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Honolulu Zoo
python may get part
in HBO pilot

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By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Monty Python may be playing a significant role in HBO Pictures' Vietnam War-era pilot "Lessons Learned" that begins 10 days of filming Monday in Maunawili Valley.

Not the group of British comedians known as Monty Python, but the Honolulu Zoo's 20-foot Burmese python. In one of the hourlong pilot's early scenes, an American soldier wakes up to discover that half his arm is down the throat of the snake.

Lessons Learned Inc, the company producing the show, has built a duplicate of the real snake to use in the pilot, which has a cast of about 40 unknown actors in the ensemble, mostly male.

The production company has not made a final decision whether to use the zoo's snake. If the reptile does appear in the film the shooting must be done at the Honolulu Zoo due to the state's quarantine requirements.

Patrick Shane Duncan, who wrote "Courage Under Fire," "Mr. Holland's Opus," "84 Charlie Mopic," a classic Vietnam War genre for television broadcast in the early '80s on HBO, and the Vietnam War Stories series, is writing and directing "Lessons Learned." Dan Kaplow, who worked with Tom Hanks on the HBO series "From Here to the Moon," is producer.

If HBO gives the go-ahead for "Lessons Learned" to become a series -- expected in December -- filming of 12 episodes may begin here next spring. The Maunawili location, the only set for the pilot, has been transformed into an early 1960s Vietnam base camp that includes a survival school and medical area. The stories will center around a survival school in Vietnam and the training the soldiers go through.

The production received approval in July from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to base its main set on state-owned Maunawili property, currently part of a banana farmers' co-op and behind the Luana Hills golf course. The production recently met with neighborhood residents to explain what the filming will entail and to work out procedures to keep residents informed.

Georgette Deemer, Hawaii Film Office manager, praised the "Lessons Learned" script and its writer, Duncan.

"We expect any project coming from HBO to have critical acclaim," Deemer said. "This is a real plum for Hawaii."

In other Hawaii film news, the $100-million-plus "Windtalkers," starring Nicholas Cage and directed by John Woo, completed the Hawaii portion of its production yesterday to return to Los Angeles to finish filming.

And the Tim Burton-directed "The Visitor" -- a sequel of sorts to the "Planet of the Apes" franchise -- has severely scaled back its ambitious shooting schedule, apparently excluding Hawaii from first-unit filming, those scenes where actors are used. However, some second-unit photography is expected here, including background scenes to be used in digital effects.