Troy (2004)
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Spoilers (14)
Brad Pitt trained for six months to get a body that looked like that of Greek statues.
Brad Pitt tore his left Achilles tendon during production.
Sean Bean was in awe of Peter O'Toole. "The first time I met him on the set, he was in a robe with a cigarette holder and he said, 'Sean, how are you, dear boy?' He was just how I imagined him to be."
Wolfgang Petersen originally didn't want Helen to appear in the movie; he felt an actress couldn't live up to the audience's expectations. The producers insisted, so Petersen cast an unknown actress.
The Trojan horse prop made was given to the Turkish government as a gift. It is now on the boardwalk of Canakkale, a seaside city about an hour away from the site of the Troy ruins, where most Troy tourists stay.
Garrett Hedlund won the role of Patroclus one month after arriving in Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
Achilles and Patroclus train inside an ancient Maltese "menhir," which could have been built as early as 2000 BCE.
Brad Pitt claimed the filming was torturous for him because he had to quit smoking.
Orlando Bloom saw his character as a coward and an idiot.
A hurricane tore through the set at night, and wiped out Brad Pitt's house. Pitt woke up around 4 AM, but he was so tired from the night before that he slept through the hurricane.
Peter O'Toole claimed to have walked out of the finished film after minutes. He also disliked Wolfgang Petersen.
As Achilles strolls along the beach, among the unpacking Greeks, he teases Odysseus about being the last one to show up. This is an inside-joke for those familiar with the Odyssey. Odysseus was the last Greek to return home from Troy because he clashed with various gods.
After the film was announced, the Turkish government and Ministry of Culture and Tourism contacted the producers and suggested the film be shot in Canakkale, Turkey, site of the real Troy. The Turkish government offered sponsorship if the film premiered in Canakkale. It premiered in Berlin, where most historical Trojan artifacts were displayed after being taken from Anatolia.
Wolfgang Petersen had been offered the chance to direct Gladiator, but turned it down. His regret at this decision was partly why he agreed to direct this film.
All the male cast had to shave or wax their chests. Eric Bana usually has a hairy chest but he had to wax it completely.
When the movie was released in Italy, the title was not translated because its Latin equivalent, "Troia", is Italian slang for "prostitute."
Diane Kruger, a native German speaker, dubbed her own character in the German-dubbed version.
Christopher Nolan was offered the opportunity to direct the film.
Historians are sharply divided about whether or not the Trojan War actually occurred, and if it did, which archaeological site is actually Troy. Discoveries at the beginning of the 21st century provide new evidence of several armed battles in the right area at the right time, but definitive proof is hard to find, largely due to the historical practice of building one city on the ruins of another. Homer's Illiad (and similar epics depicting the Trojan War) were written hundreds of years after the Trojan War supposedly occurred, and are of little use in determining factual historical events because they include many mythological elements. One theory is that the Troy of Homer's lifetime was destroyed by an earthquake, and that the Illiad is a symbolic reinterpretation of that, since a horse is the symbol of the Greek god of earthquakes. The producers decided to eliminate all mythological elements from the story, giving the film an air of historical authenticity not present in the original works.
The impending war in Iraq forced production to move from Morocco to Baja California Sur, Mexico, in February 2003.
The movie's trailer also contained the shot revealing the entire Greek fleet sailing towards Troy, but it had substantially more ships in it. When it became clear that this would be unrealistic (ships sailing so close to one another would only hinder each other), the number of ships in the shot was drastically reduced in the finished movie.
Conspicuously absent from this account of the final days of Troy is Cassandra, sister to Hector and Paris. She was a prophetess, able to see the future, but cursed to have her predictions ignored.
Diane Kruger gained 15 lbs for the role of Helen.
Achilles's mother, Thetis, is shown gathering seashells. In mythology, she was an immortal nereid, a minor deity of the sea.
The Mexican set was hit by two hurricanes in less than a month. The last hurricane hit during the last week of production, when everything was pretty much wrapped.
Wolfgang Petersen cast two relative unknowns for two of the central female roles in this film. Troy would end up launching the American careers of both Diane Kruger and Rose Byrne. Within a year, they would also star together in Wicker Park (2004), and Kruger would star in National Treasure (2004).
The search for an actress to play Helen of Troy took six months with Wolfgang Petersen finally settling on then largely unknown Diane Kruger. Petersen deliberately didn't want to choose a recognizable name/ face.
Keira Knightley auditioned for the role of Briseis.
