War of the Ring
Bloom's Film "Haven" Debuts at Toronto Film Festival!
By Eledhwen
Sep 13, 2004, 06:41 GMT

Did we say that Orlando Bloom was in Toronto? Well, he showed up in fine style on Saturday night for the debut of a film from Frank E. Flowers. Bloom handled the screaming (and weeping) crowd beatifully as he made his way to the Ryerson Theatre for the screening of Haven.

Just back from watching the press conference for this film at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, and hearing more about what Orlando had to say...

In Haven Bloom plays the part of Shy, a young Brit who has grown up on the island as a fisherman. The movie's emotional core centres around his passionate and desperate relationship with a local businessman's daughter, Andrea, played by Zoe Saldana. Bloom called it a love story about "a boy from the wrong side of the tracks in love with a girl from the right side of the tracks."

Bloom had seen Flowers' earlier short film titled Swallow and was interested in working with him on Haven. When he first saw the script, Flowers was asking him to play Fritz (now played by Victor Rasuk), but he felt that the character he most responded to and the one that spoke to him was that of Shy. However, Shy wasn't a prominent character at that time. He thought it would be interesting to see more of him but he also didn't want to ruin the "tapestry" of the film. Flowers then rewrote the script in about 48 hours (which Bloom praised as an "incredible feat") to give Shy a more significant role in the story.

The cast was asked about working with Bill Paxton and Flowers related that Paxton had received the script very early on and assured him that he would do the film. Bloom said of Paxton, "He's a hero. A real hero."

Flowers addressed some of the strong themes in the movie like addiction. He spoke of the West Indian culture as a passionate culture and how easily people can become obsessive. His characters, he said, have their passions, for better or worse, for love and for greed. Saldana was attracted to the story because the characters were broken and flawed; their choices and evolution were organic and felt natural. Bloom said that it was "a real-life story," one where each character had an emotional arc that "spoke to all of us."

Bloom did in fact co-produce this film with Flowers and spoke with enthusiasm about the experience, saying that he had "really wanted to get involved" and it was an exciting experience. He spoke of it being a collaboration where sometimes "you have to make a phone call," but he enjoyed talking with Flowers about the music, costumes or casting. He said of the experience "It made me emotionally connected to this movie."

He arrived in the Cayman Islands directly from a LOTR press circuit and had only one day before shooting was to begin. He locked himself in his room in order to learn his lines and be ready the next morning. It was the first time that he had worked on a set without large pieces or elaborate costumes. He loved being able to add little details to his simple costume such as a hat or head scarf or wear certain colours, anything that he felt gave the character more detail and dimension.

And what does he love most about Caribbean culture? "Jerk chicken." And, of course, "the ocean."

Haven is the first feature film from Cayman-born writer/director, Frank E. Flowers. The film portrays the interconnected stories of various characters that are American, British and Caymanian. It stars Bill Paxton, Orlando Bloom, Agnes Bruckner, Stephen Dillane, Anthony Mackie, Zoe Saldana, Victor Rasuk. For more information about the film (and about the Film Festival in general), check out their website.

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