host Ship has the potential to be one of those haunting tales that creeps back into your consciousness and rattles around in your head long after you've left the theater.   The story focuses on a luxury Italian passenger liner, the Antonia Graza, which vanishes off the coast of Labrador in 1962. Mysteriously, there is no distress signal and no contact. The ship just disappears - until more than 40 years later when Canadian Air Force pilot Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington) spots the remains of the vessel floating in a remote region of the Bering Sea.   In international waters it's "finders keepers" and a lot of money is on the line - the salvage rights alone could be worth a fortune, not to mention what could be found in the ship's cargo hold. So Ferriman hires the best salvage crew in the business to patch up the ship and drag it back to shore.   Although the job is a big one, it should be well within the capabilities of the salvage team assembled aboard the Arctic Warrior - Captain Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne), team leader Maureen Epps (Julianna Margulies) and their crew (Isaiah Washington, Ron Eldard, Karl Urban and Alex Dimitriades). But

actors Gabriel Byrne Julianna Margulies Desmond Harrington Isaiah Washington Ron Eldard Karl Urban Alex Dimitriades director Steve Beck locations Brisbane and Queensland, Australia outtake This movie was first called Chimera, which is a creature from Greek mythology composed of lion, goat and snake parts.

once on board the Antonia Graza, the salvage crew discovers that the decaying vessel is anything but deserted. It is home to something more deadly and horrific than anything they've encountered in all their years at sea, and the crew is eventually forced to confront the ship's past and uncover the mystery that puts their lives in peril.   Producer Joel Silver says ghost stories are perennially captivating.  "Ghost Ship appeals to the dark side of our nature that loves the thrill of being scared, that craves that adrenaline rush, and it also fuels our enduring curiosity about the mysterious and unexplained," he says. Then there is the added fear of being trapped. "They're out in the middle of the ocean where there's nowhere to run and no place to hide."   Byrne says he was drawn to the film by the genre. "I enjoy spooky films that are eerie and a little unsettling. I also thought that the central idea of this film was very intriguing: the notion of a haunted ship that brings out the worst in people."   To accommodate the movie's 40-year time span, the Antonia Graza had to be built to look as it would have in its glory days, then aged to its present state of decay. The entire process required an art department crew of more than 250 people working around the clock to age the sets.   Margulies said the set did influence the mood. "When you spend 12 hours a day on a cold, damp, dark, smoky set it does have a very spooky effect. It really puts you in the moment."   Appropriately, the movie materializes in theaters close to Halloween. - Deena Waisberg