The following is an excerpt from the journal of Lady F. A SAG member who took part in the filming of a pivotal sequence for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” last spring.
WARNING! There be spoilers ahead …
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
There is a beautiful wedding set on the lawn overlooking the sea. Wooden chairs in rows, huge urns full of lush, live tropical flowers, wedding buffets set with pyramids of fruit, cakes, wineglasses and china cups. And ominously, long pipes hoisted overhead by cranes, which run the length of the stone arcade representing the Fort. Hmmm.
There are actors dressed as liveried servants holding silver platters containing linzer cakes, raspberry tartlets, dainty sugared pies and apricots. A man with sad brown eyes and a pencil mustache is handing out parasols and fans to gals, and bedecking gents with jeweled fobs and military orders.
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
Rehearsal begins with the stand-ins. Keira’s stand-in wears a beautiful dull-gold wedding gown with veil out by the sea, the guests having abandoned the lawn for the shelter of the fort. Why? IT’S RAINING.
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
Pouring actually, as the pipes along the arcade let loose with showers of cold water. Faux Keira, drenched, dejected, abandoned on the wet lawn. Of course, she did engage herself to a blacksmith-turned-pirate. What could she have expected?
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
But wait! He’s here (his stand-in anyway). She runs into the arcade. There’s a quiet moment of reuniting …
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
… and then an entire platoon of marines run double-time in out of the rain through the same arches that Faux Orlando entered through. They run down the length of the arcade and up the other side, bayonets fixed!
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
Confusion, faint screams from the ladies. Two marines with halberds stand in front of the wedding guests. And from behind the crowd the Faux Gov. appears, scattering guests right and left followed by his entourage.
The story unfolds. A slight, smug man in an ice-cream wig and sober black garb announces the arrest of (gasp) “Will Turner” and (gasp, gasp) “Elizabeth Swann” for aiding and abetting the escape of one “Jack Sparrow” er… “Captain Jack Sparrow.”
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
Elizabeth is led away in manacles! The crowd is outraged. Governor Swann is out-ranked. Rain raining on everything. Sad little puddles in the teacups on the buffet. Abandoned parasols on the wet lawn.
This has to be the worst wedding ever … with the best gossip!
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
As to what happens to Will & Elizabeth once they’re clapped in irons … Well, you’ll just have to see “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” when it opens in theaters next week in order to get an answer to that question.
As to what it was like to actually be on the set in San Pedro when this particular sequence in the “Pirates” sequel was shot … Return to JHM next week. When we’ll be sharing even more excerpts from Lady F.’s journal.
Your thoughts?