20 December 2023

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch’s Christmas present is not coming from the usual bearded man.

Regardless whether they have been naughty or nice, HTBS Types will be getting the gift that they have long wanted this Christmas, not from Saint Nick but from Saint George, the patron saint of intelligent filmmakers, liberals and silver foxes. After more false starts than a multi-lane regatta in a crosswind, George Clooney’s version of Daniel James Brown’s 2013 best-seller, The Boys in the Boat, is finally coming down the chimney of a cinema near you. 

Although the delay in making a movie of a book published eleven years ago has been frustrating to its many fans, I imagine that the Clooney version will be the best that mainstream Hollywood can produce. In 2011, however, Kenneth Branagh was a strong contender to make his vision of the film. Branagh is, like Clooney, an impressive and intelligent actor/producer/director and he would have probably been an equally good choice. Thirteen years ago, the now Sir Kenneth was quoted as saying, “The Boys in the Boat is an epic. I was completely captivated by the characters, the era, and the dreams of a generation unfolding beautifully and dramatically”. 

When Branagh was the proposed director, Eric Eisenberg of cinemablend.com wrote: “…what I’m really hoping for… is simply a two hour version of the Henley Regatta sequence from The Social Network. If they do that, I see… Oscars in their future”.

As is usual in the film world, MGM has peppered the run up to the release of the movie with multiple teasers as to what to expect, releasing both still and moving images.

HTBS has previously posted a trailer released on 4 October, and now another version of it is on X/Twitter. Details from screenshots taken from the new release are below.

Pictures by Laurie Sparham released by MGM:

Pictures from @bestofcallum:

The website deadline.com has a piece on a Q and A with George Clooney’s longtime producing partner, Grant Heslov, and the movie’s editor, Tanya Swerling.

Deadline quoted Heslov:

So we cast these guys and we hired them for an extra three months to train — a solid three months of real rowing training with Olympic rowing coaches, the whole nine yards, two sessions a day, and on and on… So they’ve been training for maybe a month and a half, and George and I finally show up to the training facility … and we go out on these little boats, we watch them row and we look at each other. And we’re like, ‘Oh, [expletive], these kids are never going to get this right.’ I mean, we were worried.

By the time filming started, however, They were pretty good, said (Heslov).

Editor, Tanya Swerling:

I did watch some documentaries about rowing just so I understood the lingo and I understood what the guys in the boat were doing… I wanted to keep some of the technical parts of rowing accurate for the fans that were rowers in real life.

FilMonger has put an 18-minute behind the scenes video on YouTube. Splendidly, there is an interview with boatbuilder Bill Colley at 8min 15sec.

MGM has recently put more teasers on YouTube. The first is the Lake Washington scene filmed at Henley.

The “featurette” below is titled “From Page to Screen.”

The UK invitation-only premiere was held in London on 3 December. A video report was made by The Sun Showbiz.  

Sadly, we seem to have moved away from the time when film premieres were glamorous black-tie occasions.

Once The Boys in the Boat has been released, HTBS will be able to publish many more pictures of the making of the film. Watch this space.

Tomorrow on HTBS, don’t miss rowing historian Peter Mallory’s review of the film.