 |
|
|
Full Eclipse
LYCANTHROPY
Don't call them pigs-the abusive
cops in this HBO chiller are another animal altogether. By ANNE MOORE The quiet of a late night in Los Angeles is broken by the resounding boom of an explosion. The blast of heat is felt hundreds of feet away as ribbons of fire and smoke erupt from what was once a police van. As quickly as the explosion oc- curs, it dies. From out of nowhere, men with extinguishers rush in to put out any stray pockets of fire while others inspect the damage to the vehicle shell. Everything is going according to plan. No, this isn't another incident of LA street violence, but a film crew making the HBO original movie Full Eclipse. The project was initially titled The Pack, after the name of a special unit of the LAPD that utilizes a secret new drug to help them combat crime. After the unexplained suicide of his partner. Max Dire (Mario Van Peebles), a heroic young cop, is invited to join the elite squad by its leader. Captain Garou (Bruce Payne). The group is sanctioned by the mayor, and even though their methods aren't always ethical or le- gal, the results are spectacular: Crime is down and Los Angeles is safe again. Though Max is not impressed with Garou's overzealous attitude or his methods, he is finally enticed into joining the Pack by the lure of the drug and the sexual interest of beautiful Casey Spencer (Patsy Ken- sit). But he soon finds that Garou is determined to stop crime and will manipulate anyone or do anything, even murder, to accomplish that goal. And although the drug gives his officers incredible strength, making them practically invincible, it has a devastating side effect-it turns them into werewolves.
In one gruesome moment, Bruce Martyn Payne flashes back to his Howling VI vampire. On the LA street location, director Anthony Hickox calls quickly for an- other take before the smoke disap- pears and the sun rises to ruin the shot. The FX crew relights the flames around the van and fans blow smoke across the scene, swirling it around the six actors who make up the Pack. "Action! One, two, three, monsters!" Hickox calls in his polite English accent. Slowly, the half-dozen transformed were- wolves rise from the ground, move through the smoke and stand to- gether, united in power. The story was born when writer Richard Christian Matheson was approached by a friend, Michael Reaves, to co-script a werewolf/cop movie. Matheson, who has written for over 30 TV shows including Amazing Stories and Tales from the Crypt, wasn't sure he was interested in working in this subgenre. As he explains further, "I've never been a fan of werewolf movies. As soon as they transform, they seem kind of benign to me. They don't seem so eerie, and they lose all the facial detail that can be most frightening in a monster. I wanted to make sure that when they transformed, they did not look like wolves. I felt that would diminish the effect. "If the script was going to be about werewolves, I also wanted it to be about addiction and overcoming the controlling influence of the lunar cycles," he continues. "With that in mind, we set about putting the story together." Matheson is vehement when he describes how he visualized the creatures. "They weren't going to be covered with hair and they weren't going to be fully transformed," he says. "They were going to be, in essence, stuck at the halfway point, because that's the most frightening thing to me. "Full Eclipse is not really a were- wolf movie," he insists. "It's almost about the id coming under a sort of preternatural influence. It's about addiction, and the ghastly transfor- mational tendency of drugs. Like those guys who take STP and lift a car up, or can take a couple of rounds from a police revolver and keep coming at you." It didn't take Matheson long to place the screenplay with Home Box Office. The writer has an uncanny ability to sell spec scripts, and to date has sold nine to various stu- dios. The next step was finding the right director, and the production soon chose Hickox, a veteran of Hell- raiser III and Warlock: The Armageddon, among others. Hickox had his own opinions as to the important elements of the script and how the Pack should look, right down to their futuristic outfits and weapons. Luckily, the director and writers shared the same vision. "I'm a huge comics fan; I read a lot of Marvel Comics, so I had a look I wanted," Hickox explains. "Super- heroes gone wrong, the whole Marvel mutant thing. I've always liked that concept; people with superpowers were a heavy influence. I'm quite sure I can't buy the rights to the X- Men, so this allowed me to do my own version." "I always wanted to play a werewolf or a vampire... it's very cathartic to be these different people." -Mario Van Peebles Classic movies also played a part in Hickox's conception. "I wanted the wolves to look like the first actor [Henry Hull] who played one in WereWolf of London," he says. "We were going for a cross between him and Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf. There's a great moment where he turns from the Jail cell window, and that's kind of how I hope our werewolves are going to look. But I also wanted this to be different, especially with the two stages. There's a first stage the Pack goes through, where they become superhuman and look like the true werewolves as the legends describe them-half man and half wolf. Then there's the stage where they become full wolves at the end. "We really tried to let the actor shine through," says the director of this approach. "It's funny how each face takes on a different character. We didn't want them to Just be cov- ered in makeup. We really built on their foreheads, cheeks and necks. I also love their weapon claws, and the fact that they actually bleed when the claws come out of their fingers, which I think would happen if you were transforming." Bringing these ideas to onscreen life was a big Jump, which is why veteran Tony Gardner, head of Alte- rian Studios, was hired to create