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Between The Rock and sex-crazed monkeys'Rundown' aims for humor as well as action
By Stephanie Snipes
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Director Peter Berg was trying to create something different with "The Rundown." But with the movie's stars and elements, it wasn't going to be easy. The cast included The Rock ("The Scorpion King") and Seann William Scott ("American Pie"), two actors not known for their versatility. They play mismatched partners, a staple of action-movie flicks. The villain is Christopher Walken, who has, well, played his share of villains. And then there was the plot: Beck (The Rock), a bounty hunter, is hired to retrieve his boss's son (Scott) from the Amazon. Scott's character had been searching for some treasure. "None of it felt that original to me in theory. We had to do some things differently if we were going to carve our own space," said Berg in a phone interview from a promotional stop somewhere in Texas. So the movie added some twists. There's no cursing, sex or gratuitous use of firearms. (Indeed, The Rock's character is anti-gun.) There's plenty of humor. And there are some sex-crazed monkeys. "I think it forced us to [be more creative]. It's like, 'Let's take the guns off the table and see what else we can think of.' Then you come up with an idea like, 'I'd rather see him attacked by a bunch of sex-crazed monkeys than a bunch of bullets,'" said Berg. 'Rehearse with monkeys'
Uh, sex-crazed monkeys? The Rock wasn't quite prepared for that twist, he said in an Atlanta interview. "This is the odd thing, we had three months of pre-production from fight rehearsals to stunt rehearsals, acting rehearsals ... then on the itinerary, 'Rehearse with monkeys,' " said The Rock. Berg said the star was a trouper. "The Rock basically had to date the monkey ... you know, charm the monkey, give the monkey food, let the monkey hang out with him so the monkey feels comfortable," he said. However, The Rock did have an incentive to make nice with the monkeys. "If the monkey feels comfortable, the monkey will hump him; if he doesn't feel comfortable, the monkey will kill him," said Berg. The action sequences, which included hand-to-hand combat scenes, were choreographed by pro fight coordinator Andy Cheng ("Rush Hour"). That allowed Berg to focus much of his energy on the comedy, the director said. "We felt like we could handle the action but it would be more of a challenge to find the humor," says Berg. The Rock, who has hosted "Saturday Night Live" twice, felt comfortable putting himself on the line for a laugh. "I guess it's the self-deprecating side I always love. That kind of comedy attracts me," he said. Real-life action
Scott brought a different kind of comedy to the table for his role as Travis, the wisecracking target of Beck's "rundown." The actor, who played the imbecilic Stifler in the "American Pie" trilogy, played this character as a confident adult, said Berg. "To come in and steal the 'American Pie' series like he did suggested a lot of talent and charisma, and I thought we could find some new room for him to operate," said Berg. But it was Walken -- who plays Hatcher, a gold entrepreneur who uses Amazon villagers to amass his fortune -- who set the tone for the cast. "[Walken] is one of few guys that can balance legitimate menacing threat with a kind of weird sense of humor," the director said. The filmmakers could have used Walken's menace while scouting locations. During travels in Brazil to search for authentic Amazon locales, Berg, the producers and the production designer were robbed at gunpoint. Berg can joke about it now. "We stumbled into the wrong part of the jungle and met with some gentlemen who were more than happy to lighten our load. They thought maybe we'd be more comfortable if we weren't so weighed down with money," he said. They filmed the jungle scenes in Hawaii.
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