- Title: USA: 'DAYLIGHT', STARRING SYLVESTER STALLONE, PREMIERES IN THE U.S.
- Date: 8th January 1996
- Summary: NEW YORK (RTV) STALLONE SAYING THE WORST WAS THE TANKER THAT WAS CHASING ME ALMOST GOT OUT OF CONTROL AND SEVERED AMY'S LEGS, IT WAS VERY BAD (ENGLISH) DIRECTOR ROB COHEN SAYING IT WAS A THIRD OF A MILE LONG, TWO MILLION HAND-LAID TILES, WE RAN OVER A MILLION GALLONS OF WATER THROUGH THE SET. IT WAS A 40 FT BY 30 FT FIRE BURNING AT ALL TIMES AT THE FAR END. WE IMPORTED 8
- Embargoed: 23rd January 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA8PLFUY1752RH27JDXY1BA961W
- Story Text: Twenty years after the release of his Oscar-winning debut film "Rocky," Sylvester Stallone returns to a more down-to-earth character in the new action thriller "Daylight." He plays Kit Latura, a former Emergency Medical Technician-turned-limo driver who jumps into action to help rescue a group of New Yorkers trapped inside one of Manhattan's commuter river tunnels.
The story begins when a traffic accident involving a truckload of toxic waste sparks a devastating explosion, killing hundreds of commuters and trapping a small group of survivors in the tunnel.
Happening upon the tragedy, Latura decides to use his knowledge of the tunnel and its construction to go in and bring the people to safety.
"Daylight" was directed by Rob Cohen, whose previous films include the 1993 hit "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" and this past summer's fantasy film "Dragonheart" with Sean Connery and Dennis Quaid. Cohen thinks the Kit Latura character is a return to a more "every-man" role that originally made Stallone a star in films like "Rocky" and "Paradise Alley." Also in the cast of "Daylight" are "NYPD Blue" star and two-time Emmy nominee Amy Brenneman who plays the feisty struggling playwright Madelyne Thompson, "Fried Green Tomatoes" co-star Stan Shaw as tunnel security agent George Tyrell, and Sage Stallone, Sylvester's real-life son who plays Vincent, a young convict who is set free by the disaster.
This isn't the first time father and son have worked together.
Sage played Stallone's son in the sequel "Rocky V" several years ago. But in the future, Sage's aspirations in Hollywood don't involve acting. What he really wants to do is direct.
Tunnel logistics played a part in the decision to shoot the tunnel interior sequences at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome, Italy.
The crew obviously couldn't shut down any of the very busy Manhattan commuters tunnels like the Lincoln or Holland tunnels and they discovered that it wouldn't be safe to employ the many pyrotechnics inside a real tunnel that the script would require.
After a thorough search that covered both the United States and Europe, Cinecitta was selected because of the size of the studio and its backlot. There were 16 water tanks on the site which the crew needed in order to repeatedly flood the tunnel sets, and there was also a huge pool that served as the water reservoir.
The crew had to build the tunnel set full scale because cars would have to travel through it and big stunts were going to happen there. But it also had to function as a movie set, so they had to add extra entrances and exits for security and safety, plus a ventilation system.
To film the sequence where Latura enters the tunnel via a giant ventilation system, the crew built four huge fans 18 feet in diameter, the whole structure being over 160 feet high. Cohen described it like shooting in a giant cuisinart.
Both Stallone and Brenneman chose to do many of their own stunts, a feat that Stallone is used to after films like "Cliffhanger," the "Rambo" series, and "Judge Dredd." But this is the first time doing big budget stunts for Amy Brenneman, whose only other film credits include the Paul Reiser comedy "Bye, Bye, Love," "Fear," and "Heat," with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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