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Story by: Jack Foley
THE stars of epic movie, Troy, made sure that the glamour and
glitz returned to Cannes on Thursday (May 13, 2004), when they
attended the film's premiere and dropped in for a press conference.
The film's main star, Brad Pitt, fielded the bulk of the questions,
particularly as the press conference marked one of the first occasions
the press got to quiz him about the epic (rumoured to be the most
expensive of all-time).
But he was joined by co-stars, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana and Sean
Bean, not to mention, director, Wolfgang Petersen.
Thousands of journalists clamoured for the opportunity to quiz
Pitt, however, on everything from his relationship with wife,
Jennifer Aniston, to the final episode of Friends, and the current
Iraq conflict.
On the latter subject, and whether the film (or Homer's story,
The Iliad) had any parallels with the current situation in Iraq,
he replied: "The themes Homer seemed to be after resonate
today.
"We do see war as tragedy, people die, families are destroyed.
But in my research, many scholars were saying that what Homer
was after was this acceptance of a greater humanity.
"It's this greater idea of a common humanity and how do
we get past these hatreds and resentments that we have built between
us.
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"All the mistakes and successes have been made and they
are there for us to learn from or ignore."
He was backed by one of his co-stars, British actress, Saffron
Burrows, who agred that 'the eternal question of the futility
of war' was at the heart of Troy.
"There is a terrible sense of deja vu about what the Trojans
faced and what we're facing at the moment," she added.
Elsewhere, Pitt had to field questions about his wife, and Friends,
joking that he had been able to catch the last episode of the
popular comedy series, and confessing that it was very good.
As for his outfits in Troy, and most notably the skirt, he confessed,
cheekily, that: "My wife liked the costume. My Greek woman
asked me to bring it home. I'm not sure why yet."
The fim's director, Petersen, was also given a hard time about
the decision to dispense with a lot of the mythology - in particular,
the role of the Gods.
He confessed that the film had taken 'quite a bit of liberty'
with Homer's original poem, but maintained that Troy was merely
'inspired by The Iliad - it's not an adaptation of The Iliad'.
He felt it would be 'laughable' to modern audiences to have the
Gods turn up.
And he added: "If Homer would be able to look down on us
today, I think he would smile."
Writer, David Benioff, merely added: "I do expect Zeus will
strike me down for leaving him out of my script."
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