Fishtales

Last updated

Fishtales
Fishtales.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alki David
Michael Greenspan (co-director)
Written byAlki David
Melissa Painter
Produced byAlki David
Billy Zane (co-producer)
Starring Kelly Brook
Billy Zane
Alki David
Amber Savva
CinematographyAggelos Viskadourakis
Edited byAlki David
Distributed by Screen Media Films
111 Pictures
Release date
  • 24 August 2007 (2007-08-24)
Running time
94 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Greece
LanguagesEnglish
Greek
Budget10 million
Box office$9,216

Fishtales is a 2007 family comedy film directed by Alki David and Michael Greenspan, and starring Billy Zane and Kelly Brook about a widowed father who falls in love with a mermaid. The film was released theatrically in the UK on 24 August 2007.

Contents

At the time of filming, co-stars Billy Zane and Kelly Brook were engaged to be married, but they later split up. This was the second time the two worked together on a film, the first being when they met, on the set of Survival Island .

Plot

Widowed Classics Professor Thomas Bradley (Billy Zane) is about to lose his research grant studying ancient love spells at Oxford University. He knows he is close to a major academic breakthrough and desperately needs more time to complete his research. Thomas is given one last chance to finish his work, and goes to the Greek island of Spetses, where he has been invited to stay at the home of a supportive Oxford don Professor Coulter. Thomas brings along his 12-year-old daughter, Serena (Amber Savva). The house is in tolerable condition, and Serena finds a book about merpeople that has an ancient Greek inscription on the cover.

Serena is supportive of her father and readily asks him about ancient mythology, but feels that he dedicates too much of himself to his work. The pair meet a fisherman named Captain Mavros (Alki David) and his son Dimitri (Felix Yanez); Dimitri develops a romantic crush on Serena.

Neried (Kelly Brook), a mermaid who can only take human form at night, travels on land to meet Thomas. When they initially cannot get along, Serena asks that Neried only help her father translate some old relics for his work. Neried does, and when she and Thomas speak the ancient love spell in unison, they fall deeply in love with each other. Thomas realises that the writing on the book Serena had discovered earlier is the key to understanding all of the ancient text, enabling him to continue his work.

Cast

Soundtrack

Production

The film was shot on location on the Greek Island of Spetses during the summer of 2006, with extra footage filmed later in London.

Director Alki David, an avid dive enthusiast, paid particular attention to the quality of the underwater sequences. Specialist equipment was required to achieve the underwater scenes in the film.

During shooting for the film, Brook, when attempting to surface between shots, hit her head on the underside of a rock and almost drowned in her full costume. [1]

Brook had a stunt and body double for the portions of the film that involved swimming beyond her ability, the job was given to a 29-year-old free-diver from Cornwall. The double, Hannah Stacey, used to hold the UK's free diving woman's record of 54 m (177 ft) on a single breath.

Both Brook and Stacey wore tails that were moulded individually to fit each of them and took three and a half months to build.

Release and response

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, where it received very poor reviews and some critics walked out before the film had finished. One critic claimed: "This is the worst movie I've seen in a very long time. I fell asleep within the first 15 minutes". [2] [ dead link ]

Due to the film's poor reception, it only grossed $9,216 when it was released in the United Kingdom, potentially qualifying it as a box office bomb. Other gross figures remain unknown. [3]

It was released theatrically in August 2007 across the UK, US, and Canada.[ citation needed ]

It was released on DVD in August 2008 across the US and Canada.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Zane</span> American actor (born 1966)

William George Zane Jr. is an American actor. His breakthrough role was in the 1989 Australian film Dead Calm, a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series, notably playing the main antagonist Caledon Hockley in the epic romance disaster film Titanic (1997), for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly Brook</span> English actress and model (born 1979)

Kelly Brook is an English model, actress, and media personality. She is known for her modelling work in the UK, and in the US for her role as Prudence on the NBC sitcom One Big Happy (2015).

<i>Once and Again</i> 1999 American family drama television series

Once and Again is an American family drama television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999, to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father. It was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Bier</span> Danish film director

Susanne Bier is a Danish filmmaker. She is best known for her feature films Brothers (2004), After the Wedding (2006), In a Better World (2010), and Bird Box (2018), and the TV miniseries The Night Manager (2016) on AMC, The Undoing (2020) on HBO, and The First Lady (2022) on Showtime. Bier is the first female director to win a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a European Film Award, collectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Slater</span> UK soap opera character, created 2004

Jean Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gillian Wright. Her first appearance is in the episode first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2004. Having only been introduced for one episode, Wright was reintroduced for four more episodes the following year and became more of a regular character in the following two years. The character is introduced as the mother of Stacey Slater who suffers with bipolar disorder. Her disorder strains her relationship with her children, Stacey and Sean Slater. Wright researched the disorder to prepare for the role. In April 2010, it was announced that Jean would be written out of the series, however, Wright was awarded a reprieve in late 2010. Jean departed on 13 January 2011 and returned on 29 March 2011. Wright announced her intentions to leave the series in July 2013, and Jean departed on 17 September 2013. Following her departure, Wright reprised the role for 15 episodes between 2014 and 2017. In December 2017, it was announced that Jean would be reintroduced as a regular character, along with Kat Slater and Mo Harris. She returned on 20 March 2018. On 11 December 2023, Wright appeared in her 1,000th episode as Jean.

