.
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Jan 6, 2006 02:45 PM
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Cannonfire
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Interview with Hornblower II Executive Producer
AN INTERVIEW WITH DELIA FINE ON THE SET OF HORATIO HORNBLOWER
QUESTION:
There are a lot of fans who are going to be pleased to see Horatio again. What's there to look forward to in these episodes?
DELIA FINE:
Oh, in these new episodes there's more adventure, there are new characters to meet, there is more peril. I think most importantly, you go on following the adventure of this young man who is growing up to be a quite an extraordinary leader of men.
QUESTION::
We've spent a little time away, a couple years has gone by. How has he matured?
DELIA FINE:
I think he has had an extraordinary opportunity to work with a really amazing range of people. It's been an experience where he's been able to learn in every opportunity he's had, and he's taken advantage of that. It's really quite an interesting parallel line, I think, between Ioan Gruffudd the actor and the character of Hornblower in terms of how they're both growing up and maturing in their roles.
QUESTION::
You have the benefit too, you know, of revisiting and continuing this project. What did you learn from producing the past episodes? Are there any changes you've made, production-wise?
DELIA FINE:
I think we learned a lot from the first four episodes that has helped us with these. For example, this time, we built a standing set for the ship. That enabled us to light it in a more efficient way. It enabled us to shoot every day on a schedule, whereas if you take a ship to sea and the weather's bad, you can't leave the harbor. The day would have been canceled. This time, they were able to take full advantage of the set every day on the schedule. And the look is even better.
QUESTION:
How much of the crew is actually the same?
DELIA FINE:
Andrew Grieve is back as director, Andrew Benson is back as producer. Our costume designer, John Mollo, our production designer, and Rob Harris, the production designer... We've been very fortunate in reassembling the creative team. They have taken all the lessons they learned from the first round and I think are working to create an even more impressive film.
QUESTION:
Lets talk about the story. What happens to our hero in this new series?
DELIA FINE:
I think what's interesting about these new episodes is that, in addition to all the adventure, and in addition to all of the excitement of the action, there really is a kind of ethical dilemma that has to be solved. It's a really internal story as well. The captain on the ship is clearly unbalanced. In that kind of a world, that kind of ethical dilemma is a matter of life and death. This particular ship has perhaps 800 or 850 people on it. That's the size of a small town. The captain holds absolute and complete power and authority. He has the power of life and death over all 850 of those souls. At his whim, he can deal out punishment. He can condemn somebody to death, he can fail to give the proper orders in battle or in a storm. He holds all these people's lives and deaths in his hands. When Captain Sawyer begins to go around the bend, they have to decide how they're going to handle it. Theoretically, they can't remove him from authority because that's mutiny, punishable by death. At the same time, their lives are at stake with every decision he makes.
QUESTION:
Tell me about the structure of the story. Its not strictly linear, is it?
DELIA FINE:
You've got multiple lines of tension going on. Are they going to survive storms? Are they going to survive the battle? Are they going to be able to carry on? In addition, you've got the enormously high stakes of what's going to happen to these officers, and what's going to happen to Hornblower in this incredibly tense trial sequence. And again, it's a matter of life and death. If these officers are condemned, they will be hanged. You see the gallows being built during the course of the film. So it just ups the ante, I think. It makes it even more exciting.
QUESTION:
This was an interesting point in history, a lot was going on.
DELIA FINE:
Although the main action takes place on a ship which is its own isolated world, you have to remember that at this particular time, the whole world was in turnover. There were revolutions going on, the French are in a revolution, the American Revolution had just ended. The entire world order was changing. So, it's not surprising that there is a slave rebellion and revolution going on in our story at the same time. In no small part, it was inspired by some of the same ideals from the French Revolution.
QUESTION:
People may not be aware that the Hornblower stories take place in a specific point in history, and are historically accurate.
DELIA FINE:
Oh, absolutely. All the details of the books in terms of what happens on the ship, and the kinds of actions that they were involved in, the military battles, sea battles, that they took part in, are all very accurate and in keeping with that period of history. There are actually a few historical characters within the books as well. There really was, for example, a Captain Pellew.
QUESTION:
Tell me a little about some of the staging of a production of this magnitude.
