Cape Town – King Arthur: Legend of the Sword opens in South African cinemas on Friday, 12 May.
To celebrate the release of the film we’ve put together some fascinating facts about the flick that will puzzle your mind!
KING ARTHUR BY NUMBERS:
1. Locations
The film was shot on location in 3 countries in the United Kingdom – Wales, Scotland and England.
2. Special permission
It took 6 months for supervising location manager Amanda Stevens to gain approval from National Resources Wales to build the set for Uther’s burial mound on the ruggedly beautiful Gwern Gof Isaf in Snowdonia.
3. The set
It would take you 10 minutes on foot to circle the sprawling Londinium set of the film, which was so enormous it could be seen from the nearby M25 motorway.
4. Eric’s costume
It took costumers in Annie Symons’s workshop 31 days to hand-stitch all of King Uther’s chainmail armor for Eric Bana and his stunt doubles.
5. The sword
There were 40 versions of Excalibur made for the movie. Of those swords 10 were metal swords and 30 lighter rubber models.
6. The cars
50 vehicles were used to transport approximately 400 cast and crew to the film’s stunning, often remote, locations across the UK.
7. David Beckham
David Beckham spent 60 minutes in the makeup chair while prosthetics artist Kristyan Mallet – with an assist from Christine Blundell and Lesa Warrener – applied the craggy facial scar that transformed the world-famous athlete for his cameo as the brutal Blackleg Trigger.
8. Special effects
108 gas bottles were transported to the Snowdonia location by special effects supervisor Mark Holt to artificially fuel the three funeral pyres; the pyres themselves were so enormous they had to be helicoptered in so as to maintain the ecological sanctity of the unique region.
9. The horses
130 horses plunged into battle under the meticulous supervision and care of key horse master Daniel Naprous – representing nearly the full herd raised and trained by his second-generation family-run stable.
10. The cameras
114 digital cameras were involved in the photogrammetry technique leveraged by Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Nick Davis (The Dark Knight) and his team to capture and digitally reproduce the full spectrum of shapes, colors and textures of the myriad animals that appear in the film.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
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(Photos: Warner Bros/AP)