Dead men dnn't dance

[murphy430]

Does anyone know if this still shows up on tv anymore. I can't find a copy to buy, so I have to hope it will show up on tv again. Anyone see this playing lately?

Nancy

[murphy430]

Stupid me I only searched under DVD, it's there under VHS and I have my copy coming soon. Sorry for being stupid and I can't even say it's because it's Friday.

Nancy

[pepeperfume]

Stupid me I only searched under DVD, it's there under VHS and I have my copy coming soon. Sorry for being stupid and I can't even say it's because it's Friday.

Nancy

Nan, write me off list to let me know what you think!
I really adored Adrian in this....I just loved MB back when
this was made---but you must tell me what you think of the ending....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/Pepeperfume/Adrian/1eb54ff0.jpg

Okay??

[Pythian Oracle]

Yes that's one of my favorite Adrian movies also.

Connie

[Pythian Oracle]

Yes I really loved Adrian in this. Next to his Highlander films this was my favorite movie of his.

Connie

[Barney]

Behind the Scenes of "Dead Men Can't Dance

While working on Highlander throughout 1995 and part of 1996, I wanted to find a film to do during my hiatus between the fourth and fifth seasons. I read many scripts but none really interested me. Being in Paris made it very difficult for me to make meetings, and the projects that were offered to me just didn't seem worth doing. By the end of season four, I began to wonder why I was stressing over this when something told me to stop trying to make things happen and just let go. I decided to stop thinking about it and take a vacation in Spain before returning home to Los Angeles. One of my best friends had suffered a loss in his family and I thought that it might be a good time for both of us to take a vacation.

We set out on a trip that was to start in Paris, continue in Rome, and end in Spain. As fate would have it, when we arrived in Rome, my agent called to tell me that there was a director who was interested in casting me for a film. I had read this particular script just before I left Paris, but was certain that it would never come to fruition. However, here was an offer. I was told that the director was a very accomplished man, the script that I'd read looked decent, and I was assured that my part in the film would be increased as it was a small role at the time. In addition, if I chose to do the film, I would be getting third billing. With negotiations underway, my friend and I decided to leave for Spain. After all, we were on vacation! While in Madrid, I received a phone call from the director. He said that he really wanted to work with me and assured me that any concerns that I had would be discussed and taken care of. With his assurance, plus the presence of Michael Biehn and some other good actors in the cast, I decided to take the role. It seemed that my "letting go and good things will come" attitude had begun to work. Or so I thought.

I headed back to Los Angeles, where I stayed only two weeks before flying out to the Philippines where the movie was being shot. I arrived later than most of the other people working on the film, as my first week of shooting wasn't going to be for another week and a half. As most production companies do, they'd flown me in early so that I could get over the jet lag and settle in before shooting started. When I arrived after a 20 hour flight, I had another three hour bus ride from Manila to Cabanatuan. (By the way, I'll let you in on a little secret. I wrote one of the behind the scenes stories on that flight to Manila. I had to do something to pass the time!) We arrived in Cabanatuan, a town that wasn't very large but was teeming with people and were taken to a very small hotel. Because of the size of the hotel, some of the cast and crew were staying in the other hotel in town.

Within the next couple of days, I managed to meet everyone. The director, Michael Biehn and the other actors were all very excited and ready to get going. Many of the women in the cast had been at the local army base preparing for their roles as Rangers. Michael Biehn and I were ready to go into the gym to rehearse our knife fight. Although the fight wasn't going to be shot for a couple of weeks, we wanted to make it the very best that it could be. As there was no knife choreographer yet, Michael and I decided to put something together ourselves. On our second day of training in the gym, Michael accidentally kicked me in the foot causing "extreme" pain that kept me limping for the rest of the day. I should have known that this was a bad omen. The set doctor said that it was just a bruise and told me to wrap it up and it would be gone within a few days. I wasn't sure if he meant the pain or my little toe.