Full Eclipse's special FX makeup. Gard- ener, in his quiet, professional way, is 1? a problem solver and a master artist. Not only did Alterian design the transformation makeup, as well as a terrifying 12-foot wolf for the fi- nal fight scene, but they developed the futuristic combat gear, helmets and even the insignias and logos for the Pack members. "We have a stage one look, which is just additive makeup and den- tures," Gardner explains. "Stage two is where we get into appliances that go down from the forehead almost to the outer corners of the eyes. We've got this weird, funky appliance that goes from the tip of the nose to the lip line, just to connect the two in a more animalistic way. We've also got upper and lower teeth. Bruce Payne is the only person who enters stage three. That's a big appliance makeup which goes from his collar- bone over his head and covers him entirely, with big fake ears and hair and stuff like that. It's a much larger cranium, and you see a lot more skull structure. "We change them gradually to reveal them more and more as were- wolves," Gardner continues. "Differ- ent people are taken to different degrees. The only one you'll see transform completely is Bruce's character, who turns into an 11 - or 12-foot wolf with fur over his entire body. It's a big monster." Yet even great makeup concepts wouldn't mean much without the right actors in the parts. For the role of daredevil Pack officer Casey, Hickox brought in his old friend, British actress Patsy Kensit. Well known for her starring turn as Mel Gibson's stunning South African girlfriend in Lethal Weapon 2, Kensit is also a major horror movie fan. The concept of becoming a werewolf appealed to her, despite the four- hour-plus makeup process. "I loved that," she says. "I've never done anything like it before. Garrett Immel, who works with Tony, was kind of my key person. They were fantastic. They're so into it: they're really great people and so '.alented. What they can do with just a bit of shading and some prosthet- ics is incrp^" ' ' FANGO- RlAa|Hd liicy ^u oii di\u on ab(Uj| it. ^that's one reason I wanted t9 yiu this interview." She laughs and continues hopefully, "Are you going to make me a Fango pin-up? You have the full-page shots of peopiŽ inside. I'd love a picture in that."
Fed up with busting criminals, Garou goes after people whose eveningware clashes. "We change them gradually to reveal them as werewolves. Different people are taken to different degrees." -Tony Gardner, makeup FX creator Kensit not only enjoyed the spe- cial FX side of the shoot, but was enthusiastic about everything she was required to do, from a sexy love scene with Van Peebles to a mid- night swim in the Pacific ocean. The love scene, naturally, was a great deal easier and more fun. "Anthony originally wanted something that in- volved a lot of nudity, and I wasn't prepared to do that," she explains. "Now it's very erotic, but it leaves a lot to the imagination. Anthony's got a great mind, so he shot it beautifully, and it's pretty steamy." The venture into the Pacific ocean was anything but steamy, as Kensit recalls. "When Mario and I went into the water, it was freezing cold. I had kind of a half wetsuit under my dress, so it wasn't as bad, but Mario had nothing. We were both covered in sand burns afterwards, and it was a really mucky part of the ocean. It was the most horrific, freezing cold night of my life, with the waves crashing over me. Appar- ently it looks great, and that's al- ways worth it. That was really the hardest part of the movie, but it was a great experience. It's something I'm glad I explored as an actress." Kensit wasn't the only one who enjoyed the opportunity to play a werewolf. Van Peebles also found the concept attractive, and is eager to discuss what he calls "man's fasci- nation with his animal nature, or his animal side. We've always been curious about our evolution from beasts, and our connection to them. I always wanted to play a werewolf or a vampire, or something of that nature. It's very cathartic to be these different people, see what they feel and let that part of you go. It's healthy to do this." Van Peebles didn't mind the heavy makeup either, and in fact was intrigued by the whole process. If this guy had half a brain, he'd probably quit the Pack. "It was my first time in that kind of heavy prosthetics," he reveals. "The makeup these days is getting so good that you can really see what you feel, and what expressions work or don't work. It physically changes the way you move. You find yourself moving differently and experiment- ing with a new look and power. "It was an interesting role for me on a number of levels," he contin- ues. "We did things with the charac- ter that were interesting just in terms of his look. They had me done up in a late-'GOs Man from. U.N.C.L.E. style. The narrow tie, very mod- early James Bond. It was very cool." The opportunity to star in a nonster movie wasn't the only ele- .nent which attracted Van Peebles' interest. "You can read this on several different levels," he says of the film. "That's what I find attractive. You can look at it on the drug level, you can look at it on a sexual level, on all kinds of sociological levels. Or just roll with it as a film. I've always enjoyed putting my spirit and energy into characters. It's the old saying, 'Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes.' Well, I've never really been a werewolf, but this is as close as you can get." Van Peebles was Hickox's first choice to play the complex and troubled Max Dire; the director saw a preview for Posse, which Van Pee- bles both directed and starred in, and immediately decided he was the right man for the part. The actor gives Hickox points for his progres- sive views on casting. "It was very forward-thinking on Anthony's part," he states. "Because it wasn't written for someone black, or green or blue. And Patsy as the FeauVng" Atu^-A*^ very avant-garde irs that it doesn't pander to typical views."
