ARRIFLEX 435 and camera Sherpa Lhakpa Dorje on the summit

Working Title Films have embarked on their most exciting project to date, a £56 million feature film that will chronicle the deadliest single day on Everest, May 10th 1996, when a brutal storm on the world’s highest mountain claimed the lives of eight mountaineers.

The feature film will include actual footage from the slopes and summit of Mount Everest. On May 17th 2004, a six-member film team and eight high-altitude Sherpas from the 2004 Working Title Everest Expedition successfully reached the summit. With shots taken from the highest point on earth, 29,028 feet, it was a world first for cinema and a world first for the ARRIFLEX 435, which was supplied and supported by ARRI Media.

The 2004 Working Title Everest Expedition climbing and film teams were led by Co-producer David Breashears, one of the world’s most respected mountaineers and high-altitude film-makers, who had previously reached the summit four times. His hand picked team consisted of co-leader Ed Viesturs, America’s most celebrated mountaineer and five-time Everest veteran and included Veikka Gustafsson, Robert Schauer, sports photographer Jimmy Chin and Amy Bullard, an experienced mountaineer and guide.

		David Breashears with the camera in high winds at 22,000 feet

Breashers was equipped with an ARRIFLEX 435 Advanced, ARRI 35III, ARRI 35IIIC, seven Zeiss prime lenses and an Angenieux 25-250mm zoom. He also carried a 6x7cm stills camera.

For Breashears, Viesturs, Gustafsson and Schauer, this filming expedition brought back memories of that fateful day in May 1996 when they were on the mountain filming the IMAX documentary ‘Everest’. Breashears and his team assisted in the rescue effort and selflessly gave the stranded mountaineers access to all their team’s oxygen, placing their own expedition in jeopardy.

The Director of ‘Everest’ is Stephen Daldry, who was nominated for Academy Awards for ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘The Hours’. Daldry and his Producer Jonathon Finn trekked to Base Camp, 17,600 feet, and then climbed to 19,000 feet in the infamous Ice Fall.

In addition, the team was accompanied by a camera engineer, ARRI Media’s Head of Camera Operations, Andy Subratie. He also trekked to Base Camp where he remained throughout the expedition so that any technical issues caused by the sub-zero temperatures could be quickly addressed.

Before the equipment could be taken to Everest it all had to be winterized which involved careful testing within an Environmental Chamber where the temperature was set at -45°c. All of the lenses were re-greased with a unique grease used by NASA that is capable of withstanding extremely low and high temperatures. The mechanisms of the ARRI 35III also had to be re-greased but the 435 withstood every test and made the trip all the way to the summit without any modifications, proving the reliability and robust construction that ARRI cameras are renown for. Breashears commented that the entire package supplied by ARRI Media performed flawlessly throughout the expedition. “We did not have a single malfunction despite filming in the world’s most unforgiving environment.”

Principal photography will start in 2005 but for insurance reasons the actors will not go to Everest. Instead, filming will probably take place in the Alps and New Zealand.