THE BOAT THAT ROCKED (UK)
aka PIRATE RADIO (USA)
Year: 2009
USA: Focus Features
UK: Universal Pictures International UK
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Sturridge, Jack Davenport, Ralph Brown, Chris O'Dowd, January Jones, Gemma Arterton, Talulah Riley, Katherine Parkinson, Rhys Darby, Tom Wisdom, Stephen Moore, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes, Francesca Longrigg, Lana Davidson, Olegar Fedoro
Director: Richard Curtis
Country: UK
USA: 129 mins
UK: 135 mins
USA Rated: R for language, and some sexual content including brief nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and moderate sex references
USA Release Date: 13 November 2009
UK Release Date: 1 April 2009
Synopsis
Inspired by the British pirate radio revolution in the 1960s, THE BOAT THAT ROCKED, is the new comedy about rock and roll on the high seas from filmmaker Richard Curtis (LOVE ACTUALLY, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL).
In 1966, arguably British pop music's finest era, the BBC played only two hours of rock and roll every week. In stark contrast pirate radio blasted rock and pop from the high seas 24 hours a day and attracted an audience of 25 million people. That meant was more than half the population of Britain listened to these pirates every single day.
A defining comedy in which the romance takes place between the young people of the '60s and pop music, THE BOAT THAT ROCKED portrays a band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and stood up to a government that, incomprehensibly, preferred jazz.
Principal photography began in March 2008, in London, England while the majority of the film's shoot took place in a large rusty metal fishing trawler moored off the coast of England in the very waters that kept the rock of the '60s booming into the U.K.
The film is written by Richard Curtis, the Emmy, BAFTA and WGA Award-winning filmmaker whose projects have included films from FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, NOTTING HILL, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and LOVE ACTUALLY to MR. BEAN AND BLACKADDER. This is also Curtis' second directorial outing, but first non-rom-com.
Leading the cast are Philip Seymour Hoffman (CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR) as The Count, a big, brash, American god of the airwaves; Bill Nighy (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END) as Quentin, the boss of Radio Rock - a pirate radio station in the middle of the North Sea that's populated by an eclectic crew of rock and roll DJs; Rhys Ifans (ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE) as Gavin, the greatest DJ in Britain who has just returned from his drug tour of America to reclaim his rightful position; Nick Frost (HOT FUZZ, SHAUN OF THE DEAD) as Dave, an ironic, intelligent and cruelly funny co-broadcaster; and Kenneth Branagh (HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS) as British Minister Dormandy, a fearsome government official out for blood against the drug taking, record playing lawbreakers of a once-great nation. The film also stars Tom Sturridge, Jack Davenport, Ralph Brown, Chris O'Dowd and January Jones.