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"You know, it's a big cast on a big mountain. But, in the
end, they were all ready for what was in store for them,"
Kormakur told Reuters following the press screening of his film
about a 1996 expedition to the world's highest mountain that
left five climbers, including two team leaders, dead.
The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as American Scott Fischer and
Jason Clarke as New Zealander Rob Hall -- rival team leaders who
both perished when a violent thunderstorm struck Everest in
early May while their teams were near the summit.
Also starring are Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley and Emily Watson.
Kormakur said that making the film made him understand why
people tackle Everest, which has claimed the lives of some one
in seven people making the attempt over the decades.
"I actually kind of was drawn to the mountain the closer I got
to it, I have to admit that," he told a press conference.
"I do understand people who actually do this, either for passion
or for work. I think in some ways you get the most real version
of yourself, you can get to the core of who you are and there is
something existential...to figure out who you are in nature and
how you function in nature."
Kormakur, who spent years preparing for filming that took place
on Everest as well as for alpine shots in the Dolomites and
studio work, said some of the actors had gotten sick while
shooting in the comparatively high altitudes.
"There were endless moments of peril or dangerous moments but we
didn't put anyone foolishly into danger," he said.
He added that one of the most moving moments for him came when
he visited Hall's widow Jan in New Zealand and heard the tapes
of the conversations she'd had with her husband, relayed by
telephone and radio from the expedition's base camp, shortly
before he froze to death near the summit.
"I went there and actually listened to the tapes from the real
events of the movie -- when it was happening, the phone call
between the two of them, with the wife, who hadn't listened to
it for 18 years," Kormakur said.
"Very, very intense moment. It was great."
(Additional reporting by Duarte Guarrido; Editing by Mark
Heinrich)
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