That’s right, an elephant used during the filming of the movie decided that 1920s sequins were the next best thing to circus peanuts and it literally ate the back off of the dress before costume designer Anthony Powell jumped in to save the remains.
As far as I know, no specific elephant has been named in this flagrant attempt to shut down this production, but I’d bet it’s the one in the picture above. You can even see the red and gold dress on the right side of the image. It was definitely this scene where the production almost lost their key piece of wardrobe, so I feel like I have enough probable cause to formally accuse the above elephant. Better lawyer up, buddy.
Movies shoot out of order all the time for all sorts of reasons. “Temple of Doom” had a ton of wrenches thrown into the churning gears of production, including a very serious back injury for its star, Harrison Ford, and a crazy shooting schedule that had the production company shooting all over the world. So, while the dress-eating happened during a scene from around the middle of the movie, they hadn’t yet shot the opening number.
Powell said that in order to repair the dress, they had to fly Matera out to the production and provide her with whatever remaining period-accurate material they could muster up and she was fortunately able to get the dress back in filmable condition.
As a funny side note, Powell recalled having to fill out insurance paperwork for this extra, unexpected expense and found himself confronted with explaining why he was filing a claim. He told the truth: “dress eaten by elephant.” What I wouldn’t give to have seen that insurance person’s face when they read that claim.
Source From: www.slashfilm.com
Source link