In the meantime, Michael and I talked to the director and onvinced him that we needed a stunt coordinator in knife and stick fighting. We had to have help in choreographing this fight correctly as it was the most important fight of the movie. He agreed and the next week was spent trying to find a knife expert. One eventually turned up on set in the form of Burt, a 59 year old Filipino with a pot belly, no front teeth and 12 children from nine different women. To be honest, at first we weren't exactly sure what he was capable of doing, but as the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. After a quick demonstation, we knew that they'd found the right man. After the first week, Michael and I became concerned because we'd heard rumors regarding the manner in which things were being shot and people were being treated. Since we hadn't been on set, we didn't have any idea about what was going on. We hoped that it was just first week nerves. The group of actors, which included Kathleen York, Jennifer Blanc, Kelly Jo Minter, Shawnee Smith, Barbara Eve Harris, Wendy Gazelle, Hiep Thi Le, Mark Anderson, Rodney Eastman, Yancy Arias, Joe Miller, and Gregg Joung Paik, were all eager to give their best, but felt that their work was being stifled. Michael, Kathleen and myself were the only actors with dressing rooms. All of the others had to make do with changing in the wardrobe trailer and sitting underneath an umbrella in the 120 degree heat between takes. After the first week and a half, the actors told production that they wanted an air-conditioned bus to sit in while they were working or else. The volcano was beginning to rumble.

At this point, Michael and I had our first day on set which consisted of our shooting a scene in which we are seen breaking into the Rangers' barracks. Things went pretty well and some of the problems that we thought might occur never materialized. It was only a half day however. I had yet to talk with the director regarding my character, although he kept promising that we would get together to discuss things. I had a few concerns as to why my character behaved the way that he did and I had questions concerning the progression of the relationship between my character and those played by Michael and Kathleen. We actually came to a point where Michael and I wrote a synopsis of events in the film so that we could track the actions and feelings of the characters throughout. This would enable us to discuss these things with the director and make sure that we were all on the same page as to what we were doing and when we were doing it. It looked like we all agreed...on paper, that is.

[Coolwater]

(prompting) And then what happened?

[Barney]

The story continues......

In the meantime, I continued to train but my foot was still giving me problems. After a week, the set doctor took another look at it and said, "Oh maybe you should have an xray." Well going to the local hospital was an event in itself. The hospital was not one of the most modern of its day by any standard. Paint peeled from the ceiling, bare wire hung from sockets, and air-conditioning was reserved for the managing director's office alone. We were already being given special treatment because we were shooting in town, but when the orderlies were told that the patient was the Highlander, we received even more preferential treatment. (Highlander is very popular in the Philippines.) After being led into an examination room for xrays, I looked at the xray machine and began to wonder if there was a little guy in the next room winding the wheel to get the machine's motor running. The apparatus looked like a prototype of the first xray machine ever made. As I sat there waiting and they went behind the glass partition to take the xray, I hoped that it wouldn't blow up. It didn't. The xrays confirmed that I had a broken toe. I was told that it would have to be set because, although nothing could really be done to make it heal quicker, it would be better in the long run if the bone was set correctly. I didn't have time for that right then but promised that I would return later in the day to have the bone set.

That evening I was ushered into the outpatient department. It consisted of a small table, a couple of cabinets, two metal slabs, and many people. As I mentioned before, it wasn't a very well-equipped hospital and my driver was sent to the local pharmacy to get the necessary appliances to set my foot as the hospital didn't have any. In the meantime, I was told to sit on one of the two metal slabs that were obviously examining tables. I was seated next to a guy who was on an IV after suffering knife wounds and the guy in front of me, still drunk and sitting in a wheelchair, had a bullet embedded in his leg just below the knee. Regardless of these guys, my little pinkie toe seemed to be getting all of the attention. I hadn't been in there for more than 10-15 minutes, when I looked toward the doorway to find other doctors, possibly the osteopath, gynecologist and others, waving and saying, "Ooooo! Highlander!" I was embarrassed to be receiving this kind of attention ahead of people who were obviously in more need of help than I was. Eventually they wrapped my foot in a soft cast. I took one look at it and thought, "Well this should last about a week." So off I went, back to the hotel with this huge cast on my foot. I think that the producers and the director were worried that I wouldn't fit into my army boots and would be limping around with a cast. At one point someone actually suggested painting the cast the same color as my boots. Thankfully I had a better idea. I made arrangements to have a walking cast sent from the United States. That way, I could take it off when I needed to fit into my size 11 hob-nailed boots.

