Sneaks Stuffers

NOT-SO-STUPID PET TRICKS

For DreamWorks’ “Mousehunt,” animal trainer Boone Narr trained 60 mice for the production, each to do specific trick. The aptly named Catzilla was played by four cats. In the grand tradition of Hollywood temperament, the mice refused to work on the same set as Catzilla.

In “Mr. Magoo,” Angus the dog, Mr. Magoo’s personal valet, is played in the film by four English bulldogs. The dogs had a wardrobe consultant, who bought their costumes off the rack in children’s departments and then tailored them to fit a bulldog’s physique.

Meanwhile, in “As Good as It Gets,” the dog that plays the central character of Verdell, was trained to be comfortable with the noises and commotion of a movie set. But that led to a problem: When it came time to shoot a scene in which Verdell was supposed to look scared, the dog was entirely at ease. In the end, the filmmakers had to bring in another dog--an amateur--to look frightened.

CASA DE COPPOLA

Before filming began on “John Grisham’s The Rainmaker,” director Francis Ford Coppola had the whole cast up to his home in Napa for rehearsal. All the actors took part in theater games and improvisations that continued on into during principal photography.

VERITE ON THE SET

For Universal’s “For Richer or Poorer,” starring Kirstie Alley and Tim Allen as two New Yorkers in trouble with the IRS who flee to Amish country, producers needed 50 authentic Amish buggies. They found them at a huge auction in Lancaster County, Pa., where they bought 40 buggies along with a dozen farm wagons. The Amish wardrobe used in the film was found in storage--it had been used by Harrison Ford and others in the 1985 film “Witness.”

In Gillian Armstrong’s period romance “Oscar and Lucinda,” Ralph Fiennes, as Oscar, is transporting a glass church across the Australian outback and, to do this, must float the church down a small river. Since the water was too low, the crew had the locals make sandbags and dam up the river to get enough water. But the night before the shoot, it rained and the river went up 4 feet, submerging the pier where Oscar is supposed to land the church. In the film, there are close-ups of the actors supposedly walking along the pier shaking hands, but in reality they are slushing through knee-high water.

SET PIECES

In Disney’s “Flubber,” Robin Williams plays a professor who invents an anti-gravity material--flubber--that he uses in shoes that jump amazing heights and in a modified Model T that flies, at one point carrying Williams high over his town. A miniature set of the town measured 50 feet square. A typical model house was 2 feet high, each surrounded by miniature picket fences, barbecues and basketball hoops. There were working traffic and street lights.

The primary set of “Great Expectations” was circus tycoon John and Mable Ringling’s Venetian Gothic mansion on Sarasota Bay (known as Ca d’Zan), Fla., which serves as the crumbling residence and estates of Anne Bancroft’s Ms. Dinsmoor.

CEL BLOCK

The “Anastasia” team used a computer to incorporate an actual watercolor self-portrait done by Anastasia when she was 8 years old. The drawing was taken from one of the many research books the filmmakers gathered during pre-production.

When “The Little Mermaid” was originally released in 1989, it grossed an astounding $84 million domestically and $101 internationally, ushering in the newest golden era of Disney feature animation.

Though the movie “Flubber” is live action, the flubber itself is animated--at one point, it even dances the mambo. Flubber animators took mambo lessons for three weeks to learn the moves they used in the dance sequence.

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE GRANDDAUGHTER

In Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun,” released by Disney, Tenzin Chodon Gyalpo is the real-life granddaughter of the character she plays, the Dalai Lama’s mother. Some 30,000 meters of fabric were used in making monks robes and ceremonial dressings; 178 wigs were created for the film.

BOTH SIDES OF THE CAMERA

Director Mike Figgis frequently pops up in small roles in his films. He was a mobster in “Leaving Las Vegas” and plays a hotel clerk in his newest, New Line Cinema’s “One Night Stand.”

