Display MoreGreetings WingNuts,
We loved Titanic! The film hods up extremely well. It was very easy to write it off as a fad in 1997 but rewatching it today there's no question that its success was well deserved. It's an amazing combination of rewarding character drama set against so much hard work to create a world that even Richard Garriott could learn something. And it certainly didn't seem like it was three hours long! James Cameron's position as king of the Hollywood universe is deservedly still secure today. (A note relevant only to this group is that Titanic opened one week before one of our previous films, An American Werewolf in Paris. And it was much, much more successful!)
The big Wing Commander connection was production designer Peter Lamont who deservedly won an Oscar for recreating the Titanic for the film. One of the reasons the movie works so well is that Cameron goes so very deep with his Titanic nerdery: the sheer brilliance with which he sets the table by creating a perfect 1912 ocean liner for his characters to play aboard seeps through immediately. And Lamont's work was one of the big things that enabled that! And he put just as much effort into creating the submarine-like Tiger Claw decks as he did those on the Titanic…
Here's one interesting filming technique that connects the two movies: for Titanic's massive ship set, Peter Lamont built only the starboard half of the ship. When scenes set on the port side were needed (like in the introduction where it leaves port in Southampton) everything was physically mirrored from signage to costumes to background extras. The footage was then flipped for the film. Lamont would use a very similar trick for Wing Commander, building only half of the Tiger Claw's fight deck and then literally mirroring it for shots that required showing its full extent!
One other connection that I completely forgot in the introductory article is that Titanic also stars David Warner! In fact, it was made squarely in the middle between his appearances as Rhinehart in Privateer 2 and Tolwyn in Wing Commander. As Vera noted on the forums, his character is maybe easy to forget because he's much more of a heavy here. It certainly shows his significant range!
And here's Rose flipping Admiral Tolwyn off, in case you need that reference in the future:
David Warner wasn't the only Wing Commander veteran on Titanic, though. It turns out Barry Dennen, who voiced Melek in Wing Commander IV, was also the man praying just as the ship sinks. The resemblance is uncanny!
There are two other Wing Commander veterans in the movie, too! Jari Kinnunen played Bjorn Gunderson (a fictional passenger, one of the brothers Jack and Fabrizio bunk with) in Titanic and the Concordia's Radar Man in Wing Commander. Craig Kelly played Radar Man Falk (of the Tiger Claw) in Wing Commander and Harold Bride, the ship's junior wireless officer, in Titanic. I guess he's a little typecast!
Lamont brought his own crew with him for Wing Commander and he mentioned that many of them were veterans of Titanic's tumultuous production. Here's the full list:
- Suzanne Crowley - Casting
- Richard Roberts - Additional Set Decorator
- Jim Passon - Color Timer
- Jamie Wilkinson - Supervising Set Dresser
- Gilly Poole - Casting
- Barry Wilkinson - Property Master
- Michael Ford - Set Decorator
- Olivier Sarda - 2D Artist
- Simon Wilkinson - Charge Hand Stand-By Props
- Ethan Phillips - Director of Photography Visual Effects Unit
- Chris Holmes - Senior Visual Effects Compositor
- Dennis Davis - Compositing Supervisor
- Dean Coldham - Plasterer
- Charles Dwight Lee - Supervising Art Director
- Jeff Heusser - Digital Compositing Supervisor
- Dave Coldham - Head Plasterer
- Peter Williams - Construction Coordinator
We also took a closer look at the cruise liners from Secret Ops. Here's a fun comparison of the Titanic and the Anna Maria Alberghetti:
Another fun thing we did before the movie was randomly generate ourselves tickets for the voyage, which you can do here. Ali was the only survivor of the group!
Sully's heart will go on as long as you are willing to share a Dorito with him.
