How the series "The Thorn Birds" was filmed: 12 interesting facts (14 photos)

The film "The Thorn Birds", which tells the story of the forbidden love between a Catholic priest and a young girl, became a worldwide hit that constantly attracted the attention of audiences.





1. As you know, the 4-part film “The Thorn Birds” is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Australian writer Colleen McCullough.

For her first book, Tim, the writer received a fee of $50,000. And then she decided to write her next novel three times longer in the hope of getting three times as much in royalties. And then she immediately got to work.



But she was very wrong about this, because for her book “The Thorn Birds,” which was published in 1977, she received as much as 2 million dollars, and the book became a bestseller. The books sold like hot cakes, and a total of 30 million copies were sold, thanks to which the writer appeared on the cover of the famous Time magazine. Therefore, it is not surprising that Hollywood producers were interested in the possibility of filming the book.





Colin McCullough - author of The Thorn Birds

2. Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to Colleen McCullough's book in hopes of making a hit. The studio bosses brought in writers and a director, but in the end they were unable to realize this project. The proposed scripts turned out to be unclear and crumpled, and the directors were replaced one after another.

And one day over lunch, the chairman of the board of directors of Warner Bros., Bob Daley, shared with producer David Wolper his problem, which was the impossibility of making a film based on the novel The Thorn Birds.



David Wolper - producer

David Wolper immediately understood the main mistake of the Warner Bros bosses. They tried to make a movie based on a huge book, which was completely the wrong decision. Therefore, Vulper invited Daly to take on these projects himself, making a mini-series out of it.

ABC liked the idea of Vulpera and they agreed to take on the series.



3. A director (Daryl Duke) and a screenwriter (Carmen Culver) were quickly selected for the series, but it was at that moment that a strike of screenwriters and writers occurred, which is why filming had to be postponed for almost six months.

4. There was practically no casting for the role of Father Ralph, since after the success of the series “Shogun” the producers wanted to see Richard Chamberlain in the role of the priest.



But it is worth noting that another famous actor, Peter Strauss, auditioned for the role of Father Ralph. True, no one bet on him, and the tests were carried out purely for show.

5. But more than 60 actresses auditioned for the role of Maggie. Among them were such popular actresses as Michelle Pfeiffer and Kim Basinger. But when almost all the applicants had already been eliminated, and only 4 actresses remained, the director and producer gave them homework, so that for the next audition the actresses would study three scenes from the future film and show them at the audition.



And if the three contenders simply memorized the text and showed their acting, then Rachel Ward took this as seriously as possible. She worked on Maggie's character with her acting teacher to perfect it. According to producer David Wolper, such perseverance and a serious approach were one of the reasons why Rachel Ward was cast in the role of Maggie.

6. Filming of the series took place exclusively in the USA, despite the fact that the film (like the novel) takes place in Australia. And almost all the actors were also Americans. Only actor Bryan Brown, who plays Luke, is truly Australian.



As it turned out, initially they really wanted to film the series in Australia, but as it turned out, some locations in Southern California are very similar to Australian locations, so to save money, it was decided to film there.

7. And of course I wanted to mention one more Australian in the film, namely Kangaroo. It was brought specially for filming from Australia. But right during its first filming, the poor animal fainted, so it was decided to abandon further filming of the kangaroo so as not to torment this cute representative of the marsupial.



8. According to writer Colleen McCullough, she created Maggie in the image of her mother, whom she hated wildly. So she wanted this character to suffer.

And actress Rachel Ward, who played the role of Maggie, experienced all this. Being an inexperienced actress, she took the role of Maggie too seriously, which made it very difficult for her (including psychologically) during filming. Moreover, none of the members of the film crew paid attention to her suffering, which is why she simply cursed this role and regretted that she even got involved in filming the film.



Only when Bryan Brown, who played Luke, appeared on the set, did the actress feel better. Together it was so easy for them that all the fears and psychological pain of the actress simply went away somewhere. As a result, an affair happened between them, which grew into great love.

Three months later, the couple got married, and eventually had three children. And the most interesting thing is that Brian and Rachel are still together. Also, it’s interesting that Brian was previously a little interested in palmistry, and one day during filming he offered to read Rachel’s hand. There he saw that she would have three children, but according to him, he could not even imagine that these would be children from him, because at that time they did not even have a relationship.



Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward many years later

9. Many speculated that (as is often the case) Rachel Ward and Richard Chamberlain had an affair during filming. But the actors themselves always denied this information. True, this denial did not stop the fans at all.



But in 2003, Richard Chamberlain released his memoirs, in which he admitted that he prefers men.

10. After the release of the series “The Thorn Birds,” writer Colleen McCullough said that it was simply terrible and could not cause anything but nausea. Most of all, she did not like Richard Chamberlain in the role of Ralph, and also the fact that the filmmakers could not show on the screen exactly what the writer herself had intended.



11. Representatives of the Catholic Church were beside themselves with anger after the release of the series. Not only does it show Father Ralph's relationship with Maggie, but the series itself was broadcast during the holiday season.

To avoid getting into trouble, McDonald's asked that all advertising for their corporation be removed from the series after the relationship between Ralph and Maggie began.



12. After 13 years, ABC decided to film a sequel to the series called “The Thorn Birds: The Lost Years.” True, the director, screenwriters and actors were already different. Richard Chamberlain was the only actor to return to his role. But this did not really help the film, since it did not gain success.