Though Wes Craven appeared as a “Freddy”-like janitor in “Scream,” the director won’t be seen in “Scream 2.” His cameo as a stylish emergency room doctor is on the cutting-room floor.

“Good Will Hunting” director Gus Van Sant, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, did the painting of a lone man rowing a boat on a stormy sea that figures prominently in a scene between stars Matt Damon and Robin Williams.

‘Q’ TIP

James Bonds may come and go, but the “Q” factor remains constant. Desmond Llewelyn has appeared as the gadget meister in 16 James Bond movies, beginning with “Goldfinger” in 1964 and continuing with the latest, MGM’s “Tomorrow Never Dies.”

KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

Eight-year-old Alex D. Linz lost his baby teeth during the four-month production of Fox’s “Home Alone 3.” When his two front teeth became loose, the production company called on Los Angeles dentist Robert Smith, who has perfected a special dental prosthetic called a “flipper.” Alex wore this retainer--on which his real tooth was glued--for the remainder of the filming.

It was easy being green--director Alfonso Cuaron’s favorite color--on the set of “Great Expectations.” Donna Karan designed Gwyneth Paltrow’s wardrobe in shades of green, and the 150 extras appearing in one scene were told to wear combinations of black and green.

For her role as the wealthy and bitter Ms. Dinsmoor in “Great Expectations,” Anne Bancroft spent four hours in makeup each day. The aging process, though, was achieved without prosthetics. Instead, makeup artist Manlio Rocchetti used latex and stretched Bancroft’s skin.

Eighty-six-year-old actress Gloria Stuart had to put on two hours of aging makeup before her scenes in “Titanic” to play a 101-year-old survivor of the passenger liner’s sinking.

SHE SHOOTS, SHE SCORES

Sigourney Weaver trained intensively for two weeks with former UCLA basketball player Nigel Miguel for a key scene in “Alien Resurrection,” in which Weaver’s Ripley must subdue a crew of space smugglers using her guts, wits, strength and a basketball. Weaver learned how to do layups, hook shots and dribbling routines. As the camera rolled, Weaver tossed the ball backward from 21 feet down court and sunk a basket.

There was a frantic search to find the famous queen alien for “Alien Resurrection.” Last seen in the 1986 “Aliens,” the dormant molds from which the queen were born were locked in storage and the giant life-scale puppet was missing. Finally, “Alien” effects designers Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis located her in the possession of “Alien” collector Bob Burns, who kindly lent her back to her creators for the film.

SCENES FROM THE BALKANS

Michael Winterbottom’s “Welcome to Sarajevo” was shot on location in 1996, the city’s first peaceable summer since 1992. For most of the local crew, working on the film marked the first time in years they had eaten three meals a day. In fact, Emira Nuseveic, a 10-year-old resident who had been chosen to play a young orphan, had to cut back on her visits to craft services because she was gaining weight and looking like a healthy child.

VOICE-OVER ARTIST

Minnie Driver (“Sleepers,” “Grosse Pointe Blank”) auditioned in three different accents--Irish, American and English--for “Good Will Hunting.” Director Gus Van Sant decided to have Driver use her normal English accent, the first time she’s used her natural voice in an American picture.

WE KNOW WHAT THEY DID LAST SUMMER

Jerry O’Connell was the unofficial bard on the set of “Scream 2.” The actor composed a poem for every special occasion, including director Wes Craven’s birthday.

The city of Atlanta fell so in love with Courteney Cox during the filming of “Scream 2” that every morning the Atlanta Constitution’s Peach Buzz column featured an update on the star.

FILL ‘ER UP?

Kevin Costner’s “The Postman” may take place in a post-apocalyptic America, but it’s comforting to see some remnants of our beloved 20th century culture in the photo booklet produced by Warner Bros. Costner’s postman character is shown peeking out of a giant Union 76 ball (last seen so memorably in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”).

--Compiled by Susan King, Amy Wallace and Robert W. Welkos