Feb
1
2011
by
Title: Paint It Jack
Author: Ian Nathan
Publication: US Empire
Issue: February 2011
ON A MONITOR IN A PASSAGE LEADINGTO A SOUND STAGE IN DEEPEST SHEPPERTON CAN BE SEEN CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW IN 3D. THE SCENE in question takes place in a palatial chamber-all Thomhill murals and giltwood armchairs – rapidly descending into pandemonium. Various puff pastries, pork pies and sides of mutton are catapulted ceiling-wards from a banquet table, musket-fire clogs the air with sooty smoke, and his royal plumpness King George II (Richard Griffiths) looks on aghast as Jack (Johnny Depp), the inevitable centre of the chaos, dementedly jogs left to right like Buster Keaton on hot coals, evading the grasp of the royal guard by a whisker, before tossing a priceless Rococo throne through an arched window and making his escape. Business as usual in the pleasurably frenetic universe of Pirates of the Caribbean. Only now in multiple dimensions.
It’s a tableau anchored by the figure of Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), atypically attired in naval togs and one large blue sock, whose smudged face powder cannot disguise a weary roll of the eyeballs. The sock? That’s for the FX guys to insert a recently acquired wooden leg. “Whatever else you say about Barbossa,” notes Rush in passing, “he’s a survivor.”
There are two weeks to go on the 106-day shoot for this new stand-alone adventure.
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