pirates of the caribbean - Cannes International Film Festival

The final location in Kauai before the “On Stranger Tides” army moved to Oahu had its
own honored pop history…the shuttered remains of the legendary Coco Palms Hotel
near Kapa’a, one of the primary locations for Elvis Presley’s “Blue Hawaii” and the very
place where he sang the title song in that early ’60s classic. Marshall and company shot
in the vast coconut grove for which the hotel was named, with 773 palms harvested
before filming to prevent the heavy fruits from falling on the hapless heads of cast and
crew. The harvested coconuts were then taken by local residents to take full advantage
of the nourishing meat and milk of the tropical fruits.
And for good measure, Geoffrey Rush hosted a screening of “Blue Hawaii” for several of
his friends in his Kauai hotel room. “We re-cast every part in the film with actors from
‘Pirates,’” recalls screenwriter Terry Rossio, “and of course Elvis would be Johnny
Depp!”
Almost one month to the day that shooting
began in Kauai, the company island-hopped
to Oahu, “The Gathering Place.” Once
again, Mother Nature provided
Bruckheimer, Marshall and John Myhre
with most of their required backdrops,
albeit with numerous revisions by the art
department. Much of the filming in Oahu
was out on the deep blue open waters of
Hawaii, with the “Queen Anne’s Revenge”
in all its terrifying glory docked at either Barbers Point—very near where Disney’s new
Aulani resort began construction at much the same time, a stone’s throw away at Ko
Olina—or more often, the Heeia Kea Boat Dock in Kaneohe. Here it became a nightly
tradition for hundreds of spectators, either locals or tourists from the U.S. mainland or
as far away as Japan, to assemble in a controlled area for a glimpse of Johnny Depp and
the other cast members, and the beloved star never disappointed them.
Night after night, Depp, fully arrayed as Captain Jack, stopped by the barricades on his
way to the “Queen Anne’s Revenge” to greet the fans, shaking hands, posing for
pictures, getting kissed a great deal, and letting everyone know how much their support
was appreciated. Aloha was met with aloha, and as word spread of Depp’s graciousness,
the crowds grew larger by the night. They were also mesmerized by the sight of the
ship, off in the distance, shrouded in movie fog and smoke and surrounded by camera
and support craft from marine coordinators Bruce Ross and Dan Malone’s department,
just wondering what on earth was happening aboard.
In fact, what was happening much of the time was an exciting sequence in which Jack
Sparrow leads a mutiny against Blackbeard, with less than expected results. “We were
taken out on little boats to the ship,” recalls British actor Paul Bazely, who portrays
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