Fierce Creatures - About The Production (2023)

Fierce Creatures: About The Production

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In referring to this reunion of Wanda talent, Kevin Kline dubs Fierce Creaturesan equal, not a sequel" to the 1988 film. His co-star and co-writerof both films, John Cleese, had no desire to attempt to make Wanda 2. "Ithought about it very briefly," Cleese admits, "but I enjoy writingnew characters and almost every sequel made is a disappointment. At thesame time, if you've got a really good team, why not work together again?"

The idea to reunite the team was broached during the making of Wanda, butit was when Cleese began visiting Gerald Durrell's world-renowned wildlifepreservation trust in Jersey, England that the story really began to takeshape.

"John was very inspired by Durrell's work in Jersey," adds Fierceco-writer, British film critic lain Johnstone. "We also shared a mutualdistaste for the mindless expansion of modern media conglomerates and sothe idea came together fairly neatly about a conflict between two valuesystems-without wishing to say that all people who work in zoos are goodor that all those who work in multi-media corporations are evil and shouldbe destroyed."

A third element of the story actually came out of a comedy playhouse scriptwritten by Michael Palin and Terry Jones pre-Monty Python, but never commissioned."They had an idea for a half-hour comedy about a zoo where people wereonly interested in big and frightening animals, where a keeper ended upstretching his snake because it had to be six foot long and it was onlyfive foot nine inches. I never read the script but even though it was over25 years ago, I never forgot the idea," explains Cleese.

Michael Palin was only too happy to contribute to the new film: "I'mdelighted that it's being used as we weren't going to do anything with it.It's a nice idea and especially nowadays it has a grain of truth."

The various strands of the story slowly began to come together althoughnot without meticulous research by Cleese and Johnstone, friends since theyfirst met back in 1975 when Johnstone was commissioned by the BBC to profileCleese for the second series of Fawlty Towers.

But was it easy seven years later to reassemble the cast and crew, manyof whom had gone on to tremendous international success? According to producerMichael Shamberg, who recently produced the phenomenally successful GetShorty, starring John Travolta, it was a piece of cake. "John's beendiscussing this since we first made Wanda, and once he told everyone hewas ready to do it, they just said 'Tell me when and I'll be there,'"recalls Shamberg.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline have come a long way since playing Wandaand Otto, with Curtis having starred on the big screen opposite Mel Gibsonin Forever Young and Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies and on the televisionseries Anything But Love and in the TV-movie The Heidi Chronicles, and Klineco-starring opposite Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Meg Ryan in the filmsConsenting Adults and French Kiss, respectively. Yet both were only tookeen to rejoin the team.

"I wanted to come back to a place I had enjoyed. No one writes likeJohn and I enjoyed our collaboration so much on Wanda, I welcomed the opportunityto continue where we had left of{" says Kline. "It would havebeen hard not to come back," agrees Curtis. "We had a great experiencethe first time and it was a big success for all of us professionally, financiallyand personally."

The only potential problem lay with Michael Palin who was about to embarkon a nine month journey around the Pacific Rim for another exciting seriesof his award winning BBC television travel programs. And in fact when principalphotography finished at the end of August 1995 and the rest of the castjetted off for well-earned holidays, Palin had just four days to pack hisbags and set off for Siberia.

Cleese and Johnstone were also very keen to ensure that as well as a completelynew storyline, the four lead characters themselves were different enoughfrom the Wanda roles to challenge the actors and entertain the audiencewhile still retaining the quirkiness and charm that proved to be so irresistiblethe first time around.

For Kevin Kline, playing the dual roles of both father and son, Rod andVince McCain in Fierce Creatures was a challenge he relished: "Vinceis one of those characters that John writes brilliantly. He's a man wholives in a separate reality and when he brings his set of values to bearon the real world, you get a potentially comic situation. He's gotten ahold of a lot of bad information which he has completely absorbed, and ofcourse he is his father's son. Rod you don't get to know too well and that'sthe way he likes it."