If Full Eclipse's hero is atypical, then its villain breaks just as many molds and stereotypes. Captain Garou is one of the most compelling bad guys since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both Matheson and Hickox were concerned that without the right performance, Garou could turn into just another melodramatic villain. And, as Matheson explains, that wasn't what either of them had in mind. "Garou didn't want to be a monster," the writer says. "He wanted to join the human community and make it better-to evolve and protect it. He was also learning to master his lycanthropic curse. Most monsters have a sort of grudge against humanity, but I don't think Garou does; he simply dislikes crime. That makes him interesting, and Bruce really brings all of those nuances out. He's a wonderful actor and a very bright man." Those levels of the character were exactly what interested Payne, whose previous roles include a vampiric villain in Howling VI. While he worked to prepare for the action sequences-speaking to friends in Delta Force and members of the Los Angeles SWAT team who were working with the film company-it was the psychological factors that Payne was more concerned with. "We're all looking for something quicker, faster and easier that gives us a shorter feeling of contentment," he says. "I found a lot of undercurrent issues within this character of a police officer who really feels he's a shining knight. He's developed this serum which is really part of his own body. This bad guy thinks he's the good guy; he believes he's on a good quest." To give the character of Garou even more depth and poignance, Hickox decided to make some slight changes to the final transformation scene. The sequence involves Max and Garou having a terrible fight, in which Garou changes completely into the huge, towering wolf and almost tears the young cop apart. But in the end, when good naturally triumphs, Garou reverts to his true form: a very old man. The full makeup change wasn't decided upon until the last moment, and therefore presented the film's biggest challenge for both the special FX team and Payne. "When you have a two-day warning, it's impossible to create that [prosthetic] stuff," the actor elaborates. "Fortunately, Tony is a very clever and energetic young man with a lot of good ideas. The man who actually did the hands-on application and colouring of the makeup was an old friend of mine named Mike Smithson, whom I had the great pleasure of working with on Switch. He's a true talent, and he basically pulled together some of his own pieces, from his own face. They tried to match them and enhance a very old, elegant face as best they could. We put on a small, old forehead piece, but it wasn't built for me, so he had to cut it and shape it, which is incredibly difficult. Actually, it's a taboo thing. You don't cut a prosthetic, because as soon as you do, the thin edge suddenly isn't there and you have a ledge. In prosthetic terms, that ledge is the equivalent of missing a floor in a parking structure as you're building it, so hiding it requires incredible tenacity. "We added a chin, jowls and a nose. We then used a terrific aging makeup, a wonderful kind of thin, running solution. You pull the skin in the opposite direction you want it to go, paint it on and dry it with a hair dryer. Then you let it go, and suddenly you come up with wrinkles. We were very fortunate to have Mike on the team." Not all of the shooting schedule was fraught with last-minute re- thinking or intellectual and psycho- logical speculation on drugs and becoming a werewolf. It was a very relaxed set, even if the final weeks consisted of long all-night shoots spent on locations all over Los Ange les, from downtown parking lots to the wharfs of San Pedro, and the ac- tors all claim to have had a good time. As Van Peebles recounts, "I had full makeup on and the muscle suit on underneath, and I looked pretty formidable. I went out to get something from the store, and of course I left my makeup on. And the girl at the counter damn near lost it. "Here I am, walking in there and looking just like some very buff, dirty, demented guy. I kept my head down and ordered this and ordered that, and the poor girl comes over and I lift up my head, and I've got this prosthetic on, absolutely no eyebrows, with fangs and drool. I think I damn near terrified her. That's when you know-'Hey, now I've seen everything.'" |