Things weren't going well at this point and news from the set indicated that things were going from bad to worse. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before something else went wrong. Yes, you guessed it, it did. Two days later, Michael had to go to hospital needing four or five stitches in his finger. He'd split it open on a reed. That might sound strange, but this reed had serrated edges. When Michael grabbed at it and pulled, it cut his finger open like a hot knife through butter. Two down and a couple more to go. The volcano was rumbling a little more loudly now with people openly discussing their disappointment with how the film was being directed. It was more than mere diappointment, however. They were afraid that an accident might happen, as there was little or no control over situations when doing action sequences. The proverbial poo-poo hit the fan when one of the actresses, Shawnee Smith, fell with her rifle. She landed on the barrel of the gun, hitting her face just below the eye, resulting in a gash of about an inch and a half. As I understood it, things were going too fast. Everyone ws yelling, "Shoot! Shoot!" and safety precautions weren't taken to ensure that each actor knew their place in the scene. Sometimes it works to improvise but when you're dealing with guns, knives and explosives, however things must be choreographed so that no unforseen accidents occur. With Shawnee's injury, the production came to a grinding halt. All of the actors were very unhappy with the situation. At this particular time, I'd only worked on one tiny scene, so I felt a little out of the loop. I tried to explain to the director that there were certain ways to deal with people, especially actors, and that particular people skills were needed. Later that evening, we had a meeting with the entire cast and the director and we discussed the problems with the production as we saw them. The director hadn't even known that there were problems. He thought that everything was going according to plan. Confidence in him had waned however as promises that he'd made, such as agreeing to rehearsal times or giving extra attention to certain scenes, had been broken. He promised to make the necessary changes and as he assured us that things would be safer on the set, we all agreed to give it our best. We didn't know it but the volcano ws one step closer to erupting.

[Barney]

The story continues......

We had some time off the next day and some of us decided to take a few cars and go to the beach. This trip gave me a chance to get to know everone a little better rather than our just conversing over dinner or chatting in hotel corridors. The beach was at least a two hour drive on the small, congested Philippine highways. It was always strange when we would go anywhere as people would always gather around us, especially children. Whenever any children saw us on the road, they'd want to take pictures. More and more people would want to join in, and the picture would eventually hold anywhere from 15-30 people! The first beach that we went to was too crowded but we heard that there was another where we could rent a couple of cabanas and shower and change after playing in the sand. So, we took off and found a great out of the way place where we kicked back and with some Bob Marley music playing in the background, recounted some of the past weeks adventures. Now, I'm not the type of person who can sit still while on the beach, but with my foot in a cast I didn't have much of a choice. Watching the others take a boat ride with one of the local boatmen really made me itch to get into the water. I figured that if I could find a way to keep my cast from getting wet, I might be able to take a dip in the ocean. I thought that I was being ingenious when I took a couple of plastic bags and wrapped them around my foot. I tied the ends of the plastic bags together and took my bandana and wrapped that around where I'd tied the plastic bags, just to make sure that no water came in. Looking a little bit like swamp thing, I walked toward the water and looked forward to a great time splashing and playing. After about ten minutes, I came out of the water dragging half of the ocean to shore in my plastic bags. The cast didn't stay on much longer after that.

I left the beach a little earlier than the others so that I could make a meeting that I'd arranged with the director to discuss my character. However, on arriving back in Cabanatuan. he was nowhere to be found. Once again, I'd been thwarted in my attempt to try to resolve some of the concerns that I had with the script. These were concerns which could easily be resolved with a couple of extra moments that would give my character a through line (a character's development) so that what he did had the necessary effect on him and on the other characters in the film. I guessed I'd have to wait until we were on set to sort these things out.

I wasn't the only one waiting. Shawnee also waited around for the next few days until her stitches were supposed to come out. Obviously she was a little concerned about what her face would look like once they were removed. Meanwhile, shooting continued. A couple of scenes were shot around Shawnee's character, and I sat twiddling my thumbs after being there for three weeks and having worked only half a day. Eventually, it became obvious that Shawnee couldn't finish the movie, but there was a possibilty that she could stay to shoot one more scene. Coupled with the fact that we were running behind schedule, the director decided to change the script and leave my character out of one scene. This took away one of the moments that I'd wanted to have. It wasn't the fact that it had been scrapped that made my blood boil, but the manner in which it had been done. whithout even telling me why, I was simply told on the day that I was supposed to work that I wouldn't be needed until the following week. With nothing left to do in Cabanatuan except limp around in the walking cast that had now arrived, I decided to leave for Manila, which would be our next location. So, together with Shawnee, who was going to get her stitches removed, and Joe Wyner, who was accompanying her, I spent the next two days in Manila waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive.