In Vanity Fair's career retrospect video, Brian Cox says that Agamemnon is the only role he has ever pursued. Cox also commented on working with co-star Brad Pitt, "He'd never been in costumes like that... Brad walked on set and my jaw was down because he was so stunningly beautiful. I'm straight but I thought, 'Wow, my God! This guy is stunning.'"
Garrett Hedlund gained 30 lbs for his role as Patroclus. He gained an additional 20 lbs for his role in Friday Night Lights (2004) which got him up to 200 pounds; he normally weighs 145.
Director Wolfgang Petersen left the proposed Batman Vs. Superman project to direct. Brad Pitt left The Fountain (2006), and was replaced by Hugh Jackman.
EASTER EGG:. On the main menu on the special features disc, keep hitting right on the control until a section of the Trojan Horse on screen lights up green and hit enter to show a series of creative animations related to the movie.
According to the special features DVD, 300 buff Bulgarian male extras were transported to the Mexican shooting location and trained for battle scenes so the Greeks and Trojans would look sufficiently European. They supplemented Euro-looking Mexicans and were used in battle close-ups. "Soldier extras" got instructions in Spanish, Bulgarian, and English.
Terry Gilliam was offered the chance to direct the movie. He read 5 pages of the script and declined.
Early in production the film was titled "Trojan War." This has continued as an alternate title in some non-US markets.
Various sources disagree as to how willing Helen was to accompany Paris to Troy. Some say she genuinely loved him and was happy to leave her husband. Others suggest that she was abducted against her will. This film, perhaps wanting to appeal to modern sensibilities, shows her voluntarily coming with the prince.
The character of Briseis was first given to Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan but she declined due to being uncomfortable with love-making scenes.
Brian Cox said yes to this film because he'd always wanted to be in an epic.
James Horner composed the score for the movie in less than six weeks. Gabriel Yared spent over a year on his version. In the 2007 Director's Cut Edition, Wolfgang Petersen used parts of Yared's score and music from other films, especially from Planet of the Apes (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and Starship Troopers (1997) in the fight scene between Achilles and Hector.
George Camilleri, a bodybuilder who won the title of Mr. Malta in 1989, broke his leg while filming an action sequence at Ghajn Tuffieha, Malta on May 30, 2003. He had surgery the following day, suffered complications, and died on June 17, 2003.
Eric Bana recommended Rose Byrne to Wolfgang Petersen. Both Bana and Byrne are Australian. Byrne said "I'm sure that helped. I'm sure an awful lot of pretty girls sent their tapes in. It's always good to have an edge."
Brad Pitt has expressed disappointment with the movie and only did the movie out of contractual obligation. According to Pitt: "I had to do "Troy" because - I guess I can say all this now - I pulled out of another movie and then had to do something for the studio. So I was put in "Troy." It wasn't painful, but I realized that the way that movie was being told was not how I wanted it to be. I made my own mistakes in it. What am I trying to say about "Troy"? I could not get out of the middle of the frame. It was driving me crazy. I'd become spoiled working with David Fincher. It's no slight on Wolfgang Petersen. "Das Boot" is one of the all-time great films. But somewhere in it, "Troy" became a commercial kind of thing. Every shot was like, Here's the hero! There was no mystery."
Speaking about Apollo, Hector asks Priam, 'how many battalions does the Sun god command?' This echos Stalin's famous question regarding the head of the Catholic Church, 'how many divisions does the Pope command?'
According to myth, Paris was asked to judge which Olympian goddess was deserving of a golden apple meant for "The Fairest." Hera offered power, Athena offered wisdom, Aphrodite offered the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite, who awarded him Helen, despite the fact she was already married, thus setting in motion the events that led to the Trojan War.
Warner Brothers rejected Gabriel Yared's score as too old-fashioned.
Halle Berry, Keira Knightley, Kristin Kreuk, Jennifer Lopez, Sophie Marceau, Connie Nielsen and Catherine Zeta-Jones were all considered to play Helen of Troy.
The first time we see the main market in Troy, we can see some llamas in the middle of the cattle. Llamas are from Peru.
The comment about Odysseus turning up late is likely a reference to the fact that, in mythology, he attempted to get out of the war by pretending to be mad. A prophecy had told him that, if he took part in the siege, he would be away for twenty years. According to Homer, the Trojan War lasted ten years, followed by the ten years Odysseus spent trying to get home to Ithaca.
