In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh recruited 117 men, women and
children
for a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island, located
on North
Carolina's
coast. John White (Alex McArthur) was
appointed
governor of the new "City of Raleigh."
Among the
colonists
were White's pregnant daughter Eleanor Dare
(Frida Show),
his son-in-law Ananias Dare (Adrian Paul),
and the Indian chief
Manteo (Michael Teh), who had become
an ally during his stay
in Britain.
The group journeyed from Britain to Roanoke Island and
established
the first English settlement in America. Within three
years, however,
they had vanished with scarcely a trace.
England's initial attempt at colonization of the New World
was a disaster, and one of America's most enduring
legends was born...
Lost Colony will be released in 2007. No details about the nature of the release or the release date itself are known at this time, but as soon as we get that information, you'll be the first to know.
Cast
Adrian Paul
Frida Show
Rhett Giles
Michael Teh
Mari Mascaro
Alex McArthur
George Calil
Doug Dearth
Atanas Srebrev
Hristo Mitzkov
Velislav Pavlov
Ivan Simeonov
Rafael Jordan
Jonas Talkington
Suzette Kolaga
i
Ananias Dare
Eleanor Dare
George Howe
Manteo
Elizabeth Viccars
John White
Thomas Stevens
Gregory Hemphill
Samuel Fillion
Ambrose Viccars
Gaius Callis
Lee Bamber
Christopher Harvie
William Stark
Emme Merrimoth
Producers
Dana Dubovsky
Cary Glieberman
Rafael Jordan
Steven G. Kaplanr
Mark L. Lester
Aaron Spitz
Film locations Bulgaria
Cinematography Anton Bakarski
i
producer
line producer
producer
executive producer
producer
executive producer
Film Editing by
Robin Russell
Director Matt Codd
It took writer/producer Rafael Jordan just over three years to get the project greenlit and completed.
During the sparring match between Ananias (Adrian Paul) and George (Rhett Giles), actor Rhett Giles accidentally smacked Adrian Paul with a wooden sword twice - once on the foot, and once in the face, which left a small bruise for several days.
The language spoken by Ananias at the end of the film is Icelandic, the closest living language to Old Norse.
Torrential downpours on the very first day of shooting delayed production nearly 5 hours.
The very first shot filmed was the colonists arrival on the beach. The very last shot filmed was Ananias' inscription of the word "Croatoan" on a tree near the same beach.
During the scene in Manteo's hut where it was supposed to be raining heavily with water dripping down on them, it was actually raining heavily with water dripping down on them.
During the scene where a British soldier is attacked by several natives, one of the natives' axes had a nail sticking out of it. The stuntman playing the soldier would have been seriously injured as he was hit repeatedly with the axe, but his chainmail armor actually protected him.
Adrian Paul was actually hit accidentally by an arrow with a plastic tip. Luckily, it just bounced off.
Week One The first week went by rather fast. The weather gave us a few problems, but when all was said and done, the work went well. I had never been to Bulgaria before and was not quite sure what to expect. Some of the scenery outside of Sofia is beautiful, and the lake we were shooting near was stunning, especially in the early morning when the mist would sit across the water. The actual schedule was hard. Pretty much like the shooting of a TV series. This meant that we had mostly been getting only a couple of takes per set-up, which could be good and bad at the same time. On film, having the spontaneous response is always golden as long as you know what your scene is about and what you are trying to achieve in the scene. Less experienced actors sometimes play themselves and don’t do the homework necessary. Here, however, everyone seemed intent on making a good movie, and we had all been discussing the characters and dialogue ad nauseum. Raphael Jordan (the writer/producer), Matt Codd (the director) and I spent many hours together chatting about the script and the feel and look that they wanted for the movie. Working with the other key actors on the scenes prior to shooting them also helped enormously in creating drama in the story so far.
Adrian with the welt on his cheek.
The red ink marks where dirt smudges n
eeded to be placed.
Apart from taking two-and-a-half hours to get the first shot off each day, week one for me was only problematic in one sense. While rehearsing a small practice fight with Rhett Giles, I got smacked in the face with the wooden sword, which left a small rose-colored welt on my cheekbone which needed the help of makeup to cover it for a few days. Rhett was very apologetic, but accidents happen. The choreographing of all my action was left to me since the stunt co-ordinator had so many other things to take care of.
Rhett and I were happy to be left to our own devices in coming up with a simple but fun scene where Ananias and George are training their sword skills. However (yes, there is always a however), as luck would have it, the moment we started to film, it began to rain slightly. We had enough time to do the first couple of takes before having gravel thrown down to give us better footing. Luckily we had already done the gag of me jumping off a barrel and Rhett swinging below me, because when the rain started the surfaces became very slippery.
Now, that said, even this simple piece didn’t go off without incident. As Rhett swung hard in one take, the handle of his wooden sword broke off. Why? Well he cracked me on the foot with it when he swung. Ouch! That was two. I was glad by the time we finished that the old adage of everything happening in threes didn’t come true.
The funny thing here I noticed was that the way people work
here is different; you have to appreciate that when working in
a foreign country. It has to do with culture and experience. We were a little frustrated with the slowness of the crew, but then again I think some of them were either not that experienced or not used to working at a western pace. Only the next week or so will tell.