John Cleese describes Jamie Lee Curtis' character of Willa Weston as "theemotional heart of the movie, the anchor of the story." Adds Curtis,"Willa is an ambitious executive who has worked her way up the corporateladder without realizing where her real values lie. Then she arrives atthe zoo and she starts changing. She is the character that takes the audienceon the emotional journey of the film."

Michael Palin faced perhaps the greatest change from his role in the firstfilm with his new character, Adrian 'Bugsy' Malone: "With Ken (in Wanda),I had a fairly easy time of it in that I had hardly one line of dialoguethroughout the entire movie. And so I think it tickled John that insteadof someone who stammered, he would write me a part where the character neverstops talking although no one listens. John has always had a view of meas someone who talks a lot. During Python he wrote that I 'talked on andon and on,' and that 'when the ground is littered with the hind legs ofdonkeys, he goes home and writes up his diary."

Iain Johnston describes one of his greatest contributions to the film aspersuading John Cleese to create a character who was "less of a wimpthan Archie in Wanda!! I felt that people wanted to see John doing the thingsthat the public loves him for, being bossy, getting cross, playing the uprightcontrolling individual who is brought to his knees by events, and this isvery much how Rollo turned out."

Cleese agrees: "Rollo is slightly military and desperately trying toget everything under control, a public school figure who starts implodingwhen things go wrong. That seems to be the type of character I enjoy writing.I think it's because authority figures when they begin to fall apart aremuch funnier than insignificant figures. But he's a lot more grown up thansome of the characters I have played in the past."

The commitment of the four stars to the project was never more evident thanwhen, after an early preview of a rough cut of the film, it was clear thatFierce Creatures needed work. Although audiences loved the premise and thecharacters and found the film very funny, they did not find the resolutionsatisfying. This was not something unfamiliar to Cleese, Shamberg and company;they had been down a similar road before at early previews of A Fish CalledWanda when they had to re-shoot the ending twice. With the studio's blessingand the eager cooperation of the principals, it was decided that the FierceCreatures company would reassemble for additional shooting just as soonas all four leads were available which, due to Michael Palin's BBC seriesPalin 's Pacific, turned out not to be for eight months.

Meanwhile, every one had other commitments, and when the re-shoot dateswere finally agreed upon, the film's original director, Robert Young hadstarted another movie. Cleese and Shamberg were faced with the prospectof finding a new director. As luck would have it, Fred Schepisi, the veryesteemed filmmaker responsible for such films as Roxanne, A Cry in the Darkand more recently, the motion picture adaptation of John Guare's play SixDegrees of Separation, was talking to Cleese about playing Don Quixote in1997. Schepisi was captivated by the premise and agreed to helm the additionalscenes. He was joined by his longtime collaborators, cinematographer IanBaker and Academy Award®-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith, who ultimatelyscored the film.

In addition to the four principals, Fierce Creatures welcomes a large castof respected and well-known actors, many playing the eclectic zoo keepers.Cleese is a firm believer in what he refers to as "casting up" meaning to cast the finest actors possible no matter the size of the rolein order to achieve a rich and diverse group of characters.

Ronnie Corbett, who plays Reggie Sea Lions, is a household name in Britishtelevision and has known John Cleese since working together in 1966 on TheFrost Report. Carey Lowell, who plays big cat keeper Cub, is perhaps bestknown as the 'Bond Girl' from License to Kill, although most recently sheappeared with Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas and was seen briefly asTom Hanks' wife in Sleepless in Seattle. Robert Lindsay, best known forhis Tony Award-winning role in the Broadway and London stage musical Meand My Girl, as well as the British TV series GBH and Jake 's Progress,plays small mammal keeper Sydney Small Mammals, the rebellious leader ofthe keeper group.

Sydney's assistant Pip is played by Cynthia Cleese, the daughter of JohnCleese and actress Connie Booth. Having played Archie's daughter in Wanda,she portrays the most idealistic and sensitive of all the keepers. RichardRidings, who plays Hugh Primates, first worked with John Cleese in Clockwiseand then again in Erik the Viking where he played a 'Nordic psychopath.'

