Production Companies Warner Bros. Pictures, Intermedia Films, Pacifica Film, Egmond Film & Television, France 3 Cinéma, IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. 3. Produktions KG, Pathé Renn Productions
While the Indian Palace is an undeniably beautiful and impressive achievement, Roelfs’ piece de resistance proved to be the magnificent city of Babylon. “Babylon is definitely the richest set I’ve ever done,” enthuses the designer. “Alexander’s entry into Babylon is the pinnacle of his career. He’s never seen such splendor in his life, never before encountered a culture which in many ways is superior to his own.
“The design concept was done quickly,” Roelfs continues, “because it was one of the first sets where I knew exactly what I wanted. But the whole technical process of getting it built was quite something. There was an awful lot of drafting and manufacturing. I decided to integrate the famous ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’ into the overall concept so that it’s an indoor-outdoor palace, open to the elements. I also wanted really high ceilings, and many different levels of the palace, layer upon layer.” The set stood nearly 50 feet high from the floor to the gantries of the 007 Stage.
Perhaps the most dazzling part of the set was Darius III’s bedroom, which Alexander takes as his own after defeating the King. The intricate wooden screens were all hand-carved in Morocco, as was the huge overhead fan featuring the woven image of the Persian supreme deity Ahura Mazda, and all of the canopies and drapings, fabricated in Pakistan.
Scenic artist Steve Mitchell, with only one assistant in attendance, painted a 150 foot long, 45 foot tall wraparound cyclorama depicting a photo-realistic, microscopically detailed panoramic view of Babylon from the palace terraces, revealing a cityscape rich with ancient skyscrapers, bridges, gardens and paved roadways, illuminating a civilization at its apex. For contemporary films, such backings – known as translights – are generally composed of photographs that are enlarged to massive size. For Babylon, however, there were obviously no such photos, so the art department relied on traditional artistry to recreate the past, which took Mitchell five-and-a-half weeks to complete.
To re-create the lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, set decorator Jim Erickson called upon his gardening skills and horticultural knowledge to acquire plants appropriate to the historical time and place.
The harsh English winter – and the fact that the 007 Stage lacks central heating – didn’t bode well for such foliage. As a result, the plants were carefully covered and warmed with special lamps after each day’s filming, throughout the night and into the next morning, when they were unsheathed once again for the benefit of the cameras.
Once the Babylon palace was fully populated by actors and extras, with blazing torches, incense and a fully operative water pumping system creating the verdant fountains and pools that add to the building’s splendor, the illusion of reality was virtually complete. Even Stone was sometimes surprised to emerge from the stage into the dreary light of the British winter. “What a strange world we create,” he muses. “Just a few steps between centuries and cultures.” However, the reverse was a good deal more pleasant: stepping from the miserable gloom into the sparkling Babylonian interiors. “On sets, we externalize what we internalize,” says Stone. “We were walking onto fantasy sets, and it was very hard to go back out.”
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