What Went Wrong: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
By Shalimar Sahota
September 8, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow originally began as a six minute short that was put together by Kerry Conran at his home on a Macintosh computer. It was in 1998 that the friendship his brother’s wife had with producer Marsha Oglesby allowed him to get his short seen by producer Jon Avnet. Clearly impressed with what he saw, Avnet financed the film along with executive producer Aurelio De Laurentis, with Conran writing and directing.
While a lot of care has gone towards how the film looks, Avnet and Conran revealed that they spent around two years working on the script. Shooting "mostly" in front of blue screen, principal photography took less than a month. The film was finished before Paramount Pictures stepped in, wanting to distribute it across the US.
Set in an alternate 1939, New York reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is investigating the disappearance of a number of scientists. When following up on a lead from a scientist fearing for his life from the evil mastermind Dr. Totenkopf (Laurence Olivier), giant robots suddenly appear from the sky and begin attacking the city. Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan is called in, who flies in and destroys one of the robots, saving his old flame Polly in the process. The wreckage of the robot is brought back to Joe’s Flying Legion air base, so that tech expert Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) can find out where it came from. Polly enters, hoping to get a big story, but also offers information that might be useful. Together Joe and Polly try to find Dr. Totenkopf and work out his connection to the robot attacks and missing scientists.
As one of the few films shot on a digital backlot, Sky Captain joins Speed Racer and The Spirit as a very small minority that failed to connect with audiences. While it’s not perfect, it had a lot going for it. The teaser trailer generated a lot of buzz, with its nostalgic premise, decent actors and digital gloss.
Clearly a feature length homage to the Saturday morning serials of the 1930s and 40s, Conran digitally created a futuristic looking past that never existed. There’s no denying just how amazing it looks. As well as the look, so effective is it in creating the overall feel of 1930s TV serials that their faults are also carried over. With its flat characters and linear story, the film is more about exciting the viewer with multiple set pieces, some of which Conran probably conceived before he had a full story and tried to shoehorn in. For example, during the third act Joe and Polly appear to have wondered onto the set of a Ray Harryhausen movie.
Midway through, Joe lands his plane on a mobile airship belonging to Commander Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie). It comes under attack from enemy warships (which are never seen). Joe needs to make his way to a mystical island where Dr. Totenkopf is presumed to be and because of the current attack it’s decided that Joe won’t be able to make it by air, so Franky and her “amphibious squadron” assist Joe by navigating underwater instead. It’s just an excuse to have an underwater attack sequence, for after taking off of Franky’s airship, no plane comes under attack.
It’s also pretty silly in places. I mean, Polly meets the scientist Dr. Walter Jennings, who explains that he’s the last one that Totenkopf is after. Instead of seeking protection, or going into hiding, he just goes home, where he can easily be found and killed. It’s like a dumb necessity to help move the story forward. It also makes no sense that the whole world is in danger and for some suicidal reason it seems more convenient to just send in one pilot and a reporter. Maybe everyone else has better things to do? Also, at the end of the film it appears that Franky and her men have just been waiting outside the island. Having helped him get there in the first place, couldn’t they have supported Joe instead of just dillydallying around outside? I guess it’s all about keeping with the tone of those classic serials.
While I think it’s a nice touch that we only discover as much about Dr. Totenkopf the same time as the characters do, leaving his intentions and appearance largely absent till the very end of the film makes for an incredibly hollow villain. The surprise of course being that once he is revealed, it just so happens to be the late Laurence Olivier. A lot of emphasis is also placed on two vials that Dr. Totenkopf is after. It’s like half a MacGuffin, for only at the end do we find out that they contain genetically created humans. After that, they’re totally insignificant.
There are two differing reports regarding the production budget. One has the film costing as much as $70 million, which seems unrealistically high for a blue screen production (a digital backlot should have kept costs down). A few reports list a budget at around $40 million, which seems more appropriate. The film opened on September 17th 2004 and managed to win the #1 spot with a low take of $15.5 million. It accumulated $37.76 million at the US box office. An additional $21.19 million overseas helped the film earn $57.9 overall. Reviews were generally good. The critics loved it, maybe because some of them were old enough to remember such TV serials (Roger Ebert awarded the film four stars).
There was talk of turning Sky Captain into a franchise, (supposedly the film was the middle part of a planned trilogy) but the low box office takings meant that it wasn’t to be. For a first time writer/director it was a hell of a way to make your mark. Having shot most of his film before Paramount’s involvement also meant that Conran didn’t suffer any studio interference.
Since its release, Conran has dropped off the radar. He was at one point attached to direct John Carter of Mars, but dropped out. The guy definitely has talent, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does next, if anything at all. As for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, it’s practically a 1930s movie offering outdated thrills. Given the love for TV serials, it might have worked better as TV series, rather than a compact film.