Kiwi adventure for a Bounty of stars

One of the country’s most successful directors remembers when a host of big-name actors descended on New Zealand to film. James Croot reports.

It was the movie project that brought perhaps the greatest-ever cast to our shores. Even Peter Jackson’s Rings trilogy or King Kong couldn’t claim to have the acting power of Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day-Lewis.

But they, John Sessions, Neil Morrissey, Dexter Fletcher and Edward Fox all headed to New Zealand to make 1984’s The Bounty. And it could have been even more star-studded.

Hugh Grant has admitted he only missed out on a role in the historical drama because he hadn’t earned his equity card, while Gary Oldman decided to star in a UK regional theatre production instead.

At the helm of this big-budget behemoth was Roger Donaldson, a director then best-known for groundbreaking New Zealand movies Sleeping Dogs and Smash Palace.

He admits he wasn’t the original choice – before he came onboard it had been developed as a project for double Oscar-winner David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia). A $4m ship had even been built in Whanga¯ rei in preparation.

Speaking to Stuff from his home in the US, ahead of the movie’s release on Blu-Ray this week, the now 73-year-old Donaldson says his opportunity to direct came about when another high-profile project he was working on was bought by legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis.

‘‘Ian Mune and I wrote the script to a sequel to Conan the Barbarian, which Dino then bought the rights to. I met him and he told me about his Bounty project and the ship that was sitting in Whanga¯ rei unused.’’

Excited at the prospect of being able to shoot the story in the South Pacific, Donaldson (who also revealed he is currently working on a Kiwi-funded, ‘‘spiritual sequel’’ about what happened to the mutineers) tried his best to persuade De Laurentiis and company to film much of the England-based action in New Zealand.

He at least partly succeeded – the New Zealand portion of the 20-week shoot took place in and around Gisborne.

Donaldson says he had veto rights over casting. Only Hopkins was attached as the Bounty’s infamous Captain Bligh when he began work on it.

‘‘The great thing about working with Dino De Laurentiis was he was a man who could get on the phone and make stuff happen. If he wanted somebody he would go after them until he got them.

‘‘One of the key people Dino brought to the table was Mel [Gibson] who we all agreed, thanks to Mad Max, was as good as they get and I was convinced he could be convincing as an Englishman.

‘‘Likewise, Laurence Olivier’s [who filmed his scenes as Admiral Hood exclusively in England] involvement wasn’t a hard sell from my point of view.’’

As for the supporting cast, some of whom have gone on to stellar award-filled careers, Donaldson puts their appearances down to his casting director, Debbie McWilliams.

‘‘Debbie had a great eye for the up-and-coming talent of England at the time.

‘‘The cast and crew did go a bit troppo, especially while in Tahiti. We did sometimes have to go looking for them and found them in places we shouldn’t have found them.’’ Roger Donaldson