Wolfgang Petersen dropped various Greek Gods from the storyline, saying they were silly and unnecessary to the plot.
According to some sources, Achilles's cousin, Patroclus, was also his lover. Many male figures in Greek mythology had both male and female lovers, including Heracles and many of the Olympian gods, such as Apollo and Zeus.
In the Director's Cut, the scene where Achillies battles Hector replaced James Horner's score with Danny Elfman's theme to Planet of the Apes.
Glaucus's statement that the city's walls had never been breached is not mythologically accurate. Many years before the events of this film, Heracles (Hercules) lay siege to the city, killing King Laomedon (who had reneged on a promise) and installing a young Priam in his place.
Apollo, the sun god, is depicted as the patron of Troy. In mythology, Priam's father, Laomedon, angered Apollo and the god shot plague arrows into the city.
Brendan Gleeson starred opposite Orlando Bloom again a year later in Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Again they were enemies.
Priam's name was originally Podarces. When Heracles (Hercules) lay siege to Troy, his elder sister, Hesione, bought his life with a golden scarf. From then on, Podarces was known as Priam which to the Trojans meant "He who was bought."
The trailers list Gabriel Yared as composer, not James Horner who composed the score when Yared's was rejected.
In the Italian-dubbed version, Brad Pitt's voice was dubbed by Loris Loddi, who usually dubs Val Kilmer. Wolfgang Petersen personally chose Loddi.
Trevor Eve's part was cut to just two lines: "The best of Greece outnumber the best of Troy two to one," and "My prince, it's a gift to the gods."
Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana previously appeared together in Black Hawk Down (2001). However, they shared no scenes together in that film.
Paris's betrayal of Menelaus and seduction of Helen mirrors the Arthurian mythological story of Uther and Igraine. In the Arthurian myth, King Uther Pendragon broke his alliance with Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall because he lusted for his wife Igraine, Duchess of Cornwall and Uther seduced Igraine.
Shero Rauf was the only Iraqi who worked on the movie. After three weeks as an extra, he was chosen to lead a group of 25 Bulgarians, training them and translating the commands on set. Later, he did some stunt performances. He ended up as a Trojan archer targeting Brad Pitt, and his arrow goes inside Achilles's shield. It was the beginning of Shero's career in movies.
Many German viewers were annoyed when they realized that Brad Pitt's voice was dubbed by Martin Kessler, who normally dubs Nicolas Cage. This was done on personal request from director Wolfgang Petersen.
Nigel Terry plays Archeptolemus - the Oracle who interprets the signs of war for Peter O'Toole's character Priam - previously appeared with O'Toole in 1967's The Lion In Winter. Terry played slow-witted son John to O'Toole's King Henry II.
Katie Holmes tested for the role of Helen.
This movie was written by David Benioff and contains four actors from Game of Thrones (2011), including Sean Bean, James Cosmo, Julian Glover and Mark Lewis Jones.
In March 2019, the SundanceTV channel used portion's of Sean Bean's narration to promote a showing of The Patriot (2000), Gladiator (2000) and Troy.
Sean Bean was Odysseus in this and played Zeus in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010).
Eric Bana was cast on the strength of his performance in Chopper (2000). Initially, Wolfgang Petersen had reservations about even considering him as Bana was very bulky in his breakout film. However, Petersen changed his mind rapidly when he saw the leaner, fitter Bana.
At one point, Paris mentions to Hector that they were protected by Poseidon during their journey back home. Wolfgang Petersen follow-up movie after Troy (2004) would be Poseidon (2006).
Brad Pitt was Wolfgang Petersen's first choice to play Achilles.
Plans to shoot in Morocco were swiftly shelved because of the threat of Al Qaeda terror attacks. The location was switched to Mexico.
Brad Pitt's salary for the movie was $17.5 million.
Model Charlotte Kemp Muhl was considered for the role of Helen.
Diane Kruger (Helen) and Sean Bean (Odysseus), both star in another movie together - National Treasure (2004).
Portions of the film were shot at Fort Ricasoli in Malta, one of the locations used for Gladiator (2000).
Based on Homer's The Illiad. The Trojan Horse, however, didn't appear in that work but in Homer's later epic, "The Odyssey." This also happened in the 1955 film, Helen of Troy (1956), which also wasn't noted for its accuracy.
Brian Cox and Rose Byrne both appear in X-Men movies, although not together.
