The Aviator (2004)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Plot Summary[]
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' (Leonardo DiCaprio) career from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s.
Male Deaths[]
- Leonardo DiCaprio [Howard Hughes]
- Stanley DeSantis [Louis B. Mayer]
- John C. Reilly [Noah Dietrich]
- Matt Ross [Glenn Odekirk]
- Jude Law [Errol Flynn]
- Kevin O'Rourke [Spencer Tracy]
- Danny Huston [Jack Frye]
- Brent Spiner [Robert E. Gross]
- Alan Alda [Senator Owen Brewster]
- Alec Baldwin [Juan Trippe]
Female Deaths[]
- Gwen Stefani [Jean Harlow]
- Kelli Garner [Faith Domergue]
- Cate Blanchett [Katharine Hepburn]
- Kate Beckinsale [Ava Gardner]
- Amy Sloan [Allene Stone Gano]
Trivia[]
- Received the most Academy Award nominations for 2005, with eleven total.
- Production was delayed in October 2003, when wildfires in southern California burned several sets.
- Kate Beckinsale gained twenty pounds for her portrayal of Ava Gardner.
- Martin Scorsese requested that Cate Blanchett watch the first fifteen films of Katharine Hepburn, to learn her mannerism and her poise.
- Leonardo DiCaprio spent a day with Jane Russell to hear her memories and impressions of Howard Hughes. She was very impressed with DiCaprio's visit, and told him that Hughes was a quiet, yet extremely stubborn man, who always got his way in the end.
- Martin Scorsese designed each year in the film to look just the way a color film from that time period would look. Achieved mainly through digitally enhanced post-production, Scorsese recreated the look of Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor. Watch in particular for the scene where Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets Errol Flynn (Jude Law) in the club. Hughes is served precisely placed peas on a plate, and they appear blue or turquoise, just as they'd have looked in the two-strip Technicolor process. As Hughes ages throughout the film, the color gets more sophisticated and full-bodied.