Beating the Bushes

African bushman N!Xau, star of “The Gods Must Be Crazy,” informed the film makers during the shooting of the recently completed “Gods II” that he’d need a star perk: He’d be taking one cycle of the moon off during the Kalahari rainy season.

True to his word, when the rains came, he disappeared to hunt game for his family. Director Jamie Uys sent out spotter planes in an effort to bring his star back. To no avail. As N!Xau is in virtually every scene of the film, production had to be shut down for a month. He returned on schedule and Weintraub Entertainment, the American producer, expects to see the completed film early in 1988 for release next summer. (Unless it rains.)

In the sequel, the bushman’s returned to his tribe with tales of the outside world that so fascinate them, he’s coerced into taking a group on the equivalent of a sightseeing tour.