Fool’s Gold is an 2008 adventure/romance film from Warner Bros. Pictures about a married couple who rekindle their romantic life while searching for a lost treasure. The film was directed by Andy Tennant and reunites the How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. The MPAA rated the film PG-13 for action violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and language.
Plot synopsis
Benjamin “Finn” Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) is a treasure hunter looking for 40 chests of treasure known as the “Queen’s Dowry”, that was lost at sea with the 1715 Treasure Fleet. In his search to find the treasure, his marriage to Tess (Kate Hudson) falls apart. Tess has been working as a steward on a huge yacht owned by multi-millionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland). Finn finds a clue to the location of the treasure and manages to get on Honeycutt’s yacht (”The Precious Gem”) and convince him, his daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena) and Tess to join him in searching for the treasure. A local gangster named Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) and Finn’s mentor Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone) are intent on finding the treasure first.
The Precious Gem and Moe’s vessel compete to find the treasure in The Bahamas. As Finn attempts to secretly take down Moe’s search grid, Finn discovers a sword which is a clue to finding the treasure. Finn and Tess follow the clues to an ancient church and discover a grave containing a diary describing the location of the treasure. Bigg Bunny and his associates, who have been following Finn and Tess, take Tess hostage and assume (incorrectly) that Finn was killed. Bigg Bunny forces Tess to aid him in the search for the treasure in a blowhole, the location revealed in the diary. Tess finds the treasure in a cave beneath the blowhole. Meanwhile, Finn and the Honeycutt enlist the help of Moe in taking the treasure out of Bigg Bunny’s hands. They arrive as Bigg Bunny sends one of his associates to bring him the treasure, and the other to take out Moe as he swim towards Bigg Bunny’s floatplane. The blowhole kills Bigg Bunny’s employee and traps Tess and Finn, while Moe tries to stop Bigg Bunny from taking off. Finn saves Tess only to have Bigg Bunny kidnap her from him again. Gemma gets Finn to Bigg Bunny’s plane on her personal water craft and Finn leaps on the planes pontoon as the plane takes off. As Bigg Bunny attempts to shoot Finn, Tess kicks Bigg Bunny out of the plane and sends him into the ocean. The final Bigg Bunny employee, is taken prisoner by Moe (after he has shot Moe in the leg with a speargun).
Finn and Tess are reunited and save the treasure together. Finn, Tess, Nigel, Gemma, Moe and those who contributed in helping or finding the treasure open a museum displaying all of their finds.
[edit] Cast
- Matthew McConaughey - Ben ‘Finn’ Finnegan
- Kate Hudson - Tess Finnegan
- Donald Sutherland - Nigel Honeycutt
- Alexis Dziena - Gemma Honeycutt
- Ray Winstone - Moe Fitch
- Kevin Hart - Bigg Bunny
- Ewen Bremner - Alfonz
- Brian Hooks - Curtis
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner - Cordell
- Roger Sciberras - Andras
[edit] Production
Warner Bros. and director Andy Tennant planned to shoot the film in the Caribbean, but decided on Queensland because the hurricane season in the Caribbean was likely to stall production of the film. The Key West scenes were filmed in Port Douglas. Filming also took place in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Hamilton Island, Lizard Island, Airlie Beach, and Hervey Bay. Scenes were also filmed at Batt Reef, where Steve Irwin died from a stingray barb in 2006.[1]
Inside scenes were shot on a sound stage at the Warner Bros studio facility and the actors and crew stayed in luxury homes and apartments on the Gold Coast. McConaughey mentioned having a python in the backyard of his house in Port Douglas. McConaughey said, “There were other days like the day we went out diving and swam with a dugong, which was very cool.”[1]
Two crew members were stung by Irukandji jellyfish during filming, so some of the water scenes were shot in the Caribbean because the actors were so frightened.[1]
The Precious Gem luxury motor yacht in the movie is called the Keri Lee in real life. It is owned and operated by Lee Group Charters.[2]
