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I am – Hercules!!
Is any of this true? All of it? Some of it?
If Jim Cameron really is putting this much time and cash and attention into the “Dark Angel” season finale he’s directing, so much the better. Money comes and goes. Art is forever.
Here’s “Daedalus”:
Hi there Harry,
Thought I'd write in a post from the set of the final episode of "Dark Angel" (I was the first one in with the lead on Cameron directing this episode).
A little perspective on the show first...
The average episode is shot over 12 days. Usually 8 days of Main Unit work and 2 - 3 days of 2nd Unit (who do all the major action sequences and stuff that doesn't involve the leads (i.e. Jessica Alba). The average episode is budgeted at $2.4 million an episode.
Now for the skinny on episode 21:
James Cameron has done it again, WAY WAY behind schedule and WAY WAY
over budget. And guess what? Nobody gives a damn because well, hey
its the King of the World and director of the highest grossing movie of all time. So far we have been shooting for 3 weeks on this episode...
Originally it was going to be finished last week, (which is why the
Wrap party was last Saturday). Every couple of days the schedule is being revised and updated as the whole crew struggles to keep up with
Cameron. To date, only one day of scheduled work has been completed
And at this stage it looks like we'll be shooting for probably another
week. This must surely be the longest shoot for a single episode of
TV.
The budget for this finale? Well, I've heard 10 million bandied about the set and considering the size of this episode I'd say that's a fair approximation. As of Friday it was confirmed by Cameron himself that the episode will now be am hour and half and it will air on Friday May 3rd - the same day as "Spiderman" opens - how about that for a little bit or irony (and I'm sure that isn't lost on Cameron, he even has a sequence where the bad guys, referred to as "Purebreeds" scale a wall like Spiderman!).
The story for the episode continues on from Episode 20 with the
Transgenic resistance holed up under seige by the Police in a huge
stand-off. Max tries to cut a deal with the Police using their human
friends at the Jam Pony Express as willing hostages but White goes over
the head of the Detective in charge of the seige and orders the snipers
to open fire. One of the transgenics (not a major character) is killed
creating tension between the humans and transgenics with each not sure
who to trust. The stand-off continues until White ends up sending in
his Purebreeds to take them out. This is the major action sequence of
the episode as a HUGE fight ensues between the Purebreeds and the
transgenics. We spent 4 days shooting this one sequence which will
probably amount to only 2 minutes of screen time. Cameron has been in
his element shooting this stuff - throwing stunt performers through
windows, etc. (he said he'd always wanted to do a fight scene in a
room full of glass doors and breakaway furniture etc.). At one point Joshua lays into White and gives him a good pummelling and after throwing him through a wall is ready to kill him only to be stopped by Max. Other highlights of this sequence are Logan (ala Terminator) with a new set of cybernetic leg enhancements booting a Purebreed across the room and Max battling it out in a huge catfight with a Purebreed played by WWF star Amy Dumas.
Cameron has, as usual, been working the crew hard and everyone is
exhausted (they've been working on this show full-time since the second
week of July last year). The average working day is 16 hours. Every
department is feeling the pinch. Cameron himself is operating the
camera on a lot of stuff and is obsessed with detail (to the point
where a lot of people wonder why bother since so much of it won't be seen on the small screen). This last week he's mellowed out a little - The first 2 weeks were brutal. I think this is partly because he hasn't
directed in so long, and because he's never directed television. Plus,
after throwing shit at the crew for 2 weeks and the crew proving they
can take it and rise to the challenge he's beginning to appreciate the
hard work. "Thanks" and "Good work" are words one rarely hears from
Cameron although this last week he has been way more appreciative. I
get the feeling that Cameron is one of those directors that has an
on-set persona - he wears a mask and is blunt (often rude) and pushes
people to their limits. Several crew members have commented on how
different, cool and down-to-earth he was before shooting began and how
that all went out the window come first day of shooting. He loves to
throw power and responsibility on people to see if they can sink or
swim with it and he seems to get a real kick out of it when they bomb, I
think this empowers him in some sick way.
So will the episode be worth watching? Definitely. If only to see one of our master action directors at work within the TV format, this is a rare thing indeed. I can't really comment on the quality of the script (its hard to see the story when you are working your ass off on the same scene for what seems like an eternity). Cameron has done a lot of the writing himself (there are daily revisions to the script) and he changes his mind on the fly all the time so most of us spend half our
day just trying to keep up with hm. One thing is for certain, FOX is
pulling out all the stops for this final installment. It is the
general view here that the show WILL be returning and for several reasons. 1) So much money has been piled on this show the only way the network can make it back is to get syndication so it makes sense to do another season. 2) The show has a bad timeslot and everyone knows it's not good enough to keep people in on a Friday night. don't be surprised to see the show turn up in the Sunday night "X-Files" slot come the Fall.
Whatever happens, the crew here will just be glad when this episode is finally done. At least we'll be able to say that we worked with (and
survived!) James Cameron...
One last thing, I heard him talking about his next project. True Lies 2? Nope. He's going below the waves again. This time to do a
documentary on the Bismark. Could this be research for a full-fledged
WWII feature? Could be interesting!
I am DAEDALUS
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