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.