Once Shawnee's stitches came out, she was advised by her doctor and manager to return to the United States. Although her wound was healing nicely, the heat and terrain at our next location might have been detrimental to the wound in the long run. She left, leaving me the task of telling the producers. Oh Great!! It looked like the problems that had plagued us just didn't want to go away.

My real problems started on the day that I was to shoot a bar scene in a small suburb of Manila. I had gotten the opportunity to discuss with the director one of the relationship points that I spoke of earlier and he agreed to shoot the moment that I'd suggested. When I arrived on set, however, the actress in the scene told me that he wasn't going to shoot it. I wanted to know why. I pulled the director aside and asked why he'd changed his mind. He said that he didn't have time to shoot it. I explained how it could be done. He seemed to see the light, giving suggestions on how we could do it. Later in the day, after waiting around since early morning, I was ready to go on set for my entrance to the scene. This would be done right after they shot a closeup on Kathleen in the direction as I was to enter frame. Suddenly, the shot was changed and the camera was pointed in the other direction. This meant that new lighting had to be set up which would take some time. Warning bells went off in my head, but I didn't say anything. When I was finally called to rehearsals two hours later, I noticed that the director was omitting what we'd discussed earlier. I confronted him about it and he said that he didn't have time to shoot it and that was that. I knew this wasn't true. Then I did something I've never done before. I walked off set telling the producer that, in my opinion, a good director has a team of people around him who specialize in different fields. These people share their thoughts, opinions and suggestions and the director makes his decisions based on the information that his team supplies. This didn't seem to be happening on this particular film. I later returned to finish the scene and although I was unhappy with the way that it was shot, I still held out hope (although I don't know why) that I would actually get to film another important moment during the tunnel sequences that we were to shoot over the next three days. I can safely say that those are three days I will never forget.

To be continued......

[Coolwater]

He walked off the set? Is that like mutiny? And he still had a job the next day? Oof dah!

[brilliant!MacLeod]

He walked off the set? Is that like mutiny? And he still had a job the next day? Oof dah!

He was the Highlander,remember?I guess they didn´t want to kick him out and they needed him anyways!
What a movie-mess!!And he was so brave!
I always wondered why he had aggreed to do a movie with such a small part for him in it while he was at the peak of his fame-now we know,it wasen´t supposed to be so small a role,they just kind of cheated him!!:mad:

Thanks Barney for this ,it is great to learn all this interesting stuff.

[pukkie]

Thanks Barney
Very interesting to read this all

[Barney]

[I]When we last left Adrian, he was nursing a broken toe, touring the beaches of the Philipines, and trying to make the best of less than exemplary working conditions on the set of "Dead Men Can't Dance." The story continues...

With the tunnel shoot just around the corner, tensions were high. The producers called for a meeting between Kathleen, Michael and myself to discuss the problems that were apparent on set. It seemed the director was also having problems with his crew, especially his DP (director of photography). We were promised that the situation would be remedied within the next few days. With that comment, we believed that the DP was going to be replaced not the director.

The tunnels that we were to shoot in for the next three days had an interesting history to them. They had been built in WWII by General MacArthur and were a labyrinth of 25 miles of tunnels which criss-crossed below Manila. The tunnels were built so that troops and military equipment could move around undetected by the Japanese. However, when the Japanese captured the island, they used the tunnel system as a POW camp, throwing many of the Filipino and American prisoners into deep holes and leaving them to rot to death. The bad karma did not stop there. When the Americans recaptured the island, they burned their way through the tunnels with flamethrowers trying to flush out the remaining Japanese. After a while the Americans gave up fighting an enemy who could be lurking anywhere in the dark recesses and left it up to the Filipino army. For the next year, sentries stood guard at the entrances and shot any Japanese soldier who tried to escape.

