pirates of the caribbean - Cannes International Film Festival

“I remembered Kostnice, the famous ‘Church of Bones’ in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic.
It’s this amazing church which is literally decorated with bones. They made garlands out
of spines and pyramids out of skulls. And I thought wow, instead of doing all this
intricately carved molding details, what if we just used the bones of Blackbeard’s victims
in the design of the ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’? So we made moldings of leg and arm
bones and teeth, and walls out of skulls, with the idea that Blackbeard actually burned
his victims in a giant, flaming lantern on the stern of the ship.”
The figurehead of the “Queen Anne’s Revenge” was based on Blackbeard’s real flag,
which was a great horned skeleton holding a goblet of wine in one hand and a spear in
the other, as if he’s toasting his victims. “I always loved that,” says Myhre, “and thought
that for the figurehead, we would do something similar. And one of the legends of
Blackbeard is that going into battle, he would light fuses embedded in his beard, so he
was always fiery and smoky. I thought it would be cool to transfer this idea to the ship
itself, for it to be scary, devilish, fiery and smoky. So for the skeleton figurehead, we
have fire coming out of the rib cage, eyes and goblet, and that casts a smoky haze
around the entire ship. And the huge lantern in the back is sending off trails of smoke
from the bow.”
“We thought it would be great fun if Blackbeard has a huge
stained glass window in the back of his cabin at the rear of
the ship,” adds Myhre, “which was illuminated by the giant
fire lantern just outside. To me, it was about the light
creating the atmosphere in the cabin, with the angry,
billowing flame moving through the window.”
The interior of Blackbeard’s cabin was actually later built on
B Stage at Pinewood Studios, and included a large section
of the huge stained glass window. “We had a good time
dressing the set,” says Myhre, “because in our incarnation
of Blackbeard he has supernatural powers, so we have
many objects of the occult spread about, as well as more typical seafaring charts and
navigational equipment. You have all his power and wealth and loot, but also a fantastic
layer of magic and alchemy.”
Since Myhre had already appropriated the skeleton from Blackbeard’s real, historically
correct flag for the “Queen Anne’s Revenge” figurehead, a new design was needed for
the pirate’s flag in “On Stranger Tides,” and ultimately contributed by Heather
Pollington. What resulted was a fiery banner which wouldn’t look out of place on the
back of a motorcycle gang jacket, fitting right in with the overall concept of Blackbeard
as a “biker pirate,” as costume designer Penny Rose puts it.
The “Queen Anne’s Revenge” was not only the setting for numerous scenes of action
and supernatural mayhem, but also for a moonlit dance of romance, deception and
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