...and the effects cost a bomb too
IT WAS an explosive spectacle thought to have cost £1million, but modestly dubbed ‘the fireworks scene’ by the special effects crew.
In episode five of The Night Manager, missiles and napalm appear to rain down on a desert village to demonstrate the deadly arms sold by villain Richard Roper. The shoot – which ran from 7pm until 4am – took place in the desert, an hour from Marrakech in Morocco.
In total, 40 explosions were used but twice as many were prepared in case more than one take was needed. The special effects team used a secret mix of black powder, used to load muskets, adding petrol when a larger bang was needed.
To create the effect of napalm engulfing the village, diesel was added to make black smoke.
Although the explosives were real, they were later enhanced using CGI. The planes blown up by missiles and soldiers firing guns shown in the scene were all created by computers.
Special effects supervisor Pau Costa – who has also worked on The Revenant and Clash Of The Titans – said the trickiest part was getting the explosives past Moroccan customs. ‘The military came to inspect what we were doing each day,’ he said. ‘They stored the explosives, then brought them to us.
‘They were strict, I suppose as they didn’t want anything to fall into the wrong hands.’
He also revealed how the actors’ reactions were filmed separately: ‘We used bars of real fire that you can turn up or down to cast explosive-like reflections on the actors’ faces.’
Although the explosives budget was £150,000, CGI can cost £120,000 per minute of film.