Ghost Ship, 2002, Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies
Ghost Ship (2002) is a horror movie, directed by Steve Beck. The fictional ship Antonia Graza featured in the movie is based on a real life Italian cruise ship, the SS Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956 after colliding with another liner near Nantucket, Massachusetts. The film grossed a total of $30,113,491 in the U.S. Box Office and stars Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies and Emily Browning.
Tagline: Sea Evil
The movie was originally conceived as a relatively bloodless psychological horror: four salvage crew members turn against each other after becoming stranded aboard the remains of a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship, The Chimera, is one believed to have been lost in the 1960s.
The design for the "Antonia Graza" was modeled after the "SS Andrea Doria", a real-life Italian cruise ship that also met a deadly fate: it sank in the 1950s after colliding with the SS Stockholm. The photo that the captain shows Murphy of his ship rescuing the sinking ship, is actually a photo of the sinking "Andrea Doria", listing badly shortly before it went down.
The film's opening sequence in which everyone on the dance floor is sliced in half was originally conceived as a mass decapitation; the studio didn't like the idea.
Jack Ferriman's "Soul Collector" character is named for Charon the Ferryman, the Greek mythological spirit who collected souls from one side of the river Acheron and ferried them across to Hades. This links to the character's last name: Ferriman.
Gabriel Byrne replaced Brian Cox.
The dance scenes on the foredeck and in the ballroom recreate the traditional Captain's Balls that were given near the end of transatlantic voyages. These were usually held as the ship neared the coast of the destination.
The ghost captain tells Gabriel Byrne's character that the Antonia Graza rescued a ship called the Lorelei. Rescuing this ship is what eventually led to the destruction of the Antonia Graza and the death of all its passengers. "Die Lorelei" is a German poem about a siren-type woman who lures boats to ruin and sailors to their deaths.
During the underwater scene in the end, Emily Browning had to have weights on her skirt because her dress kept on floating over her head.Wikipedia
