LARA'S MANNEQUIN
EXPLOITS
Copyright 2000 Straits Times Thailand Bureau Source:
Yahoo News
[ November 29th 2000 ]
Confirmation
that Tomb Raider has begun its filming schedule
in Cambodia's Angkor Wat was confirmed today by
this report fresh of the presses of Straits Times
Thailand Bureau
Hollywood
star Angelina Jolie must make a strange sight
to devotees visiting the temples in and around
Cambodia's Angkor Wat. Dressed in a tight black
cat suit, her muscles taut after months of fitness
training, visitors could be forgiven for casting
a second glance at the person tipped to become
the next screen goddess as she shoots her new
movie Tomb Raider.
Oscar-winner
Angelina is playing Lara Croft, the well-proportioned,
gun-toting kick-boxer known to millions of teenagers
as the heroine of the computer game of the same
name. Tomb Raider is now being transferred to
the big screen by Paramount Pictures at a rumoured
cost of more than US$100 m (S$175 m). There is
not a single person in or around the temple complex
who does not know that Hollywood and its big bucks
have arrived in Angkor Wat after a 36-year break.
A fake grass-hut village has been built in the
shadows of the temple and everywhere Angelina
films, she is followed by an army of vehicles,
film assistants, Cambodian set staff and burly
British bodyguards determined to stop even the
most enthusiastic of tourists from snapping a
picture of their charge.
Outside
the Bayon Temple, famous for its 172 smiling head
statues, The Straits Times watched Angelina shoot
one scene in which she and her Land-Rover have
just landed by parachute. On touch-down she accelerates
away through water and mud while director Simon
West looked on and called for re-takes. The previous
day, the crew filmed a sun-set scene from a hill
overlooking Angkor Wat as Angelina, this time
dressed in a green jump suit, scoped the scene
through binoculars. Afterwards she was heard telling
the director that she already had the sequel in
her sights.
"I'm
looking forward to doing the second of this already,''
she said. Movie-makers say the film features both
above and underground scenes. Many of those above
ground will be filmed in Cambodia and Iceland
while the rest of the scenes will be shot in Britain's
Pinewood Studios. The fact that director West,
best known for his film Con Air starring Nicholas
Cage, managed to secure the rights to shoot at
Angkor is something of a coup - but is also a
reflection of the renewed confidence outsiders
have in Cambodia.
Tomb
Raider is the first movie to be shot since Lord
Jim back in 1964. But the country then succumbed
to decades of civil war and the brutal years of
the Khmer Rouge. The damage those conflicts wreaked
on Cambodia's infrastructure has made Tomb Raider
a difficult movie to shoot. Truck-loads of hired
film equipment had to be brought in from Thailand
along a road renowned for the size of its pot
holes. The army had been employed to repair bridges
ahead of the convoy's arrival. Hundreds of Cambodians
have also been employed to act as villagers or
to help shift equipment and make sets.
The local
economy has received a financial boost from the
film makers who are paying $10,000 per day for
the right to shoot, hugely benefiting those who
usually scrape by on just a few dollars a day.
Conservation work at the Angkor temples will also
start with the money from the film-makers.
|