The atmosphere within the tunnel system was full of this energy. The karma of pain and suffering seemed to drip off the walls and hang in the air like a bad smell. For me, however, this was exactly the place to be to feel what my character was feeling. He was depressed, angry, insecure and uncertain of what he should do now that he had set the ball rolling in his betrayal. After the first day of shooting in the tunnels, things had not gone well for the development of the scenes that the director and I had discussed. On the second day we were to shoot the death scene of one of the rangers. My character, Shooter, had a relationship with that character early on in the movie and I believed I should be part of the scene. Shooter's betrayal had caused the ranger's death, therefore posing the dilemma of what he should do now, as his actions might make him responsible for causing the death of his friend, Victoria. I discussed it with the director and was ready to do the scene. Once again, however, my character was diminished by the director excluding me from the scene. This time it was because I wasn't saying very much in the scene. If I wasn't saying much, why should I be there? That was the final straw. I was quietly fuming and everyone except the director understood why. I allowed it to permeate my being to such an extent that people wouldn't come anywhere near me. My energy was such that they were afraid to do so. Especially since I kept playing with my knife. On our last day of filming in the tunnels, one of the producers came to me and asked if I was okay. I calmly replied, "No I'm not." She told me not to worry and assured me that things would get better. I looked at her and said, "How is that going to happen? You can't put a band-aid on a knife wound."

Later on that day, the band-aid turned out to be a little bigger than I had expected. The director was going to be replaced. This news was a relief to a lot of people, but it still put everone in a strange space, not knowing who the next director was going to be or how the next few weeks were going to shape up. One person in particular, Mark Anderson, was in a very strange position. This turn of events meant choosing between his work or his brother, the director. Should he continue on the film and finish out his character, which he was legally bound to do, or should he return home with his family? We spent that weekend wondering what was going to happen. I saw that things were laying heavy on Mark and I hoped that he would not feel that any of the problems would be related back to him if he chose to stay. The next day we were all to meet at the boat terminal to take the one hour boat trip up the coast to Bataan. We would then continue on to our hotel, which was about an hour away. We would be spending two weeks there. On the trip we met the new director, Hubert C. De La Bouillerie, but Mark Anderson was nowhere to be found. Fearing that he'd opted not to come, we left for our destination. It was amazing to see the difference in everyone's spirits. It was as if we were starting a new film. We arrived at the hotel Monte Mar and the first thing we did was dive into the ocean. (My foot was feeling a lot better at that point). The next day, to everyone's surprise, Mark turned up. We found out that Mark hadn't left after all, but had only slept in and missed the boat. I was happy to see him because I knew that it had been a tough decision having to choose between family and work. I admired his courage for sticking with the program knowing that there were some people who might speak ill of his brother.

Over the next few days, we took many meetings with Hubert because he was unfamiliar with the script and needed as much information as he could get. Luckily, he seemed open to many ideas. Michael and I resumed rehearsals on the knife fight. We had stopped rehearsing because we had lost heart that it would ever be shot correctly. The first few days of shooting were spent on scenes that involved the other actors and not me, so I decided to go on a little sightseeing trip to the mountain above Bataan. The mountain is now a memorial to the soldiers who died there in WWII. Standing there, knowing that thousands of men lost their lives on that very spot, leaves you lost for words. In addition to the thousands of soldiers who gave their lives on the mountain, 50,000 more were force marched for a week to Manila in blazing heat without food or water. An additional 9,000 men died on that trip, dropping like flies on the wayside and many of the remaining thousands perished in concentration camps. Bravery wasn't limited to the soldiers however. Many of the Filipino population risked death attempting to save prisoners by sneaking them out of the camps in the dead of night.

During the week, we were the only people at Monte Mar as it wasn't a very well-known tourist spot. Most of the time we were able to eat and work without any outside interruptions. The swimming pool was ours, the beach was ours, and the hotel was ours. I can't tell you how changed we all felt. From all reports, Hubert was doing a good job. When I first started working with him, I realized that he was putting scenes together with an editor's mind. This didn't surprise me. He had been an editor for 20 years and had edited "Highlander II", so we almost had something in common.

