UK in Focus - page 75

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION
UK IN FOCUS 2016
story.
Tarzan
, in the way it had been conceived
as a script, seemed to offer a richer experience.
And that’s what excited me. That’s what I
always liked about Potter, which was why it
was so hard to find something to follow it.They
were full meals, if you like, and
Tarzan
feels a
little like that. As a storyteller, you want to
engage a lot of muscles. It was a no-brainer
when I read it.”
A perfect match
The Legend of Tarzan
stars Alexander Skarsgard
in the title role. Having left the jungle and set-
tled into life in London, Tarzan is called back to
Africa to investigate the suspect activities of a
mining company. The shoot was split between
Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the UK, and
Gabon, on the west coast of central Africa. A
recce to Gabon proved to be inspirational to
Yates and his team.
“We used the technology we have, the visual
effects, to combine the foreground elements
that we created back here in England with real
Africa, for example in the riverboat sequences.
Our DoP Henry Braham, who is amazingly
gifted, shot all the principal action of Margot
[Robbie, who plays Jane Porter] and Christoph
[Waltz, Captain Rom] on our tank, back at
Leavesden. We built the most exquisite river-
boat for them to have the dialogue scenes on.
Then Henry went out to Gabon in a helicopter,
and spent three weeks tracking along all these
rivers. He shot the background plates in exactly
the same light that we shot all the foreground
in. The marriage of the two is just uncanny.”
Advances in technology meant Yates was
able to perform sophisticated camera moves
around the boat, and then tack in the Gabon
footage around them.“So it’s a properly immer-
sive experience, bringing two worlds together.
It looks so authentic.”
Although it plays as an action adventure
rather than an effects-driven fantasy, Yates
reveals that
Tarzan
contains more visual effects
than any of his Harry Potter films.“That’s one of
the reasons it has taken me so long to finish it.”
In addition to seamlessly marrying the footage
shot on sets with that captured in Gabon, spe-
cific challenges included creating a jungle full
of animals.
Given the extent of the effects work, Yates
has companies from all over the world contrib-
uting to the project but is quick to praise
home-grown effects talent. “Our UK visual-
effects vendors are fantastic. If you look at
Framestore or Double Negative, their work is
exemplary. We have teams from both houses
working on
Tarzan
and
Beasts
; they have done
some absolutely wonderful work, and they
always do. The UK is an absolute focal point
for great work when it comes to any number of
visual effects.”
As the most prolific Potter director, Yates is
inextricably linked to one of the UK film indus-
try’s biggest success stories but,even so,he con-
fesses that he had some reservations about
revisiting JK Rowling’s world for Potter spinoff
Fantastic Beasts
. “I thought it might be time to
let someone else take over,” he says, “but I was
very, very interested to read the screenplay.”
Having read the script, written by Rowling, all
thoughts of handing over the baton vanished.
“I knew immediately I wanted to do it,” he says.
The film follows the adventures of Newt
Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the author of a
seminal textbook on magic, as he discovers an
underground community of witches and wiz-
ards in 1920s New York. Again, Yates
chose to shoot in the UK. “We scouted in
New York,” he says, “but 1920s New York
has a very different look.”
So, Yates and his team created ambi-
tious sets at Warner Bros. Studios Leaves-
den, working again with Harry Potter Pro-
duction Designer Stuart Craig.“He said to me,
‘This is the biggest set I have ever built’.”
One of the opportunities that Yates rel-
ished with
Fantastic Beasts
was the chance
to put his own stamp on the film, to build
a world from scratch. “With the Potter
films, the train had already left the sta-
Margot Robbie and
Alexander Skarsgard in
The Legend of Tarzan
tion. My job was to help the films grow up,
mature, but so much of it was in place already.”
The creative leeway offered by
Fantastic Beasts
was, he says, very exciting. “It feels more of a
separate entity,” he says of the film’s place
within the Potter universe. “It’s a very witty,
charming screenplay.”
Between the final Potter and
Tarzan
, Yates
also found time to make a pilot for a US TV
series,
Tyrant
. Does he see himself returning to
long-form projects? “I would love to do more
television. I really enjoyed doing
Tyrant
.” But
that will have to wait. Yates reveals he is hav-
ing so much fun in the world of
Fantastic Beasts
,
he is not ready to leave just yet: he has already
started thinking about its sequel.
UK
OUR UK VISUAL-
EFFECTS VENDORS
ARE FANTASTIC.
THE UK IS A
FOCAL POINT
FOR GREATWORK
David Yates
Alison Sudol and David Yates
on the set of Fantastic Beasts
and Where to Find Them
Warner Bros. will release The Legend of
Tarzan in the US on July 1 and UK on July
8, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find
Them in the US and UK on November 18
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