<i>Higglytown Heroes</i> American childrens animated television series

Higglytown Heroes is an American CGI-animated children's television series produced by Wild Brain and Happy Nest that aired on the Playhouse Disney block on Disney Channel in the United States. The show's characters are shaped like Russian nesting dolls. In the show, four children Eubie, Wayne, Twinkle, Kip, and their best friend, Fran the Squirrel, learn about all of the important jobs that people do in Higglytown. 65 episodes were produced.

<i>Survival Island</i> 2005 film directed by Stewart Raffill

Survival Island, also known as Three, is a 2005 erotic thriller survival film written and directed by Stewart Raffill and starring Billy Zane, Kelly Brook, and Juan Pablo Di Pace.

<i>Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy</i> 2000 film

Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy is a 2000 American-Mexican horror film directed by David DeCoteau. Also known as Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy 2, it was followed by a sequel, Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld, released in 2005. In England, the film was the subject of a consumer complaint regarding its BBFC classification which gave it a 15-rating. The film was shot in Mexico in four days.

<i>H<sub>2</sub>O: Just Add Water</i> Australian childrens television show

H2O: Just Add Water, more commonly referred to as H2O, is an Australian fantasy children and teen drama television show created by Jonathan M. Shiff. It first screened on Australia's Network Ten and as of 2009 ran in syndication in over 120 countries with a worldwide audience of more than 250 million. It was filmed on location at Sea World and other locations on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The show revolves around three teenage girls facing everyday teen problems with an added twist: they are mermaids and each has their own unique, supernatural power related to water.

<i>Feast of Love</i> 2007 American film

Feast of Love is a 2007 American drama film directed by Robert Benton, and starring an ensemble cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Billy Burke, Selma Blair, Alexa Davalos, Toby Hemingway, and Jane Alexander. The film, based on the 2000 novel The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter, was first released on September 28, 2007, in the United States.

Erotas season three is the third and final season of the Greek soap opera television series Erotas.

<i>I Woke Up Early the Day I Died</i> 1998 camp black comedy film written by Ed Wood

I Woke Up Early the Day I Died is a 1998 American camp black comedy film, based on a unproduced screenplay written by Edward D. Wood Jr. in 1974. Wood originally wrote the script in 1961 as Silent Night, then rewrote it in 1974 as I Awoke Early the Day I Died, but he died before he could get it filmed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archie Mitchell</span> UK soap opera character, created 2008

Archibald Lionel "Archie" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Larry Lamb. He first appeared on 8 July 2008 as a newest member of the Mitchell family—who had first appeared on the soap in 1990—and became the show's main antagonist until the character was killed-off on Christmas Day 2009; with Archie making his last appearance as a corpse on 28 December 2009 and later serving as a posthumous impact throughout the majority of 2010, which involves making a brief voice appearance on 19 July 2010 on a family video tape overheard by his ex-wife Glenda and their two daughters Ronnie and Roxy respectively.

Invincible is a 2001 American martial arts fantasy television film directed by Jefery Levy and written by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Levy, based on a story by Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes. It stars Billy Zane, with David Field, Tory Kittles, Byron Mann, Stacy Oversier and Dominic Purcell in supporting roles. It aired on TBS Superstation on November 18, 2001.

<i>Stag</i> (film) 1997 American film

Stag is a 1997 American thriller film, directed by Gavin Wilding, made for HBO and later released theatrically after drawing large ratings. Stag features an ensemble cast headed by Mario Van Peebles, Andrew McCarthy, Kevin Dillon, Taylor Dayne, John Stockwell, William McNamara, John Henson, Jerry Stiller and Ben Gazzara. It was produced by Lions Gate Entertainment.

"Who Killed Archie?" is a storyline from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It began on 25 December 2009, Christmas Day, when the character Archie Mitchell, played by Larry Lamb, was murdered by an unseen person. Events leading up to and following the murder put several characters in the frame, in the style of a Whodunit mystery. The culprit was kept a tight secret within the production crew as well, with only seven people knowing the identity of the killer. The murderer was revealed as Stacey Slater during a live episode titled "EastEnders Live", broadcast on 19 February 2010, the show's 25th anniversary. Turner was told thirty minutes before the broadcast that Stacey was the killer, and actors rehearsed several possible endings. Finally, a two-hander episode between Stacey and her ex-lover Max Branning on 26 March 2010 explained how she killed Archie - who had previously been the show's main antagonist prior to the character's death and murder storyline.

Betrayal of the Dove is a 1993 American suspense film starring Helen Slater, Billy Zane, and Heather Lind in a screenplay co-written by actor-turned-author Robby Benson.

<i>Serena</i> (2014 film) American-French drama film

Serena is a 2014 drama film based on the 2008 novel of the same name by American author Ron Rash. Directed by Susanne Bier, the film stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper as newlyweds running a timber business in 1930s North Carolina. To negative reviews, the film was a box office failure.

References

  1. "Kelly Brook Almost Killed By Fishtales". Celebrity Gossip. 28 May 2007. Archived from the original on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
  2. Harmsworth, Andrei (18 May 2007). "Kelly and Billy's wet 'Fishtales' flops". Metro. UK. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
  3. Box Office Mojo