The actual numbers are in and Marvel’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY totaled $94.3 million in box office receipts. Among the most dazzling aspects of James Gunn’s space epic are the ships.
One of the spacecraft production designer Charles Wood and his team designed for Marvel’s latest film was the Milano, Peter Quill’s Ravager ship.
On Twitter, the director fessed up to how the ship got it’s name.
For those of you who asked, yes, Quill’s ship The Milano is named after his awesome childhood crush @Alyssa_Milano. #GuardiansoftheGalaxy
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 29, 2014
Less high-tech technology was used in the design to give the idea that Quill wants to have more hands-on control and experience the ride—much like a driver who prefers stick over automatic.
Watch as actor Chris Pratt gives you a walking tour of the ship.
Constructed as a double-level composite set, with an upper flight deck and lower living quarters, it was a 14-week build involving several trades. “Our biggest inspiration for the Milano was Chuck Yeager and the early test flights and missions that took place in the late ’50s, early ’60s,” says Wood. “So we looked at a lot of that footage. James wanted to come up with an environment for Quill that was reminiscent of Earth and had a tangible quality—mechanical with chrome and leather and a muscle-car look. A little boy’s dream.”
In order to have the sense that Quill thought of his ship as home, Wood and set decorator Richard Roberts worked to collect and build items that would evoke 1980s nostalgia. “Rich and his team got together all of the ephemera and other bits and pieces to remind him of home,” says Wood.
“The Milano itself was probably the biggest construction thing that we did and unusually for a prop master, I’m also involved in the manufacturing of the set decoration parts. So we did an immense amount of work going from the beds to all of the flight seats. Everything in the Milano was created from scratch.”
Richard Roberts echoes, “We made everything. We bought ejector seats from jet fighters and completely remodeled them and we worked from a lot of concept work that Charles Wood created. So we were creating a ship that looks like it’s got some ’80s notes, but we built it so it was really just the personal items that we bought that are from the ’80s.”
Among the items the filmmakers built was a cassette player built into the spaceship that looks like a car stereo. They also installed shag-type carpet of various colors and a black light in the living quarters. With the idea that Quill had a backpack with him when he was abducted from Earth, Roberts peppered the interior of the Milano with iconic items that would have been in a 9-year-old’s possession in the 1980s: Alf stickers, baseball cards and Troll dolls, among other items.
Wood’s efforts were not lost on Chris Pratt, whose character Peter Quill commands the Milano. “I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it and I have been in awe ever since,” enthuses Pratt. “Inside it, I felt like I was on a ride at a theme park, something people would wait in line all day just to get a glimpse of and I got to pretend it was mine. It was pretty amazing and helped inform my performance.”
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is now in theaters. James Gunn will return to write and direct the sequel, scheduled to open on July 28, 2017.
For more on GOTG from WAMG:
- Review
- Interview with actor Michael Rooker
- Interview with composer Tyler Bates
- Press Conference with James Gunn and actors
©Marvel 2014