Although most of us were in good spirits, we felt a little sad for the actors who had already finished the film and didn't get the chance to enjoy this part of the trip. Some evenings we'd sit around playing chess or we'd take walks on the beach. I would often do some of my martial art form work by the sea because I found it immensely relaxing and invigorating at the same time. On a couple of nights, I watched thunderstorms out to sea that created incredible light shows across the darkened sky. Then there were the nights that we would watch fireworks displays presented by Mark Anderson. Mark had bought a whole series of rockets and he'd set some off every night. Can you imagine doing that on the beaches of California? You'd be arrested in a second!.

[Barney]

The story continues....

The day that I'd been waiting for had finally arrived. It was time to shoot the knife fight. The fight would be filmed at the unused nuclear plant that was located nearby. This site was chosen because it was the perfect place to shoot several scenes which included elements such as large explosions, helicopter stunts, and the knife fight. I had rehearsed the fight many times with Burt, the Filipino instructor and knew it backwards. The night before we filmed it, I showed Hubert the entire knife fight, including the knife cuts, the throws, and the bamboo stick section. Within half an hour, he had decided which shots he'd use, the angle from which he'd shoot the fight, and the camera speeds required. I was very impressed that he was able to put everything together so quickly. The day of the fight turned out to be a hot one. It was 115-120 degrees in full sun with high humidity. The fight took along time to shoot because there were so many little moments that Hubert wanted to cover. It seemed like we would never get to the end of it. Luckily, we had no accidents. Well, maybe one...

There was one move in the fight where I was supposed to catch a kick with my right hand and then transfer it to a palm strike into the center of Michael's chest. This move would send Michael's character air bound off of a small hill. Obviously, Michael couldn't take a landing like this, so we used a stunt guy instead. However, to cut from Michael taking the hit to the wide shot of the stunt guy, we needed a quick insert of the palm hit on Michael's chest. On the first take, the cameraman said that he didn't think that the hit was hard enough. Michael looked at me and told me to do it harder. So, on the second take, I did almost the same thing but tried to sell it a little more. Again, the cameraman said that it didn't work. Michael told me to do it again, but harder. I didn't want to use my entire force to push Michael because I had one of his legs in my right hand. At this angle, he might land badly and hurt himself. When I hit him this time, he staggered back a little but was able to control his fall. Seeing the look on the cameraman's face, we realized he didn't quite like this one either. Michael told me to really hit him this time. I said, "Michael, if I do that you're going to go flying." "No, man, just hit me! Give it to me," he said. So, in the fourth take, I hit him squarely in the chest. Michael took a four-foot flight backwards, sailed three feet off of the ground and landed hard on his tailbone. I took one look at him and thought, "Oops, filming's over for today." Although he wouldn't admit it, I saw him limp away saying, "I'm okay, I'm okay" but I knew it hurt.

By the end of the day, I was pretty much exhausted. To give you an idea of how hot it was, I drank approximately 20 bottles of water and Gatorade and didn't once go to the bathroom. It had just seeped out of my pores. I was tired but felt pretty confident that the fight had gone well. After dinner, I went to the upstairs hotel bar and asked for an after dinner drink. Looking at the selection, I said, "Give me double Tia Maria on the rocks." After the bartender had poured the drink, I thought, "Nah it's been a long day. Give me a double Vodka on the rocks." Unfortunately, he'd already poured the first drink. When he gave me the second one, I looked at them both and thought, "Well, waste not, want not!" and poured one into the other. After a very relaxing drink, I thought that it would be nice to enjoy the calmness of the beach, lie on the sand and look at the stars. Michael and Mark found me there an hour later, sound asleep in the middle of a rain shower. Luckily my mouth wasn't open or I would have drowned!

I wasn't scheduled to shoot for several days, so I decided to celebrate my birthday by seeing more of the Philippines. I had heard of an island called Boracay. The island was famous for its beautiful white sand beach and crystal clear waters, so I decided that it was the place that I wanted to see. I was a little concerned about being recognized since I was very well known in the Philippines, so I decided to dress in my Thai workout pants together with a loose t-shirt, a scarf over my head and some sunglasses. Most of the time it worked. I could usually get away unrecognized, unless one person in a group spotted me. If that happened, I'd be signing autographs for a while, provided they managed to catch me. Early one morning, just as everybody else was leaving for work, my driver drove me to the ferry so I could take a boat to Manila. Once there, I took the hour long plane ride to the beautiful island of Boracay. The island itself was one of the most spectacular I'd ever seen. The two mile stretch of beach, the soft white sand and the clear waters did not disappoint me when I took a couple of snorkeling excursions. Even the rain wasn't disappointing. It was warm and I didn't care that I was getting wet. This little excursion was good for the soul, as it gave me time to work on my martial art forms, relax, read, and contemplate life. Now that's not to say that I didn't go out....

