``Waterworld'' The ocean masterpiece that everyone knew was a ``failure'' due to the ``water'' of Hollywood movies.

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2021.08.01Takeo Matsuzaki

Misfortunes and troubles faced by ``Waterworld''

The filming of Waterworld was full of all sorts of troubles, enough to fill a book called " The Making of Waterworld ." To give some examples, the first was due to the weather.

Nature cannot be controlled. In other words, the weather and wave conditions of the "sea" are unstable. Because film preparation takes time, by the time filming begins, the conditions of the "sea" have changed dramatically from when they arrived at the set on the sea. Despite traveling to the set for six hours, filming was halted many times. Furthermore, the actors and staff were constantly on the sea, and their health was poor due to seasickness. The biggest misfortune was the collapse of the sea set due to a hurricane. Not only did it cause millions of dollars of damage, but it also became necessary to rebuild the set, and naturally filming was halted. In order to continue filming, Costner, who is also a producer, had to invest $20 million of his own money.

Kevin Costner's misfortune didn't end there. An adultery scandal broke out during filming, leading to a divorce from his beloved wife. He ended up paying alimony worth 10 billion yen (according to Forbes magazine, this was the fifth highest divorce settlement in history at the time). He also had a dispute with director Kevin Reynolds, who was supposed to be his ally, over directing. There was a difference of opinion on the set of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, so Reynolds was reluctant to take part in Waterworld, saying, "Costner should only appear in films that he directs." As a result, it is said that there are scenes in the film that were directed by Costner, who had left the project.

It was later revealed that Steven Spielberg, based on his own experience with Jaws, had advised the "two Kevins" to "avoid filming in open water." The two men were not on good terms for 17 years until they reunited as director and lead actor in Hatfield & McCoy (2012).

Other problems on Waterworld are too numerous to mention, including a lack of space to store equipment on the sea set, filming having to stop every time someone needed to use the toilet on the barge (because it had to be moved to a position where it wouldn't be in view), the barge sinking during filming and nearly drowning Jeanne Waterworld and Tina Majorina, stunt coordinator Norman Howell suffering from decompression sickness during underwater filming and having to be taken to a hospital in Honolulu by helicopter, and even one strange rumor that Costner tried to have his receding hairline done using CGI.

Still, one can point out that "Waterworld" had the foresight to focus on the theme of global warming. The reality of this crisis is probably easier to feel today than it was when the film was released. Also, shortly after its release, it appeared as an attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. It also became popular at Universal Studios Japan when it opened in 2001, and the general evaluation of the film seems to have improved slightly.

On the other hand, although it was predicted to be a huge box office loss, it ended up earning $264 million worldwide, and made a small profit by adding in the sales of television broadcasting rights and video. In Japanese, there is a word "mizumono" (water), and in filmmaking, "water" is easily changed depending on the conditions at the time, and is therefore a motif of the demon gate that leads to misfortune.

【source】

・Waterworld movie pamphlet

・"Making of WATERWORLD" by Janine Pourroy

・"Berton Pierce's Scene of Scale A Documentary Film of Industry Model Making"

DVD

・"The Odyssey of Waterford"

(Included in the "WATERWORLD" Blu-ray ARROW VIDEO version)

・IMDb " WATERWORLD "

・BOX OFFICE MOJO 『 CUTTHROAT ISLAND 』『 ABYS 』

・SmaSTATION!! Ranking of the most expensive divorce settlements for celebrities around the world

Text: Takeo Matsuzaki

Film critic. Graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media. After working on television and film sets, he switched to writing about films. He currently appears on television, radio and online programs such as "Plusto" and "Japan Groove". He has contributed numerous articles to Kinema Junpo, "ELLE" and movie theater pamphlets. He currently serves as a judge for the Kinema Junpo Best Ten Awards, the ELLE Cinema Grand Prix, the Tanabe Benkei Film Festival and the Kyoto International Film Festival Creators Factory division. He is the co-author of "Dictionary of Contemporary Film Terms" (Kinema Junposha) and others.

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Waterworld

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Publisher: NBCUniversal Entertainment

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