Disney looks at
sites for big-budget
Pearl Harbor movie

The live-action picture
about the WWII attack is
budgeted at $145 million

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Walt Disney studio executives began scouting locations at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base today for a Michael Bay-Jerry Bruckheimer film about the 1941 attack that, with its $145 million budget, is being called the most expensive live-action movie in motion-picture history.

Bay, who directed "Armageddon" and "The Rock," and Bruce Hendricks, president of physical production for the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, arrived in Honolulu yesterday with two other Disney executives.

The film, tentatively titled "Pearl Harbor," was given the green light by Disney last month, reportedly with an "officially sanctioned $145 million budget" -- $10 million more than "Armageddon," which until now had the highest budget ever.

Other films have cost more, including the $200 million "Titanic" and $185 million "Waterworld," but those pictures originally were budgeted for less.

"Pearl Harbor" will be written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Randall Wallace, who wrote "Braveheart." Sources said that film production in Hawaii is expected to begin in the spring.

Jerry Bruckheimer, with his late partner Don Simpson, made several financially successful films, including "Flashdance," "Top Gun" and "Crimson Tide."

The production team is looking at several facilities at Pearl Harbor.

They were accompanied by two officers from a Navy office in Los Angeles that serves as liaison with the entertainment industry, who came to escort the production team while on the base.

Lt. Cmdr. Rod Gibbons, Navy public affairs officer at Pearl Harbor, is the local liaison. Also accompanying the group was Randy Spangler, Hawaii's top location coordinator.

Despite the reputation of Bay and producer Bruckheimer for making successful big-budget films, Disney backed off from its initial enthusiasm, leading to weeks of discussion, according to sources.

Special effects boost costs

Entertainment trade papers in Los Angeles reported the film's original budget was as high as $200 million, before being cut to about $154 million and then to $145 million.

Bay told the Star-Bulletin in September that the movie's budget would be $100 million to $125 million.

Bay said the film's expense is due to some 300-plus highly technical special effects that will be used.

A lot of the film's special effects, including the sinking of the USS Oklahoma, will be shot at Fox's Baja Studio, where "Titanic" was filmed.

Bay has insisted on completely re-creating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which pushed the United States into World War II.

The director said he wants to to use "a lot of live explosions" rather than just computer-generated ones, including taking "real ships and twisting them up and through the air."

He had hoped for top-dollar actors such as Gene Hackman and Gwyneth Paltrow but, because of the cut in the film's budget, will have to find stars without A-list salaries, sources said.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, part of the negotiations with Bay and Bruckheimer ended with the pair having to make several financial concessions to get their picture made, including neither of them receiving their regular first-dollar gross deal.

Their back-end participation also will be far less than on previous pictures.

And they also will be held personally responsible for budget overruns, the publication reported.

Story line involves brothers

The story of "Pearl Harbor" begins months before the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack, and focuses on two brothers who love the same woman. One brother stays in America in the U.S. Air Corps, and the other travels overseas to fight in the United Kingdom.

Bay said he and writer Wallace in June began interviewing veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack.

"Tennessee" was used as a code name for the film to prevent information about it from getting out, as happened with "Armageddon."

When word leaked out about that project, DreamWorks and Paramount quickly put a similar story into production: "Deep Impact."

Navy officials in Los Angeles must review and approve the "Pearl Harbor" script before granting permission for the production to film on a Navy base or lending other support.

Georgette Deemer, the state's Film Office manager, and Walea Constantinau, Honolulu's film commissioner, also are meeting with the production executives during their stay here, which ends Thursday.

Neither Bay nor Hendricks immediately returned several messages left at their Honolulu hotels.

Hendricks oversees all physical aspects of production for motion pictures produced under the three Disney banners: Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures.

Hawaii's biggest films 1. "Waterworld" (1995) Universal Studios. Starring Kevin Costner and filmed on the Big Island. Cost: about $185 million, with $35 million spent in Hawaii. Seven-month shooting schedule and more than 500 Hawaii residents employed. Second most-expensive film ever made. 2. "Jurassic Park" (1993) Universal Studios. Starring San Neil and Laura Dern. The highest grossing film of all time at more than $1 billion. Filmed three weeks on Kauai and one day on Oahu. Cost: about $65 million. Hawaii got worldwide publicity, but only $4.5 million was spent in the state. 3. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970) Twentieth Century Fox. Starring Larry Forrester, Hideo Oguni. Cost: $15 million. More than 300 local people employed by production.