California storms bring
‘Shaggy Dog’ to Oahu
for a day

"And on the last day, let the shaggy dog get tubed ... so I sayeth!" actor Tim Allen utters after completing a scene at Waimea Bay for the remake of Walt Disney Picture's "The Shaggy Dog."

The bearded collie will be tubed in a Waimea Bay curl thanks to a special-effects team back in Hollywood and shots of flawless 12-foot waves at the famed surf spot on Tuesday.

"A real dog could get killed out there!" Allen joked to co-star Kristin Davis between scenes.

Allen, 51, and Davis, 40, portray the married Douglases in the film. Davis played innocent girl-next-door Charlotte York on HBO's "Sex and the City."

The two were joined for the single day of shooting by New Yorkers Zena Grey, 16, who plays the couple's daughter, and Spencer Breslin, 12, the son.

Allen's character turns into the family dog in the film, a remake of a 1959 Disney film starring Fred MacMurray and Tommy Kirk, who played the teenager who turned into a sheepdog every now and then.

In this version, set for a summer 2006 release, Allen, who played Santa Claus in two films, is a workaholic who promised to take his family on a Hawaiian vacation for several years but never came through. Then suddenly, he starts turning into the mutt.

TIM RYAN / TRYAN@STARBULLETIN.COM Tourists watch the filming of "The Shaggy Dog" at Waimea Bay.

THE "SHAGGY DOG" production brought 24 crew members from Los Angeles while hiring about 50 locals, said producer Bill Fay, who also produced "Godzilla" here.

Although an Oahu finale had been in the original script by Allen and Matt Carroll, the production planned, up to about three weeks ago, to use a Malibu site to save money.

Director Brian Robbins, Fay and Allen fought for the Hawaii shoot and finished filming a day early in California to save enough money to shoot here. It's unusual for a major production to shoot principal photography in Hawaii for one day because of the expense involved, although Fay says the day at the beach cost the production "well under $500,000."

"The studio has been very happy with the film, and the weather has been so awful in California that we were concerned if we had tried to film the beach scene there and had to postpone it, we could have ended up spending more," Fay said. "And there's no way to really get California to match Hawaii."

Robbins agreed: "Either you write a new ending to the movie or come to Hawaii, because you're never going to fake this."

A major factor in coming was the quality of Hawaii crew.

"I knew firsthand from doing part of 'Godzilla' here that the high quality of Hawaii crew meant we only had to bring minimal crew from L.A.," Fay said. "We would have brought even fewer if (local crew) weren't so busy with other productions."

TIM RYAN / TRYAN@STARBULLETIN.COM Stars Tim Allen (left), in center, and Kristin Davis (right) , on left, were on location with the crew and their assistants.

Last week's filming was the 63rd and last day of shooting.

"You always want to finish in Hawaii," Fay said.

Scenes included shore-break kisses between Allen and Davis, their kids tossing a Frisbee for an imaginary dog, and sunset shots. None of the several dogs used in the production made the Hawaii trip.

Allen, sources said, thought the original "Shaggy Dog" film was terrible.

"The memory of it is better than the movie," he said in a recent article.

Robbins said Allen's dog impersonations have been "hysterical."

"People forget what dogs do, and then when you see a human being like Tim do it, it's hysterical since all rules are out," he said. "As a dog, Tim can't concentrate very long, like, if there's food in the room. When he has to take a leak, well, he does."

Allen says playing a dog enables him to see humans from a very different perspective.

"I get to be a fly on the wall. ... Sometimes I growl. It's got big room for comedy for me."

Robbins, who had only visited the Big Island and Maui in the past, was so taken by the North Shore that during the filming he spent a lot of time on the phone negotiating to buy a house near the point at Waimea Bay.

"I'm going to call Brian Grazer to say I want to direct 'Blue Crush 2 and 3' straight to video so I can walk to work," Robbins said. "Not a bad career move."