Quaid takes ‘Flight’ to desert and seems to be enjoying it

When Dennis Quaid first found out he’d be spending four months filming in the African desert, he had his doubts.

“I was really hesitant about coming up here, to tell you the truth, because it’s all sand,” he said during a break in shooting for a remake of the 1965 action adventure “The Flight of the Phoenix.”

“But it turns out to be a really great place. The people are fantastic, and there’s a lot to do.”

The movie, set in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, is being filmed in the colorful Namib dunes, south of Swakopmund, a pleasant, palm-lined seaside resort full of restaurants and outdoor cafes.

Quaid is staying in a luxury beachfront home.

On his way to and from the set, he zips up and down the dunes on a quad bike provided by the producers -- something, he said, “they are probably regretting.”

In the film, Quaid’s plane crashes in the desert, and the survivors try to build a new aircraft from the wreckage.

“It’s a really great story. It’s a story of hope and survival,” he said in between quick bites of lunch -- curry, samosas and nan bread -- in his trailer. “It was one of my favorite movies as a kid, actually.”

But when he had another look at the original, starring James Stewart, he noticed there was little action and few special effects.

“As far as today’s standards go, there’s a lot more that can be done,” particularly with the plane crash and sandstorms, he said.

While this isn’t the first Hollywood production to come to Swakopmund, the movie has created a stir in the small town in southern Africa. Quaid regularly appears on the front pages of local newspapers, and residents swap tales of cast sightings.

John Moore (“Behind Enemy Lines”) is directing the movie, which will be released this year.