Well, after a long wait in between updates we have finally gotten word from our insider over in Thailand from the shoot on the set of Alexander.
The scenes that were described finished shooting on Tuesday of this week and I will warn you now that if you don’t know anything about Alexander the Great there is a bit of a spoiler involved with this recap, and with that said let’s get to it…
The shooting covers a span of eight days, all of which were battle scenes and Colin Farrell was involved at full tilt playing the role of Alexander the Great. Other notables on hand were Jared Leto, Rory McCann, Ian Beattie, and Elliot Cowan.
It is worth mention that Jared Leto plays the role of Hephaestion a Macedonian nobleman, closest friend and alleged lover of Alexander the Great and Ian Beattie plays Antigonus, one of the oldest and ablest of Alexander’s Macedonian generals.
The first scenes that were shot involved the attack on the elephants by the Macedonians that I described in my first set report as the choppers are led by Antigonus into battle against the elephants, only this time the elephants were there in full force.
Our insider describes it, “the elephants were decorated in gold plate looking armor with carriage baskets on the back for carrying passengers, they were going up on two feet, spinning around very fast, and moving forward and backwards. We were attacking the elephants from each side, basically, we had one guy at each leg.”
“We were very, very close to the elephants and it was a bit difficult not to get stepped on. My adrenaline was pumping because, on one hand, I’m doing my job by acting like an elephant slayer and on the other hand I’m doing my job by trying to stay alive! All of us were a bit wide eyed after each take.”
That was not the only part the elephants played as the major portion of the shoot was dedicated to the massive battle toward the end of the film involving Persians, Macedonians, Ethiopians, the Indians, and more…
As far as costumes go, “The Ethiopians were wearing an African cloth wrap and had leopard fur sashes draped across there chests while carrying zebra skin shields. The Persians wore blue pants with cream colored patterned tops with middle east style head wraps. The Macedonians were wearing either leather armor, or gold plated armor.”
“The Indian army all looked virtually the same, they wore cream colored cloth wraps for pants which kind of looked like MC Hammer pants then they had a either a leather or bright colored cloth, very thin, going from shoulder to waist. Then the kings and princes of India wore similar pants but made of silk and had a ton of beaded ornaments and jewelry around there necks along with leather arm bands, very cool looking!”
The cast had to take into consideration fire hoses being used to wet them and the ground, elephants (20 or so), and wooden arrows being shot all around them.
During the battle with the elephants and the main battle scene to simulate people being hit by arrows, “they tied a couple cables to guys and yanked them back and to the ground to make it look like they were really getting hit by arrow. They were real arrows but they were never shot at us, they will be added with CGI, but they did use real arrow in big scenes. They shot them over us and in between us, it was pretty crazy seeing arrows with plastic tips landing at your feet!”
So I know you are anxious to hear what part Colin played and here comes your SPOILER, so if you don’t want to know how Alexander ends or comes close to ending, look away and shut your eyes, or click here to look at some photos.
So the battle is reigning on and the Macedonians soon start to run “when Colin rides behind the infantry and says something like ‘Macedonians, why do you run!,’ then another commander yells, ‘Regroup in the name of the king.’ We fall back in and Alexander and all the other leaders ride through us on horse back, which was crazy because they didn’t really tell us where they would be coming from. Basically you just jumped out of the way to save your ass!”
“So did they shoot the scene where Alexander dies?” you ask well our insider says, “from what I know, he dies after the battle,” and here is how it goes down…
“He is riding a huge black stallion through a big ass battle where everyone is swinging swords and smashing shields then an elephant spears the horse with its tusks while Alexander takes a direct shot from an arrow to the chest, the horse dies and Alexander falls to the earth. At this point the Macedonians start to fight really hard for there fallen king and to rescue him, they advance and push back the Indians enough to be able to carry Alexander out on a huge silver shield.”
“He was lying on his back with the arrow sticking out of his ribs being held above the men’s heads, his body was almost lifeless and the whole scene was very dramatic, and as the five men carry his body out through the Macedonian army, we were to look up at him, try to touch his hand or arm, and say something like ‘God Speed Alexander,’ or ‘Get well my king’ or whatever seemed right.”
By the sound of the battle scenes it seems as if the elephants are absolutely magnificent! The “elephants would run full speed at our battalion only to stop on a dime, grab a spear out of our hands and snap it with there trunks, one time they had a elephant knock over a real tree, one time the elephant was gutted, an Indian prince was throwing spears from atop an elephant, and one time an elephant stomped someone’s head.”
Exciting eh? Well here is how they did the gutting and the head stomping…
First to the gutting, “They had this huge rubber intestine that they fixed to the elephants belly that when touched fell down all bloody and nasty.” Simple enough, but just wait…
Now to the head stomp, “The head was cool. They had a mannequin with a head made of plaster and was filled with blood and brain looking stuff, then they had a fake elephant leg stomp on the head of the mannequin for the close-up while a pile of steaming intestines lay next to the body.” Now that is what I am talking about!
Also he mentioned that Jared Leto’s character, Hephaestion, “got messed up in battle and was laying all bloody and wounded, while Alexander was carried off, and Ian Beattie’s character [Antigonus] had one eye, the other eye was shot out by a cross bow.”
Our insider described the entire shoot as, “Extremely physical, everyone was a bit battered and bruised from the battles. One stunt man broke his leg by being bucked off a horse into a tree and another guy had his horse run his knee into a tree.”
Shooting is said to still be going on in Ubon Thani, but our insider believes that they are small scenes with no battles “I don’t even think the stunt team made it,” he said.
I don’t know about you, but that is enough to get me excited for this flick, can’t wait for November, but until then click the link below to get more Alexander.