Maria Aitken, who played Archie's wife Wendy in A Fish Called Wanda, isback as Di, the zoo's well-meaning, mild mannered PA. Australian actor BillyBrown, who plays Rod McCain's assistant Nev, was discovered by Cleese, Youngand Johnstone when they watched the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford,where they had gone to meet Derek Griffiths about the role of Gerry. Cleeseand Griffiths had worked together in TV in the '70s.

Since the casting of the animals themselves was certainly as important asthe casting of the actors, the filmmakers brought in film and televisionanimal expert Rona Brown, who has worked and cared for animals in filmsranging from Doctor Doolittle to Gorillas in the Mist to Mary Reilly. Creatingan entire zoo for Fierce Creatures, and filling it with exotic animals hasbeen her most exciting and daunting challenge to date.

Says Brown: "John liked the sound of animals with weird names suchas a capybara, but then we started going through the list and some, suchas the bandicoot, were only available in Tasmania. Eventually we came upwith a combination of animals that were accessible which he liked and whichI knew would work well together and would enjoy filming."

The final head count totaled 11 5 animals including two Siberian tigers,a lion, a leopard, a panther, llamas, zebras, baboons, sea lions, a camel,meerkats, lemurs, coatis, a baby ostrich, maras, wallabys, a python, a lamb,a goat and two red-kneed tarantulas.

But for both Brown and the producers it wasn't just the availability ofthe animals that had to be taken into consideration, it was their well-being."When I first began working with Fish Productions I sent them a hugelist of requirements for the animals expecting to have to haggle, but theyagreed to everything I asked for. They didn't compromise once. I think theanimals probably had better living conditions and food than the actors andcrew!" says Brown.

John Cleese is quick to address the importance of animal welfare: "Ifyou're doing a film about treating animals with respect, that's what youhave to do! So you need to have someone there who can say when the animalis tired or bored."

Producer Michael Shamberg readily agrees: "It was fun working withthe animals and I think it will be fun for the audience watching them. Butwe've made a comedy which supports animals. Our comedic points are not attheir expense, but reinforce the ideas behind conservation."

In particular, the principal animal actors are the cuddly five: the coati,lemur, baby ostrich, baby wallaby and mara, all of which had acting doubles(four for the lemur), as did Terry the tarantula. And Rona Brown frequentlyinvited the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)to inspect the set and the animals' quarters.

Where it proved difficult or impractical to achieve certain scenes withreal animals, animatronic experts Asylum and Animated Extras were calledin to produce animatronic animals including gorillas, a rhino, an anteaterand a coati.

Rona Brown was quite impressed with all the actors who voluntarily spenta great deal of preparation time with their charges, particularly RobertLindsay whose coati was one of the most unpredictable animals to handle,and Michael Palin who was very at home with his tarantula. It was, however,John Cleese who she claims not only had the greatest empathy with the animals.He even sent in his underwear so that the animals could get used to hissmell.

"It's true," admits Cleese, "I wore slightly old stuffy flannelvests and sweated into them dutifully for several nights before handingthem over to Rona who distributed them among the coatis, lemurs and maras!Then when they saw me coming, they thought 'Ah, I know him."'

As much of the action takes place in the fictional Marwood Zoo, a greatdeal of thought was given as to whether to film at existing zoos or to builda replica set. "I visited 30 or 40 zoos around the UK but it quicklybecame apparent that it would just not be practical to attempt the bulkof the filming in a real zoo, both geographically and for the welfare ofthe animals," says production designer Roger Murray-Leach.

So it was decided to build a zoo set at Pinewood Studios where, apart froma few days at Marwell Zoo in Southern England and the Jersey Wildlife PreservationTrust, the majority of all zoo scenes were to be filmed. Leach continues:"Originally it was just the sea lion pool, the theme park and the tigerenclosure, but the zoo grew and grew."

Building a zoo presented its own problems. "With an actor you can sayplease don't lean on that wall, but when you've got two 700 lb. tigers whichsuddenly decide they've had enough, you've got to be confident that theset will hold them," Leach explains.

The zoo was built with the advice of Rona Brown, animal trainer Jim Clubband to very rigid government guidelines. The end result Leach describesas a "civil engineering job." Covering three acres of ground,it is one of the largest and most ambitious sets ever created.