- StudioBriefing, 16 September 1999


The Walt Disney Co. is planning to produce the most expensive
movie ever made -- about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
on Dec. 7, 1941, a British newspaper reported today (Thursday).
The London Daily Express said that the unnamed film is budgeted
at $225 million and will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and
Michael Bay, who teamed on Disney's Armageddon. It is likely to
star Gene Hackman in the role of President Franklin Roosevelt
and Gwyneth Paltrow in an undescribed role. The Express quoted
a source close to Bruckheimer as saying, "The aim is to make
the most spectacular and realistic war film ever seen.
Bruckheimer's vision is almost megalomanic in its scope. ... We
want to top Titanic in the jaw-dropping stakes. A huge tank,
similar to the hydraulic technology used in Titanic, is being
built to accommodate the sinking of the USS Oklahoma." The
Express said that the U.S. military has agreed to provide access
to its bases in Hawaii for the film and that veterans of the
original action will be employed as technical advisors.