- Title: USA: BILL MURRAY AND ELEPHANT VERA STAR IN THE NEW COMEDY 'LARGER THAN LIFE'
- Date: 19th October 1996
- Summary: NEW YORK, USA (OCTOBER 19, 1996) (RTV- ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) BILL MURRAY SAYS JUST THE IDEA OF TRANSPORTING AN ELEPHANT ACROSS COUNTRY IS FUNNY TO HIM (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) HOWARD FRANKLIN SAYS THE ABSURD SITUATION IN THE FILM CALLED FOR MURRAY'S SPECIAL BRAND OF REALITY AND HIS TYPE OF HUMOR
- Embargoed: 3rd November 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA2FIW6NZNBFEGZAL16QYFY0Z1L
- Story Text: Bill Murray teams up with his most unusual co-star to date in the new comedy "Larger Than Life" - an eight thousand pound circus elephant named Vera. Together, the two travel across America in search of a permanent home, encountering all sorts of eccentric characters along the way.
Murray plays Jack Corcoran, a motivational speaker to the masses who makes his living addressing good and guillible citizens in mini-malls and rented halls across the United States. He has a life and feels pretty good about it, he has succeeded against all the odds, considering his father died before he was born. Jack's dad was killed while saving a child from drowning .. or so he thinks. In fact Dad has been alive and well all these years, working as a circus clown. When he does actually die, the funny man has one last laugh and the joke is on his long-lost son. Jack receives a telegram out of the blue, telling him the old man died and left him a hefty inheritance : Vera the elephant ( Determined to unload his endowment for quick cash to pay off the bills he's also inherited from his father, Jack lines up two offers. Elephant expert Mo Newman, played by Janeane Garofalo, wants Vera for her mission to re-build the elephant population in Sri Lanka. But sexy showbiz animal handler Terry Bonura, played by Linda Fiorentino, offers Jack even bigger bucks for his monster pet. Both offers require Jack to transport the animal across country to California in less than five days.
Jack sets off on the journey, travelling by train, by truck, on foot and on Vera's back. Along the way, the team runs into outrageous paranoid trucker Tip Tucker, played by Hollywood's newest hunk, "A Time To Kill" star Matthew McConaughey. In fact, McConaughey finished work on this film before becoming a hot property. Since his success in other films, the producers of "Larger Than Life" asked him back to expand his role in their film based on his hilarious and off-beat characterization of Tip.
"Larger Than Life" is directed by Howard Franklin, who collaborated with Bill Murray on the comedy "Quick Change." He also wrote and directed "The Public Eye" starring Joe Pesci, and wrote the screenplays for "Someone To Watch Over Me" and "The Name of the Rose." Franklin said his biggest challenge in this film was working with Tai, the animal that plays Vera in the film. At first, Franklin had reservations about working with an animal as large as an elephant, but after meeting Tai, he became convinced she was gentle, highly intelligent and well able to handle the demands of a busy film shoot. The biggest problem was getting two-shots that showed both Murray and an elephant without moving the camera back too far to be effective. Location scouting was also difficult, with the question "Can Tai fit through here, over here, in here ? " always in the front of everyone's mind.
Shooting was apparently not like working on a film but more like being on the road with a travelling circus. The shoot started in St. Louis, Missouri and gradually made its way westward over mountain passes and through the deserts of the American south-west, to its final destination in Southern California. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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