He has brought together an all star cast that includes Matthew Macfayden, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich and Orlando Bloom.
And they were in London to chat about the movie and the experience they had on set.
- Paul there have also been some changes to the story - can you talk me about the airships and the decision to include those?
We did a lot of research on seventeenth century weaponry and they were really inspired in the 17th century into looking into different ways of killing each other - there are the most fantastic James Bondian style weapons that they built.
We saw some in museums swords that were also guns, axes that also had guns built into the handle and that rotating cannon device that Luke uses towards the end of the movie is straight out of a Bavarian museum; we built our own version of it but it looks exactly the same.
So there was a lot of very modern thinking going on and then that tied with the idea of Da Vinci and the fact that he designed so many futuristic things that were never built - but what if?
That really became the basis of the airships - and also Richard Lester had them in his movie The Return of the Musketeers. I thought that this was a fantastic opportunity to take a classic story and the latest in visual effects and tell an operatic tale that would resonate more with a modern audience.
Jeremy Bolt: Also from a commercial point of view we had to almost give people a reason to see this tale again and by giving them the airships we hoped that a very strong visual people would realise that it was a new take on it; it was only 1993 when the last movie was made and there have been many versions before that. To me this is something new and we hoped that everyone will appreciate that.
Milla: Paul and Jeremy have worked so much with 3D that, along with Jim Cameron, they are at the forefront of people who respect 3D and really know how to use it properly and take the time to do it because, trust me, a lot of actors get frustrated working with 3D.
Yes it is a long painstaking process but the fact is that it needs to be properly because if you don’t take that time people will leave the theatre felling disappointed.
The fact is a lot of people use 3D as a gimmick. Yes there are some great action sequences in this movie that blow your mind with things flying towards the camera, but we are not just using it as a gimmick. 3D is being used to showcase these incredible locations that you people fought so hard to get - I remember months and months of everybody going ‘ahhh how are we going to get to these places?’
You feel that you are walking into a fairytale from the incredible costumes and the incredible locations it’s different from any other 3D movie as no one has done a period film in 3D.
- I want to ask the young members of the cast, Gabrielle, Logan and Freddie, what do you think is the enduring appeal of The Three Musketeers?
Freddie Fox. It has got these wonderful themes, like any great tale, of loyalty, friendship, betrayal and love and all these things make up a tale that completely transcends time - plus the fact it looks cooler than any version of Musketeers that we have ever seen.
And I think it’s a tale of young people, and it’s great that Take That did the theme tune for us because it really gives that link with people growing up and the young coming forward and coming through it‘s a tale for the young; I would go and see the movie if I wasn’t in it.
Logan Lerman: And I suppose it’s the technology and the 3D aspect as well we shot it with the James Cameron rigs, which are the best out there really.
And it transports you into this world in a way that the others haven’t it takes you and immerses you in the story - it is certainly shot in a way that we haven’t seen before.
- You hint at a sequel at the end of the movie so do you have that in place?
Paul W.S. Anderson: I loved making this movie and working with everyone sat at this table so I certainly wouldn’t say no to doing it again - but my approach has always been to putting 100% into the movie that we are making now I think sometimes that filmmakers put too much thought into the grand franchise they are going to build and guess what?
If the first movie doesn’t work there is no franchise. So we have always concentrated on the making the best possible movie that we could right now.
- So why did you include that scene at the end?
Because I really liked the character of Duke of Buckingham and M’Lady and we definitely wanted to come back to them.
Really we did the first half of the book, of the first book, and of course M’Lady doesn’t die in the first half, it’s towards the end of the book, so we didn’t want to kill M’Lady.
Also I wanted to see the Duke of Buckingham again and his enormous fleet - the British Empire behind him.
- And Orlando how was it playing the bad guy this time around?
It was a lot of fun. When I sat down with Paul and Jeremy and they told me that my name had come up when they were thinking of the movie and the character of Buckingham - that in itself was exciting to me.
He is not like a bit bad guy he is a little bad guy - he is more like a petulant child. I had a lot of fun with this character and really enjoyed myself.
Matthew Macfayden: It was hard to get Orlando to take the clothes off he was the Duke of Buckingham - if we’d have let him he would have gone home dressed like that.
- A question for the Three Musketeers did James Corden stay on script?
Luke Evans: He did have quite a free reign - he is funny when he makes it up sometimes.
- Did it become a challenge for him to make you crack up?
Evans: For me it was no challenge as I was a lost cause - I find it very hard to keep a straight face as James just cracks me up. Do you remember when he kept coming down the stairs? Oh my God.
Matthew Macfayden: We just gave him more things to carry.
Evans: Yeah he really likes to complain he didn’t like that did he?
Macfayden: He thought he was on some hidden camera show because on the first few days, just by coincidence, he had to carry loads of heavy things.
Evans: He thought they were going to be made of Balsawood, that really light weight wood, but they were actually antique cases with leather strapped to his back. It was wonderful because there were three of us so had to carry three sets of everything - which he did not like.
- A question to the Musketeers chemistry is a major part of this movie so did you spend a lot of time off set together?
Luke Evans: There is a lot of down time on a movie like this, on a movie of this size.
Milla Jovovich: Didn’t you guys do karaoke?
Evans: No we didn’t need a karaoke machine.
Matthew Macfayden: The German beer is called Vice beer and that helped.
