![]() ![]() Gray compresses Fawcett's eight expeditions into three to accommodate the film's 141-minute run time and three-act structure. He is invited to the the Royal Geographical Society where its President, Sir George Goldie (Ian McDiarmid), gives him the assignment of traveling to South America to discover the lost city of Zed or "Z" where an ancient tribe and gold may lie. Fawcett gets his chance to gain more fame but in an unexpected way. Although the Fawcetts are fairly well off, Percy yearns to move up the class ladder at least one big step. Upon returning home, Percy and his loving wife, Nina (Sienna Miller), attend a lavish gala for the archduke featuring dignitaries and statesmen. The soldiers gallop their way briskly to their prey, firing on the elk. Although the shots of landscapes first seem beautiful, Gray turns the milieu into a rough and rugged terrain. The British soldiers are dressed in freshly starched fatigues and appear stout if not regal on horseback. Here Gray foreshadows the dichotomous relationship between civility and cruelty that will ensue between Western European explorers and the indigenous peoples whose land and customs will be exploited. The movie begins around the turn of the century with Fawcett leading a British Army Barracks across the Irish countryside in Cork for a game hunt. The role eventually went to New Castle native Charlie Hunnam ( Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy). ![]() Benedict Cumberbatch tentatively agreed to play the main role but complications arose when his wife got pregnant and production was ready to start. Pitt was going to star as Fawcett but after ongoing conversations with Gray, the two decided it should be played by a Brit. Percy Fawcett to find an ancient civilization. Gray read it quickly and was immediately captivated by the journey of British explorer Lieut. Lost City was initially developed back in 2010 when executive producer Brad Pitt sent Gray a copy of David Grann's 2009 nonfiction book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Stylistically, however, Gray's latest displays the same precise use of light and dark shadows as his other work, only this time Gray relied primarily on firelight for evening shots. Geographically, Lost City's Amazon is far removed from the immigrant communities Gray portrayed in his films set in the upper East. Stephen Larson, July 16, 2017Īlthough The Lost City of Z is the first of James Gray's six features to be set outside New York, it's actually his third period piece, following the late eighties Brooklyn crime drama We Own the Night (2007) and 1920s Ellis Island as it's represented in The Immigrant (2013). ![]()
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