After succeeding with "Narnia" and "Terabithia," Walden Media is bringing another children’s fantasy book to life in "The Water Horse." This time it’s the Loch Ness Monster, as actor David Morrissey reveals.
"The Water Horse is a film about the Loch Ness Monster," he stated. "It’s all set in the second World War. It’s about a little boy who discovers the Loch Ness Monster but also it’s really about him, his father has gone missing in the second World War and he isn’t coming back, so the film is really about a little boy learning to let go, let something he loves go. I play a guy called Captain Hamilton who’s part of the British army. There was a very real danger in the Second World War that the Nazis would come into England via the lochs and lakes in the North Sea. He sets up there to patrol those channels and to make sure that there isn’t an invasion there. While he’s there, he falls in love with the little boy’s mom and that causes trouble."
Morrissey in "The Reaping"
Nessie will be created by the CGI team at Weta. "Yeah, we did it down in Weta in New Zealand where they did ‘Kong‘ and ‘Lord of the Rings‘ and stuff like that. There’s a lot of geeky guys down there making little models. It’s Warhammer heaven really. But it’s a great operation down there."
For his part, Morrissey just had to be a cog in the CGI machine. "I haven’t seen the monster. All I saw of the monster was a very big guy in a very short ‘Lord of the Rings’ T-shirt with a scaffolding pole and a tennis ball at the end. That’s a hell of an acting trip for me."
Look for "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" in theaters Christmas 2007.
