General Information:

Media Type: Book
Type: Other
Release Date: 2010-04-13

Geek's Thoughts: This book truly delivers on its promise to take you behind the scenes of this epic Jerry Bruckheimer film. It takes you through the personalities of those involved in the creating the film (director, producer, etc..). Then a profile on each of the main (and even lessor) characters and the actors/actresses that play them. The next section was the real interesting part to me, explore the locations, sets, and filming stories. There was another section devoted to the costume of each main character as well the supporting and background figures. Not to be left out the animals, second unit, visual effects, weapons, etc.. all had pages with images and descriptions. If you want to see what goes into making one of these large Hollywood films this is an interesting read. Also scattered throughout were single page or spread pieces on a particular topic that related to the making of the film. As you read through you were treated to a great overview of what goes into making a film of this scale.

 

I found it interesting this was a paperback book. The one advantage is it keeps the price point substantially lower. The retail on this book is under $25 and I saw it on Amazon for under $20. But do not let the paperback choice make you think the book is of any lesser quality. The large high quality pictures and artwork throughout the book are great. The pages themselves feel to be on a slightly heavier paper too.

The book is divided into three parts. The first is a New Sunrise that story and background (the video game) that formed the basis for this film. The second part is titled the Shining Stars and it features several pages of images and description on the character and actor/actress playing them. The final section is title sailing the sea of sand and it is the nuts and bolts of production. From the locations, sets, filming, post production, etc...

I found the third section to be the most interesting. They went into detail about each location/set as well as some stories about what they faced when filming in the harsh dessert climate. One of my favorite stories in the book is about the Ostrich Racetrack and how they trained local horse racers to ride the birds and the race outcomes were completely unscripted, so it was real racing.

As any Jerry Bruckheimer fan knows he is known for one of his hobbies, photography. There are several pages in the book that feature some of his shots.

The opening chapter briefly discussed the original video came that gave rise to this film, but it is not really explored or featured.. I would have liked to have seen some more info on the roots of the story. It did pay homage to the game and briefly compared the idea to that of Pirates. Where the film draws from but expands upon the original property and if you are familiar with the original you will spot nods to it, but it is not overt.