With almost the full cast in attendance, last week’s “The Odyssey” world premiere in London offered more star power than any other event seen in Leicester Square this year. And yet on the night, the likes of Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and many others were somewhat overshadowed — figuratively and literally — by an extremely large inanimate object.
Standing on two huge hooves just off from the carpet (this one an aquatic-themed blue with added patches of real sand) loomed a giant Trojan Horse well over two storeys high and easily the most impressive promotional prop many attendees had laid eye on.
In details now provided to Variety by Universal, the mighty steed in question — visible from several streets away— was in fact some 36 feet tall and weighed in excess of 8,800lbs.
Commissioned by Universal Pictures International UK & Eire, the construction is actually an exact replica of the wooden horse used in Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” made using the production’s blueprints. It took a team of 34 working a total of 288 hours to put it together using polystyrene, steel, resin tin foil and fibreglass.
Bringing the beast — an sumptuous offering to the gods of film distribution — to Leicester Square proved to be a minor Odyssey in itself. Three trucks transported it in four parts and a base which then took six people some nine hours to assemble. It was around the same amount of time to disassemble and put the pieces back in the trucks. In all, designing, building and assembling the horse involved a team of 45, not much less than the number of men on Odysseus’ ship (and roughly the same amount on board after the Cyclops and Scylla monsters had plucked off a few).
