Amelia

Amelia (2009)

A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.

Date of release
2009-10-22
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (270)
Runtime
1h 51m
Genres
Adventure, Drama, History
Director
Mira Nair

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Hamilton, Cologne, and Nova Scotia

Amelia is a 2009 biographical film about the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. The film stars Hilary Swank as Earhart, and co-stars Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston and Joe Anderson. The film was directed by Mira Nair and based on The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell. The film received negative reviews, with critics polarized over the performances and criticizing the film's story. It was also a box-office bomb, grossing $19.6 million against a budget of $40 million.

Production

Hilary Swank took on the role of executive producer, working closely with Nair. Filming took place in New York City, Toronto, Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Dunnville, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Nova Scotia, as well as various locations in South Africa. Over the weekend of June 22, 2008, Swank was in Wolfville, Nova Scotia for filming at Acadia University.

The Lockheed 12A Electra Junior "Hazy Lily" (F-AZLL) used alongside another Electra Junior, filled in for the much rarer Lockheed Electra 10E that Earhart used. Despite efforts to faithfully replicate the period, numerous historical inaccuracies were noted in some reviews.

The aerobatic flying maneuvers in the film were handled by Canadian musician-turned pilot, Larry Ernewein.

After filming, the two replica aircraft featured in the Earhart transatlantic flights were donated to museums. The Lockheed Vega is now in the collection of the San Diego Air & Space Museum while the Fokker F. VIIB/3M tri-motor is now housed at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario where it was unveiled in 2009 with a local Amelia Earhart reenactor Kathie Brosemer recounting the story of Earhart's flight in 1928.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Bass wrote seven drafts of the script for aviation buff and Gateway founder Ted Waitt, who has funded expeditions to search for Earhart's aircraft and was prepared to finance the film himself. Bass used research from books on Earhart, such as Susan Butler's East to the Dawn and Mary S. Lovell's The Sound of the Wings, as well as Elgen and Mary Long's Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended