Troy: a Homeric shoot for an excessive peplum

In 2004, Wolfgang Petersen tackled a giant: the film adaptation of Homer's Iliad. Starring: Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger. An outsized epic, just like the struggles that punctuate its production! Troy is broadcast tonight at 9:10 p.m. on NRJ12.

“I promise you blood, sweat and tears!“It is with Churchill's famous quote that Wolfgang Petersen welcomes the new recruits on his set. Atmosphere… If the German director, a fan of cold humor, jokes, he knows that he is not taking his troops for a walk in the park. Because he has to film one of the most famous epics in literature: the mythical siege of Troy by the Spartans, who came to free their queen, Helen.

Filming began on April 22, 2003, with interior scenes, shot in the immense London studios of Shepperton. Forty years earlier, these sets had hosted Cleopatra, with Liz Taylor. While recording a delicate love scene between Orlando Bloom (Paris) and Helen of Sparta (Diane Kruger), the filmmaker learned that he would not be able to shoot the combat sequences in Morocco. At the time of the war in Iraq, Warner's insurers were wary of possible problems with fundamentalists on the ground. “The trouble begins,” sighs Petersen.

Finally, the sword and javelin clashes will take place in the Ricasoli fortress in Malta, where a legion of local craftsmen will reconstruct the city of Troy. The director breathes: he will be able to film the famous duel between Achilles (Brad Pitt) and Hector (Australian actor Eric Bana). A strategic sequence: Brad Pitt, who has been training for six months with a coach, shows off an impeccably muscular and oiled body, which drives the makeup artists crazy. And refuses to be doubled for this confrontation. Bad idea: because of a stunt poorly set up by the armorers, the actor badly injures his Achilles tendon!

The 2,000 extras find themselves on technical unemployment for three long months, the time it takes for the actor to heal. Troubles rarely come alone, Maltese radio reports the incident on its airwaves and 200 paparazzi soon lay siege to the set, where the actor has to move under a large umbrella to avoid stolen photos. A few weeks later, the entire production of this epic with a budget of 150 million euros arrives on the Mexican coast, ideal for the shots of naval battles between Trojans and Greeks.

The only problem is that in August, the mercury exceeds 50 degrees in the sun.“I was starting to get tired in the stifling heat,” says Diane Kruger. Under their plastic uniforms, the extras were dropping like flies..” The filming days therefore begin at 5 a.m., when the temperature is still bearable. And the misfortunes continue: on two occasions, hurricanes of rare violence, coming from the desert, destroy the entire sets, which are rebuilt immediately afterwards.

Exhausted, the technicians then have to work for local environmentalists, who demand that the production replant each displaced cactus, while taking care not to disturb a protected species of turtle living nearby! As for Brad Pitt, who complains of a searing pain in his foot, he has to be put in a cast again urgently. In short, blood, sweat and tears…

Text: Jean-Baptiste Drouet

Troy is broadcast tonight at 9:10 p.m. on NRJ12.