[Coolwater]

And so all's well that ended well.

I spent the day editing other people's work, and I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to read a well-written narrative! :)

[Barney]

One evening, I decided to venture to one of the two discos situated right on the beach in the open air. In fact, one of the most vivid memories that I have of my trip was this night. It started to rain pretty heavily and everyone left the dance floor except for three people. They continued to dance even though they were getting drenched. It didn't stop raining for a while and more and more people joined them, including me. It was the most invigorating thing to be rained on while dancing. I guess that's why Gene Kelly's famous dance number in "Singing in the Rain" has so much meaning. While this memory is a good one, there was another incident that left a small scar on my mind.

As I returned to the hotel one evening, I heard a loud bang that sounded very much like gunfire. Stopping dead in my tracks remembering how life was regarded as being cheap in the Philippines, I waited to hear if there was a follow-up to the first bang. There wasn't , so I continued on toward my cabana. Suddenly one of the guards came running across the lawn in front of me. As I walked towards my cabana, I noticed a second guard standing over a young Korean, who was lying on the ground, moaning and holding his head. When I arrived on the scene and asked what had happened, I was told that the young man had been trying to break into my room. I noticed that the man had a cut on his head and that it was bleeding. When I asked how the injury had occurred, I was told they had been forced to knock him down. While all of this was taking place, the young man was holding his right side. I took a look, thinking that he might have been shot, but noticed no blood. Thinking that he might have suffered some internal injury when he fell from my terrace, I helped him up and took the man to reception where I asked them to send for a doctor.

In the meantime, the publicist for the film, who was also staying at the hotel on vacation with her husband, had heard the gunshot and had walked into the reception area to see what had happened. I gave the young Korean a drink, made him sit down and tried to find out his name. Once I did that, I asked him where he was staying and who he was with. He told me that he couldn't remember. Knowing that the oriental way of life is such that if you do something wrong, you do not want to admit it for fear of disgracing your family, I figured that he was trying to save face. I went back to the publicist and explained what had happened. The kid didn't look too good and he seemed to be dizzy and unable to focus. I told him that everything would be fine and that a doctor was on his way. As I turned away, one of the guards came up behind the kid and lifted his t-shirt. He looked at his back and walked away. There was something odd here, so I went over to take a look for myself. I noticed a small hole in the shoulder of his t-shirt and I knew what had happened. When I lifted the shirt, I could see the bullet wound that had gone unnoticed before. I now understood the pain in his right side. The bullet had traveled all the way down his side and was now lodged beside his hip. This was why he was faint and dizzy. I told reception that he was in need of a doctor right away and they told me one had already been called for. After waiting for another 20-30 minutes and being promised that the doctor would be there momentarily, I decided that there was nothing that I could do except go to sleep.

Immediately on rising the next day, I went to reception and asked about the young man. I was told that there had not been proper medical attention on the island and that they had taken him by boat to a nearby island. I asked if they had checked all of the hotels to find the group that he was traveling with. I was certain that he had been trying to tell me that he was there with a group of Koreans. They said that they had called several hotels and that none of them knew about this group. Traveling back to Monte Mar, I kept thinking about the young man and couldn't help feeling partly responsible for leaving him to whatever his fate had been. I hoped that it had worked out well, but I had no way of knowing.

Our last stop on our tour of the Philippines was Subic Bay, which was a two to three hour drive from Monte Mar. My driver and I left for Subic with our luggage following. It was always fun going from one place to another because you never knew what you were going to see or what was going to take place. The Philippines definitely had that air of the unexpected. We were cruising along doing about sixty miles an hour. The music was playing and I was engrossed in reading a magazine. Suddenly the car swerved and lurched to the side of the road. For a few seconds the driver fought to get the car under control. When he finally did, we pulled over to find that our front right tire had blown. In the best interest of time, I figured that we should all change the tire together. Making it into a game of how quickly we could do it, we had the spare tire out of the trunk, the lock nuts off, the tire removed and the spare replaced within minutes and we were on our way to Subic once again. It had taken all of 15 minutes. Never a dull moment.

