Trivia / The Bounty

• Acclaimed Flop: While it didn't do well at the box office, it was fairly praised by critics and is considered to be the most historically accurate portrayal of the events.
• All-Star Cast: Besides Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson as Bligh and Christian, and an elderly Laurence Olivier as Admiral Hood, this film features Liam Neeson as a mutineer and Daniel Day-Lewis as a martinet officer, and Bernard Hill as Cole the boatswain.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Mel Gibson stated that one of the reasons he accepted the part of Fletcher Christian is that he "liked the idea of playing a part previously attempted by Errol Flynn".
• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $25 million. Gross: $8,613,462.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Mel Gibson has expressed a belief that the film's revisionism did not go far enough, believing that his character should have been portrayed as the film's antagonist. He praised Anthony Hopkins's performance as Lieutenant William Bligh as the best aspect of the film.
  • Anthony Hopkins later said:
    It was such a sad mess of a film, such a botched job. Yet I'd put so much time and effort into the role. So right then and there I decided: Never again. I will no longer invest so much effort in something over which I have no control. It's too frustrating. That film was a sort of turning point for me. For years I'd been trying to cultivate a don't-give-a-damn attitude. After watching The Bounty I knew I had it.
• The Other Marty: Hugh Grant was originally cast as Midshipman Peter Heywood, but was sacked for not having a valid union card. Grant later said in an interview on The Howard Stern Show how infuriated he was from being dropped, given the salary and that he'd already been fitted for costuming.
• Saved from Development Hell: The film was conceived by David Lean and Robert Bolt as a two-part epic in 1977. The first film, The Lawmakers, would have with the voyage out to Tahiti and the subsequent mutiny and the second, The Long Arm, was to have been a study of the journey and the mutineers after the mutiny, as well as the admiralty's response in sending out the frigate HMS Pandora. In November 1977, Dino De Laurentiis announced that he would finance the project and make it after Hurricane and Phil Kellogg was to produce the films. In December of that year, Paramount announced that they would finance and distribute. In 1978, replica of the Bounty was built in New Zealand and Bolt completed the script for the first film, but suffered a heart attack and a stroke before he could finish the second. De Laurentiis pulled out of the project due to budget constraints. Anthony Hopkins was cast as Captain Bligh in August 1979. At one point, Paramount was to turn the project into a seven-part miniseries, but they pulled out after two months, feeling the project was too "masculine" and lacked female interest. Lean tried to interest Sam Spiegel in producing the film. Spiegel persuaded Lean to make just the one film. Lean then had a go at the script himself. Lean was ultimately forced to abandon the project after overseeing casting and the construction of the $4 million Bounty replica. In June 1981, Spiegel was trying to sell the replica. The film was eventually revived when Roger Donaldson came in as director.
• Troubled Production:
  • The film started as a two-part epic by David Lean in the mid-'70s. The film languished in Development Hell for years as Lean struggled to secure financing; producers were terrified at the film's proposed scale and projected budget. Lean and collaborator Robert Bolt finished a screenplay, spent $4,000,000 on a life-sized replica of the Bounty, and began casting the film (Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh; Christopher Reeve, Oliver Reed and Sting were all considered for Fletcher Christian before Mel Gibson signed on), all before securing a budget. When Lean finally gained Dino De Laurentiis's backing, Bolt had a massive stroke and dropped out of the project. Lean and de Laurentiis sparred for another year over the budget, enough that Lean considered turning the project over to Joseph Levine or Sam Spiegel. Finally, Lean tired of this bickering and left the project, passing it on to Roger Donaldson.
  • At de Laurentiis's urging, Donaldson drastically reduced Bolt's script, which depicted the voyage of the Bounty, the mutiny and the HMS Pandora's pursuit of the mutineers, into a more modest story depicting the mutiny. Even so, filming didn't go smoothly; extensive location shooting in French Polynesia ran afoul of bad weather and logistic difficulties, Gibson drank heavily during lulls in production, while Donaldson clashed repeatedly with Hopkins over the latter's performance. Finally released in 1984, The Bounty cost a hefty $25,000,000, and despite good reviews it flopped at the box office. Fortunately, its failure proved a minor speed bump, as Donaldson, Gibson and Hopkins - not to mention supporting actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson - all went on to bigger things.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Michael Cimino was asked to direct, but turned it down.
  • Gary Oldman turned down a role, in favor of a small Chesterfield production of Entertaining Mr Sloane.
  • Paul Darrow auditioned for a part back when David Lean was attached.
  • This was originally to be released as a two-part film, one named The Lawbreakers that dealt with the voyage out to Tahiti and the subsequent mutiny, and the second named The Long Arm that studied the journey of the mutineers after the mutiny, as well as the admiralty's response in sending out the frigate HMS Pandora.

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