Ray Stevenson: It was the glue that bonded us together.
Evans: No we spent a lot of time hanging out, especially when you are on location because there are no trailers to go back to so we had little green rooms where we sat and chatted.
- It is quite a physical movie with plenty of fight scenes so did you find yourselves trying to out-do one another - did it get a bit macho?
Ray Stevenson: Actually we found ourselves staying on set, when we were shooting the big Cooper’s Yard fight, we would stay around to watch and cheer each other on because we were delighted at what the others were doing as well.
Matthew Macfayden: We spent ten days doing that first fight and it was the first thing that we shot.
Luke Evans: There was so much to learn and we were put through a very intense boot camp for about four weeks.
Stevenson: And to see Logan throwing himself around as well - but it was great. You were so on top of the fight itself that you could enjoy it and you find yourself cheering the others on. You could just relish it and we were looking around and were like ‘We are actually in the Musketeers’.
Evans: We were all very proud of ourselves.
Stevenson: This film was one of those joyous films to be one and it comes from the top, it comes from Jeremy and from Paul, and that enthusiasm is just infectious and it just lit up everyone - not just the cast but the crew as well.
Everyone felt some kind of ownership and pride in this movie and just enjoyed it - there was a lot of work, any movie will beat up, but this movie paid dividence every single day.
Milla Jovovich: Well I can argue that actually because none of you were there for my fight scenes (laughs).
Matthew Macfayden: You screwed us over. You broke my heart (laughs).
Three Musketeers is released 12th October. Read the first part of the interview here.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
He has brought together an all star cast that includes Matthew Macfayden, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich and Orlando Bloom.
And they were in London to chat about the movie and the experience they had on set.
- Paul there have also been some changes to the story - can you talk me about the airships and the decision to include those?
We did a lot of research on seventeenth century weaponry and they were really inspired in the 17th century into looking into different ways of killing each other - there are the most fantastic James Bondian style weapons that they built.
We saw some in museums swords that were also guns, axes that also had guns built into the handle and that rotating cannon device that Luke uses towards the end of the movie is straight out of a Bavarian museum; we built our own version of it but it looks exactly the same.
So there was a lot of very modern thinking going on and then that tied with the idea of Da Vinci and the fact that he designed so many futuristic things that were never built - but what if?
That really became the basis of the airships - and also Richard Lester had them in his movie The Return of the Musketeers. I thought that this was a fantastic opportunity to take a classic story and the latest in visual effects and tell an operatic tale that would resonate more with a modern audience.
Jeremy Bolt: Also from a commercial point of view we had to almost give people a reason to see this tale again and by giving them the airships we hoped that a very strong visual people would realise that it was a new take on it; it was only 1993 when the last movie was made and there have been many versions before that. To me this is something new and we hoped that everyone will appreciate that.
Milla: Paul and Jeremy have worked so much with 3D that, along with Jim Cameron, they are at the forefront of people who respect 3D and really know how to use it properly and take the time to do it because, trust me, a lot of actors get frustrated working with 3D.
Yes it is a long painstaking process but the fact is that it needs to be properly because if you don’t take that time people will leave the theatre felling disappointed.
The fact is a lot of people use 3D as a gimmick. Yes there are some great action sequences in this movie that blow your mind with things flying towards the camera, but we are not just using it as a gimmick. 3D is being used to showcase these incredible locations that you people fought so hard to get - I remember months and months of everybody going ‘ahhh how are we going to get to these places?’
You feel that you are walking into a fairytale from the incredible costumes and the incredible locations it’s different from any other 3D movie as no one has done a period film in 3D.
- I want to ask the young members of the cast, Gabrielle, Logan and Freddie, what do you think is the enduring appeal of The Three Musketeers?
Freddie Fox. It has got these wonderful themes, like any great tale, of loyalty, friendship, betrayal and love and all these things make up a tale that completely transcends time - plus the fact it looks cooler than any version of Musketeers that we have ever seen.
And I think it’s a tale of young people, and it’s great that Take That did the theme tune for us because it really gives that link with people growing up and the young coming forward and coming through it‘s a tale for the young; I would go and see the movie if I wasn’t in it.
Logan Lerman: And I suppose it’s the technology and the 3D aspect as well we shot it with the James Cameron rigs, which are the best out there really.
And it transports you into this world in a way that the others haven’t it takes you and immerses you in the story - it is certainly shot in a way that we haven’t seen before.
- You hint at a sequel at the end of the movie so do you have that in place?
Paul W.S. Anderson: I loved making this movie and working with everyone sat at this table so I certainly wouldn’t say no to doing it again - but my approach has always been to putting 100% into the movie that we are making now I think sometimes that filmmakers put too much thought into the grand franchise they are going to build and guess what?
If the first movie doesn’t work there is no franchise. So we have always concentrated on the making the best possible movie that we could right now.
- So why did you include that scene at the end?
Because I really liked the character of Duke of Buckingham and M’Lady and we definitely wanted to come back to them.
Really we did the first half of the book, of the first book, and of course M’Lady doesn’t die in the first half, it’s towards the end of the book, so we didn’t want to kill M’Lady.
Also I wanted to see the Duke of Buckingham again and his enormous fleet - the British Empire behind him.
Tagged in The Three Musketeers Paul W.S. Anderson