Writer David Benioff was a huge fan of The Illiad as, when he was a child, his mother read it to him over and over again. After he completed 25th Hour (2002), he proposed to Warner Brothers that he attempt a screenplay on it. Warners were cool on the prospect of such a project but nevertheless agreed, albeit paying Benioff a very small amount for his first draft.
Many of the actors in this film have also been in movies based on Marvel Comics. Rose Byrne and Bryan Cox both appeared in the 'X-Men' movies, Eric Bana starred in 'Hulk' and Brad Pitt had a "blink and you missed it" cameo in 'Deadpool 2.'
The Braveheart(www.imdb.com/title/tt0112573/) connection: Brendan Gleeson(www.imdb.com/name/nm0322407/) played "Hamish Campbell" and James Cosmo (www.imdb.com/name/nm0181920/) played "Campbell", his father. Also Brian Cox(www.imdb.com/name/nm0004051/) played William Wallace's uncle Argile.
Spoilers
During the fight when Patroclus dresses up as Achilles, Brad Pitt himself is in the scene. When Hector removes Patroclus's helmet after cutting his throat, Garrett Hedlund is in the costume.
Sean Bean is famous for his death scenes in movies. Surprisingly, his character is the only high-ranking Greek commander to survive at the movie's end.
In Homer's time, archers were looked down upon because they did not fight their opponent on equal terms. Paris, the weakest and least brave, is an experienced archer, and kills Achilles with his arrows. Achilles, the best fighter of all, was never beaten in an open duel.
When Paris is helping the citizens of Troy escape, he hands Priam's sword to a young man named Aeneas and tells him that as long as the sword is in the hands of a son of Troy, the Trojans will survive. This is an obvious reference to Publius Vergilius Maro's (Virgil's) epic poem, The Aeneid, which tells the story of a prince of Troy named Aeneas leading the survivors of Troy through a series of hardships before settling in Italy, where his descendants establish Rome 5 centuries later. According to "The Iliad," Aeneas was the son of Venus, and the second greatest warrior the Trojans fielded during the war. The man he is assisting must be Anchises, King of Dardania and father of Aeneas. In his youth Anchises had been crippled by a thunderbolt from Zeus. Aeneas escaped the burning Troy while carrying his elderly father on his back.
Although Achilles's death is not mentioned in the Iliad, according to The Odyssey he died well before Troy fell; and it was his death that inspired Odysseus (Ulysses to some) to build the Trojan horse.
When Agamemnon's emissaries are summoning Odysseus for the war, he is sitting with a dog. This is a reference to 'Argos', the dog that according to Homer's Odyssey awaits 20 years for his return, and died the moment he saw his master back.
In the original stories, Agamemnon survived the Trojan War, but was killed by his wife's lover. His son Orestes later avenged his death by killing them both.
There are several differences between Homer's Iliad and this movie. The twelve Greek Gods play a major role in the plot; some side with the Greeks and some with the Trojans, even arguing and physically fighting beside their allies. In the poem, neither Menelaus nor Agamemnon dies. Achilles's death is foretold, but does not occur in the Illiad, which leaves the Trojan War unresolved. He does die in the war in many related works by other authors. Ajax Telamon also survives the Iliad, but in related literature he dies by his own hand shortly after Achilles's death. The war lasts 10 years, and the events depicted in the movie take place during the last few months of the war. A Greek named Filoktitis or Philoctetes kills Paris right after he kills Achilles (not part of the Iliad, but part of the Greek mythology). Overall, the Iliad is an account of the feud between Achilles and Agamemnon; not all the romantic elements are as prominent in the poem as they are in the movie.
Near the end of the movie, Paris hands the Sword of Troy to a young man named Aeneas, telling him that as long as the sword is held by a Trojan, their people will always have a home. According to The Aeneid, Aeneas and his company of refugees founded Rome after the sack of Troy. The Trojans ultimately got their revenge on the Greeks, as Rome would go on to supplant Greece as the ruler of the Mediterranean and most of the then-known world.
Homer's Iliad doesn't begin until after the Greek army has made camp on the beach of Troy (and captured Briseis) and ends with Hector's death.
There are arrows in hidden spots and angles through various scenes in the movie, a possible foreshadowing of Achilles's ultimate demise.
This film reunites two pairs of actors who have previously played allies, but who are now enemies. Brendan Gleeson formerly allied with James Cosmo as Hamish Cambell and his Father in Braveheart (1995). Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom were allied as Boromir and Legolas in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). James Cosmo is the only actor of the four whose characters die in both films.