Subic Bay was an old American military base that had been turned into a resort. Once again, our hotel was located by the beach and I spent some of my evenings there because that was the only time that it was cool enough to practice my forms. The scenes that we shot in Subic Bay were the scenes shown at the beginning of the movie. It's the sequence where our team interrupts an arms deal between the French and the Chinese. As we'd never been to the location before, we had to come up with ideas for stunts. The stunt coordiator showed me a couple of ideas that he had and I added my input to try to make it a little more exciting. Unlike The Highlander, Shooter was much more methodical in the way he killed people. The first stunt that I was to do involved dropping through the roof and taking out a guard with a knife attack. Since in reality a jump would be too loud, I thought that it might be interesting to do a tuck and roll through the opening and then drop down silently. This meant that a bar had to be constructed to hold my weight, which seemed to be no problem at all. Originally, the stunt was designed so that it would take place in two segments. I told them that it would be relatively easy to do and would look more realistic if we saw it happen all in one shot. After a few rehearsals, the only problem facing me were the shoes that I was wearing, which gave no support to the heels or ankles. However, they had already been established in a previous scene, so I had to wear them. I would have to land carefully so as not to do myself any damage. It worked like a charm and we filmed it in no time at all. The second stunt, however, was a little trickier. This stunt had me swinging from the arm of a small crane, dropping about seven feet onto concrete behind a guard, and then dispatching him with several knife blows. I thought that this would be a lot of fun to do. During the rehearsals, I used trainers to practice it a few times. I was hoping that I could take the impact in my legs rather than having to count on the shoes saving me from the shock waves of such a fall. Time was running on and we were only able to film a couple of takes before lunch. Now, I should have heeded the old adage, "Never do a stunt after lunch or last thing at night," but sometimes you think these are old wive's tales. I realized later that your body goes through physical changes after you've eaten, thus affecting your timing. On the first take, I swung out on the arm a little harder than before and misjudged the swing of my body. As I let go, instead of landing flat on my feet, I landed on both heels. I thought nothing of it, except for the sharp pain in my feet. On the second take, I screwed up again, almost wiping out entirely on the concrete. Once bitten, twice shy. Finally, on the third and fourth times that we did it, it worked perfectly. The pain in my heels hadn't gone away however, and I realized that I'd either seriously bruised the bone or fractured it. Luckily, it wasn't the latter. After three days of shooting this final sequence, my time on the movie was finally over.

Shooting "DMCD" was one of the most eventful experiences of my career. So many things had happened. Even though some of those things seemed bad at the time, I left with a positive feeling because I had learned a lot about human nature and the failings that we all have. Even through adversity, we all have to find a positive element that we can learn from and live our lives by. There are never problems, only solutions.

I hope you enjoy "DMCD."

Peace
Adrian Paul

[Coolwater]

That business with the "break in" seemed awfully fishy. I'm glad AP was kind to the guy, in spite of being told the kid was a would-be robber.

[brilliant!MacLeod]

I dare say:What else to expect from such a wonderful person as Adrian is!?:D

[irishunicorn65]

Adrian put up with a lot of BS, I'm surprised he didn't walk off sooner than that!
The director didn't sound like a people person and a leader is only the best when he or she listens to those around them. Not only were promises broken, safety of the cast was in question from carelessness of the director.:mad: Adrian was cheated out of his part in the movie!:mad: He said it best at the end that all life experiences good or bad are about learning and growing as a person. I personally
am glad Adrian stayed with the picture.:D
In watching it, I think that the character of Shooter gave more to the film than Adrian thought. I liked the relationship between Adrian, Michael, and Kathleen's characters. I think the ending could have been played out differently. Shooter didn't really want anyone to get hurt based on the choices he made so he did care. Everyone makes mistakes and given the chance can learn from them. I would have written the ending with better judgement.:(

PEACE,

Kellie