USA:CHRISTIAN SLATER SPENDS HIS LAST NIGHT BEFORE STARTING A JAIL SENTENCE ATTENDING THE PREMIERE OF HIS NEW FILM "HARD RAIN"

Record ID: 324978

  • Title: USA:CHRISTIAN SLATER SPENDS HIS LAST NIGHT BEFORE STARTING A JAIL SENTENCE ATTENDING THE PREMIERE OF HIS NEW FILM "HARD RAIN"
  • Date: 13th January 1998
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 13, 1998) (RTV) CHRISTIAN SLATER TALKING TO REPORTERS AT PREMIERE RANDY QUAID ARRIVES MORGAN FREEMAN POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS MINNIE DRIVER SPEAKING WITH THE MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 28th January 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: USA:LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAAK4OX5OBH7UKVCMEFBSJ7VMRB
  • Story Text: - While his new film "Hard Rain" languishes in fifth spot in the US box office, actor Christian Slater has spent his first week behind bars.

    On the eve of starting his prison sentence, Slaterattended the world premiere of his new action-thriller along with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Minnie Driver and Randy Quaid.

    Reuters sat down with Slater beforehand to hear about his latest film role.

    In the film, Slater plays a young man who has taken a job as an armoured car courier alongside his uncle. Come hell or high water, they're determined to safely deliver the 3 million dollars that have been entrusted to them.

    High water does comes -- plenty of it -- when their car is caught in the rising waters of an immense Midwestern river flood.

    Freeman plays Jim, a man equally determined to get his hands on that 3 million dollars. A career thief who's growing weary of the criminal life, he seizes on the flood as his chance to pull off one last daring job -- an armoured car robbery that will bag him enough cash to retire to a tropical island.

    His plan goes wrong when Slater, determined to protect the cash, refuses to do the easy thing and give up the money.

    With a miffed, overburdened sheriff, played by Randy Quaid, trying to patrol the town with a handful of deputies, Slater relies on help from a courageous young woman (Minnie Driver) to protect the money and his life.

    "Hard Rain" comes from director Mikael Salomon. The director has been nominated for two Oscars for creating the visual effects in "Backdraft" and for the cinematography in "The Abyss." Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn and Ian Bryce are the film's producers. For the first time in his career, Christian Slater also served as co-producer.

    To reproduce the flood that ravages the fictional town in the film, the producers built a replica of the town in an aircraft hangar in Palmdale, California. The enormous facility was converted into a set with 50 wooden buildings placed in a tank two hundred yards long, one hundred yards wide and five feet deep.

    When filled to its five-foot working depth, the tank held nearly 5 million gallons of water.

    Behind the tank was a backdrop 72 feet high and 2,000 feet long designed to merge visually with the back edge of the tank and thus provide the illusion of vast spaces and a distant horizon.

    Everything in the tank had to be water-proof, and everything, including electrical gear, had to be able to operate safely in a constantly wet environment.

    The same can be said about the actors, who had to spend 12 to 14 hours a day submerged in five feet of water for several months of production. Needless to say, it wasn't the most enjoyable film for most of them.

    To simulate rain convincingly, a massive system of rain bars was erected high above the entire set. In an average movie with a rain scene, crews typically use 1,500 gallons of water per minute.

    For "Hard Rain," the crew used 30 thousand gallons per minute, more rain than has ever been created for a motion picture.

    Slater began serving a 90-day jail term on battery and drug charges on Wednesday (January 14).

    The 28-year-old was arrested in Los Angeles on August 11, 1997 following an after party brawl where he admitted hitting his girlfriend on the forehead, and biting the boyfriend of Marlon Brando's adopted daughter, Petra, in the stomach.

    Slater admitted taking drugs and alcohol before attacking an arresting officer as police shackled him face-down in the hallway of a luxury high-rise apartment building.

    Slater, who has starred in such films as "Interview with a Vampire" and "Broken Arrow" was arrested in 1994 at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport when an unloaded handgun was found in his luggage.

    "Hard Rain" opened in theatres throughout the United States on January 16.
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