DELIA FINE:
I think one of the trickiest bits always is working with the models on the tank, which is absolutely vital to this film. We were able to bring back the period models that we used in the first series of film. And, in fact, some people who saw Longitude may be interested to know that those models doubled in Longitude as well.
QUESTION:
You shot the film in Menorca. What goes into choosing a location like that, and what makes it work for you?
DELIA FINE:
There are a lot of things that you have to consider when you're picking a location. Certainly budget is one of the foremost, because you want to find a location that's practical, within the scale of your economy, and that will accommodate as many different pieces of your filming as possible. So, for example, Menorca worked really well for us because we could build the ships there, and we could build a set on the fort that provided all the locations for all of the battle scenes in the Spanish fort. Anytime you have to pick up an entire company and move it, along with 650 costumes, that all takes a lot of money and time. So the more locations you can find in a specific place, the better off you are.
QUESTION:
Theres an incredible scene where this whole tunnel explodes. How does the location figure into developing an action scene like that?
DELIA FINE:
Well, you do location scouting ahead of time, so everything that was there, we knew about in advance. Most of the rewriting that has gone on during the filming process has been more to do with refining the relationships between the characters, punching up the emotion in a certain scene, pushing to get those levels just right. It's more about that and less about the mechanics.
QUESTION:
One of the most interesting relationships is between Hornblower and Lieutenant Bush, the new arrival. Who is Bush, and why is their relationship at first sort of suspect? Why is he introduced to us as kind of this dark horse?
DELIA FINE:
Bush is a fascinating character because he is a professional sailor, a professional officer. He does not come from a background of wealth and power, which many of the officers did. He is often described as stolid, sturdy, dependable. He's a perfect foil for Hornblower because Hornblower is so cerebral. Hornblower thinks quickly, I mean, he gets it all in one, while Bush has to take time to assess the situation and to make up his mind about something. And yet, because of his integrity, and because of his character, he will come around to the right decision. So, they're really quite perfect foils for each other. And I think that's how the relationship's going to go on and grow and continue to be interesting and dynamic.
QUESTION:
So there's more in store?
DELIA FINE:
Absolutely, there's more in store. Bush is going to go on being a very important character. Paul McGann's performance in it is absolutely dead-on. There's a stillness about this man who is always watching. He's thinking. He may be slow, but he's not stupid.
QUESTION:
Were you surprised at how well the first episodes did?
DELIA FINE:
I was really, really happy with the success of the first series because I thought the films were terrific. I was really pleased that the audience found them and appreciated them. I think that for all the people who loved the first series, they're going to love the second series even more. And for the people who missed the first series, this is a chance for them to come on in and catch up, and they're going to be caught up in it as well.
QUESTION:
Lets talk about the Web site. I understand there are a lot of committed fans out there.
DELIA FINE:
One of the surprises about Hornblower to me has been the community of fans that has built up for it over the last two years. Before we even aired the first four films, a community of people had come together on our Web site, anticipating their appearance and talking amongst themselves about what the films were going to be like. That group just grew and grew and grew in a way that I have never experienced and could never have predicted. People from all walks of life, all different ages. Men and women, teenagers, all kinds of people came together on the message boards and continue to post. They've gone on and formed their own sort of town that is a Hornblower-based place, and they've been anticipating the next films. I think that's really remarkable. It speaks to the way that Hornblower is inspirational to people.
There's a reason, I think, why Hornblower has had such a special appeal in the last couple of years. These stories are about something. They're adventure stories but they're not just the adventures. They're about ideals. These stories are about the ideals of honor and integrity. They're about what is the right thing to do. In a time when we've had lots of moral questions to think about, this is a world of wrong and of right. This is where justice will be served. And I think people find that very inspiring and very reassuring.
QUESTION:
You've overseen the production of a wide variety of original movies in the past few years. How are these movies special?
DELIA FINE:
The Hornblower movies are really special to me because of the great odds that we had to fight to get them going in the first place. This is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. I think a lot of people had thought about Hornblower and backed away because of all the logistical and technical problems. Shooting on water is incredibly difficult. There's a whole list of films that have been made in or around the water that have had great difficulties and problems. So, for me, the fact that we got them going in the first place, and that they were, in fact, good, and people liked them is just personally enormously satisfying.
QUESTION:
The time periods and locales for A&E original movies vary so dramatically, from the Revolutionary War to the 1930s, from America, to the West Indies. What sorts of difficulties does this create for a producer?
