USA: MICHAEL DOUGLAS AND VAL KILMER SPEAK ABOUT THEIR NEW FILM 'THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS'

Record ID: 386614

  • Title: USA: MICHAEL DOUGLAS AND VAL KILMER SPEAK ABOUT THEIR NEW FILM 'THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS'
  • Date: 18th September 1996
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (OCTOBER 3, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) MICHAEL DOUGLAS ARRIVING FOR PREMIERE DOUGLAS POSING FOR CAMERAS DOUGLAS SAYING IT WAS AS GOOD A LlOCATION AS I'VE EVER HAD. FIRST OF ALL THE EXCITEMENT OF BEING IN SOUTH AFRICA AFTER APARTHEID, FEELING ALL THE SOUTH AFRICAN'S ENTHUSIASM ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON IN THEIR COUNTRY. THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT - HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN AFRICA - BUT IT'S LIKE NOTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE. (ENGLISH) VAL KILMER ARRIVING FOR PREMIERE, POSING FOR CAMERAS KILMER SAYING I LOVE THE WILDERNESS AND IT'S STILL THE MOST FASCINATING, UNKNOWN CONTINENT. IT'S EXTRAORDINARY (ENGLISH) MICHAEL DOUGLAS WELCOMES FATHER KIRK DOUGLAS TO PREMIERE WITH KIRK DOUGLAS'S WIFE ANNE
  • Embargoed: 3rd October 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND ON LOCATION, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA4VV83B15WAPLHONA4SB3XWW8O
  • Story Text: "Jaws with paws", that's how Michael Douglas described his latest film "The Ghost and the Darkness" based on a true story of two ferocious man-eating lions which terrorised the Tsavo community in Africa in 1896.

    Preying on labourers working on one of the British Empire's most ambitious railway construction projects, the two male lions - dubbed "the Ghost" and "the Darkness" - slaughtered an estimated 135 people over a three month period.

    Douglas, the world-weary big game hunter Remington, inherits the unenviable task of tracking and killing the two beasts with the help of co-star Val Kilmer and a group of Samburu warriors.

    Kilmer plays Irish engineer John Patterson, sent to Tsavo to complete construction of the railway bridge which will open up the southern African interior to the British Empire.

    Shortly after Patterson's arrival "the Ghost" and "the Darkness" begin to pick off labourers and locals in an unprecedented series of attacks which suggest the lions are killing purely for pleasure.

    As local people and labourers flee the area in terror, railway construction halts much to the fury of the British Imperial establishment.

    Based on the Patterson's original journal "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo", published in the Spectator magazine in March 1900, "The Ghost and The Darkness" was written by two-time Oscar winner William Goldman ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President's Men").

    The film was directed by Australian Stephen Hopkins ("Predator 2" and "Blown Away") and shot on location in South Africa over four months.

    A 380 man crew, thousands of extras, thirty Samburu warriors from Kenya and five trained lions joined forces with Douglas and Kilmer on location.

    The film makers even built their own railway line and transported a steam locomotive hundreds of miles overland to add authenticity to the movie.

    "The Ghost and the Darkness" premiered in Los Angeles on October 3.
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