- Title: USA: FILM PREMIERE OF "RAT RACE"
- Date: 9th June 2001
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 9, 2001) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROWAN ATKINSON SAYING OF WORKING IN AN ENSEMBLE: "There's a wonderful sort of feeling of lack of responsibility about it. I mean, you can just enjoy doing your bit and you're not shouldering the whole movie, you know, the movie's being shouldered by a lot of, you know, very, very skilled and talented people. So, you don't feel too much responsibility, unlike with a character like Mr. Bean, where, generally speaking, you know, I'm the mainstay of the production and that can be a responsibility which isn't actually something which is very pleasurable to have. It's great to be able to distribute the blame for whatever you end up doing."
- Embargoed: 24th June 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA642U2DO57XC7OGENYT6N8VDT3
- Story Text: Hearkening back to big-event, ensemble chase comedies of the 1960's such as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," the cast and crew of "Rat Race" gathered in Los Angeles on Monday, July 30 for the film's World Premiere. Cast members include Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson.
Director Jerry Zucker, who previously directed "Ghost"
and teamed up on the comedies "Airplane," "Top Secret,"
"Ruthless People" and "The Naked Gun," is the twisted mind behind this screwball road comedy. It's about six ordinary people chasing a two million dollar fortune from Las Vegas to a remote Southwestern desert location.
Cuba Gooding Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg, who previously collaborated with Zucker on "Ghost," headline the ensemble cast as two of the contestants in a bizarre race orchestrated by a Vegas casino tycoon played by "Monty Python" alumni John Cleese. Other contestants include "Mr. Bean" creator Rowan Atkinson, Jon Lovitz, Seth Green and Breckin Meyer.
In this contest for two million dollars, anything goes.
The racers travel by plane, train, helicopter, ambulance, bus, and on foot. They cheat and lie and sabotage each other, prompting the question: what wouldn't you do for a multi-million dollar cash prize. The comparisons with the current "reality TV" craze in America weren't lost on director Jerry Zucker.
For Goldberg, saying yes to the project was simply a matter of having Zucker ask her to do it. She didn't even read the script when he asked, saying that she would do anything he asked. Understandable, given the fact that the last time she worked with him, she went home with an Oscar for her role in "Ghost."
All the roles required the actors to get involved in some very physical comedy, and Cuba Gooding Jr., in particular, was required to do a lot of running through the desert in his underwear. He also spent a great deal of time on board a tour bus filled with Lucille Ball impersonators on their way to a convention in Las Vegas.
Rowan Atkinson took a break from his world-renowned character of Mr. Bean to play Mr. Pollini, a good-natured Italian who has the added challenge of being a narcoleptic.
Atkinson relished the chance to play in an ensemble cast, because it took some of the pressure off him to carry the movie on his own, as happened with his big screen version of "Mr. Bean."
"Rat Race" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, August 10.
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