DELIA FINE:
Period films are always a challenge because you know that there are going to be people watching the films who have a special interest in that particular period in history, and you know that they're going to be looking at every single detail to see if you've got it right. Whether the cannons are recoiling, how are the guns being ignited? Do you have the buttons right on the uniforms? Amazing details like that. So you've got to do a lot of research. At the same time, you have to make a film that's going to be accessible to a contemporary audience. Period films are also, in general, more expensive to make because you've got to dress everything. You can't have an asphalt street in a film that's taking place at the end of the eighteenth century. You've got to go places where you don't have power lines in the background. Or in some cases, you've got to take the power lines down and bury them. There are all kinds of things like that to think about.
QUESTION:
The accolades for the first Hornblower series received, including an Emmy, were abundant. How hard is it to follow up on such a successful series?
DELIA FINE:
Winning the Emmys for Hornblower meant a lot to the A&E Network. I think everyone working on this production wants to make an even better set of films this time. That's a challenge. But, it's also a good challenge. It's the kind of challenge you like to have because it pushes everyone to try and do an even better job than the first round.
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Sep 3, 2004 11:48 PM
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Interview with Hornblower II Special Effects Technician
A conversation with a Special Effects Technician
on the set of Horatio Hornblower
QUESTION:
Can you tell me, what are we looking at?
ANSWER:
This is what we term a pinewood paddock tank, and it's been around here for a long time. It was built in the late '40s. I think it was built for Sinking the Bismarck. Pretty famous film. And since then it's been very busy, actually. It's been used for the Bond films and we used it for Cutthroat Island, and various other sea pictures. It gets pretty busy.
QUESTION:
Why are you using these small model ships. Why do you need to make ships to scale?
ANSWER:
The hero ship in Horatio Hornblower is a 74-gun ship. It's a double ledge. There aren't any around anymore. There are no real ones we can go and film on (though someone's probably going to prove me wrong.) So, we've got to use models. This is a scale which is acceptable to us. You know? It's as small as we dare go, to try and solve the problems of scaling to get the sea to look right with the boats that we've got.
QUESTION:
How do you make the water in this tank look like the water on the ocean?
ANSWER:
Well, to get the water in scale and looking like the ocean, we're using wind machines of varying size. We're using small electric fans, which are over here on the right hand side of the tank, and then we've got bigger airplane engines, which give us a wilder wave and a more of a storm. And if we want to go bigger than that, we've got wave machines which will give us waves of about a half-a-meter high. So, our ships can go through and be in real big storms.
QUESTION:
Now, why is the back of this tank in green?
ANSWER:
The back of the tank is in green because we're going to composite most of this stuff. We've got plates which we're going to put behind these scenes. We're shooting so many different places on this movie, so we're going to various islands in the Caribbean where we want to see islands and sometimes we want to see maybe a volcano in the background or whatever. We can't afford very much time to paint the backing, so this is the way we're going to go. Someone goes out and has a nice job of going to the Caribbean and shooting all the plates and we have got the job here of moving the boats in foreground. So, the foreground, which we're shooting, is going to be superimposed onto a background, which is shot previously or even after we've done this.
QUESTION:
Who makes these ships? Who makes the models?
ANSWER:
We make them here, but some of the ships were built in Russia. The first episodes of the series started in Russia, and I think a Russian shipyard was given the job of building these ships. And, they've done a very fine job too.
QUESTION:
How many guys do you have with you? They spend a lot of time in the water. What's that like?
ANSWER:
It's cold. (Laughs) It's cold. But there's quite a lot of things to do here. Operating all these wind machines and the wave machines, and then theres propelling the boats. You've got to fill the sails with wind, of course. There's a lot of things to do.
QUESTION
Lets talk about explosions, okay? Thats the fun F/X stuff, right? How do you do the battles scenes?
ANSWER:
Well, we shot a sequence here in a tank where we've got Hornblower going out in a launch. As he's being rowed out, cannonballs are dropping to his left and his right and eventually sinks the launch. Now, we are going to put a gun in the background, and we've got a little model plume as if it's a small cannonball dropping in. Now, that really isn't good enough for what we want. So we're going to do a live-action size explosion and then we'll take it to the post house and they reduce it and put it into the movie afterwards. It gives a lot better look at it, a more of a realistic explosion.
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