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By Dean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
This massive special-effects explosion was a part
of the filming of "Pearl Harbor" last April.

‘Pearl Harbor’
film may debut
on Ford Island

A Navy official says the premiere
could be held on Ford Island with
a carrier or other ship
as a backdrop

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The talk in Hollywood is that the $130 million movie "Pearl Harbor" may have its world premiere on Memorial Day at the site where it all happened 60 years ago.

Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, Pacific Fleet spokesman, said "there is a lot of discussion going on now to hold the premiere in Hawaii and at Pearl Harbor."

We presented two online video reports on the filming. Access them below: Apr. 7: Filming begins Apr. 14: Big boom

"It was filmed here and next year marks the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor," he said.

"We're looking at all the options," he said, including holding the premiere on Ford Island with a carrier or another ship as a backdrop.

The mega-bucks Touchstone Pictures-Disney/Buena Vista epic was filmed in Hawaii and Pearl Harbor in April and May; in Corpus Christi, Texas, during the summer; and in England.

It tells the story of two Navy pilots and best friends (played by Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett) who fall in love with the same Army nurse (Kate Beckinsale).

The movie involves scenes of the air battle in Britain, the events before and after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and Doolittle's B-25 bombing raid on Tokyo in 1942.

More than 20 vintage World War II aircraft collected from museums and private collectors were used during the filming on Ford Island.

The Navy and the Department of Defense provided assistance to the movie's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, and the director, Michael Bay.

Several ships were towed by the Navy from Pearl Harbor's mothball fleet in Middle Loch and berthed near the USS Missouri to recreate battleship row.

The decks of the Missouri -- which was not built until after the Pearl Harbor attack -- were used to represent the battleship USS Virginia, where actor Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed a mess attendant who manned a machine gun against the attacking Japanese fighters.

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