UNIVERSAL
The crew on the set.
ROCK ’n’ roll ’em This wasn't the image the public had of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound wrestler-turned-actor was in a stupor, lying face down in the dirt in Nuuanu and mumbling about a primate.
In spite of a little bloodshed,
'The Rock' just a local boy to crew members
all's heavenly on the set of the film
formerly known as ‘Helldorado’
By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com"Where's the m-u-u-n-k-e-y-y-y-y-y," Johnson yells. "Ohhh nooo! Git outta here m-u-u-n-k-e-y-y-y-y-y... git out ... git out ... git outttt."
When Johnson tries to stand, he collapses.
"I wanna go home," he pleads. "I want some tortellini. Git outta here m-u-u-n-k-e-y-y-y."
Some of the 60 people watching the famous wrestler start to giggle. "Sad," someone says.
"Hilarious, brah," another crew member says.
"What the ... you laughing at," Johnson says, springing to his feet with a smile as he wipes dirt from his pants.
"Cut," director Peter Berg bellows through a megaphone. "Nice one Rock, but let's do it again. This time let's feel some real fear about the monkey."
"I got your fear Peter," Johnson yells back.
There's no "monkey" on set for this sequence in Universal Pictures' $90 million film, which finishes its five-week shooting schedule on Oahu next week before returning to Los Angeles. The L.A.-based baboon -- not monkey -- filmed its scenes a week earlier and those will be merged with today's filming.
So why is Johnson supposed to be in a stupor?
In the film formerly known as "Helldorado," Johnson and co-star Seann William Scott, who plays Travis, are given a fruit with narcotic powers to knock them out while female lead Rosario Dawson escapes into the "Brazilian" forest with a priceless gold relic, the Gato Do Diabo.
The two actors have been rolling around on the Jack Ass Ginger site through several takes. Johnson plays a character who's been hired by a wealthy man to bring his son back to the United States; Scott is in the Amazon looking for the relic, too. Dawson ("Men in Black II"), an Indian rebel, needs the relic to free her people from the control of a bad guy played by Christopher Walken, who forces the natives to work in his gold mine. Their village is El Dorado but they call it Helldorado because it's become such an awful place to live.
JACKASS GINGER is strewn with electrical cables. Several large rectangular helium-filled lighting domes float 50 feet above the set, bringing sparkling daylight to the usually shady rain forest. Ground lights and other machinery are camouflaged by green-and-black netting. A medic, an off-duty windward fireman, keeps busy handing out mosquito spray and ointment.
After the Hawaii filming, the production moves to L.A. to film through Jan. 1, including at the "Helldorado" village at a L.A. dam basin, says producer Kevin Misher, who also worked with Johnson on "The Scorpion King."
The producer describes the film as "Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark" meets "Romancing the Stone" with a little bit of "Midnight Run." He'd been looking for a script that would maximize Rock's profile and show his acting skills.
"The first time we saw Rock and Seann rehearse together we knew there was magic between them," Misher says. "We had to capitalize on it because it's so enjoyable to watch.
Buddy films like "Butch Cassidy" and "Midnight Run" became models for the pair's characters, he said.
"On and off the screen Rock is a really nice guy with a good heart, great integrity and loyal and that comes across here. We see him fight and do action but you'll see him do light comedy and what's wrong if we let him get the girl too."
The film may lead to a "franchise" of films, Misher said.
During a break in filming I ask Scott if Johnson is as called "loyal, with a good heart" as Misher said.
"What!" he yells. "He freakin' knifed me during a scene. That's right, co-star stabbed by 'The Rock'; hold the presses!
"Oh, he'll tell you it was an accident. Does this look like an accident?"
Williams shows a large bandage under his left forearm.
"Major stitches under there, dude," he says. "Peeled me open like a ripe tomato."
In the scene Scott's hands are tied behind his back with twine. Johnson uses a 6-inch blade to snip the cord. Well, that was the plan.
Johnson misjudged the blade's length and sharpness.
"I heard this whoosh just like in a movie when someone gets sliced, except here it was real," Scott said. "Rock was so apologetic and followed me around all day saying he was sorry and I told him 'Dude, it's OK, but that was before the Novocain had worn off," Scott said.
Johnson said, "I felt so bad I got the caterer to make Seann special hamburgers."
Scott, whose break-out film was "American Pie," is a bundle of bouncing, positive energy on set. "I am so happy and blown away to be in Hawaii doing any movie much less with someone like the Rock."
But the actor does get stressed by second guessing finished scenes.
"I'm always thinking maybe I could have made better choices or about what I should do in the next day or next week's work. I don't want to walk away with any regrets."
He grew up in Minnesota where he was a high school athlete who never considered acting until he worked at a movie theater. After graduating from high school, Scott moved to Los Angeles.
"I didn't know what I was doing," he said. "I didn't even know you were supposed to audition for roles; I thought once you got an agent they just hooked you up with a film."
After three years of auditions, Scott, who had been working at California Pizza Kitchen and Home Depot, was hired for "American Pie" through Misher.
"I was always freaked about how to get to an audition since I didn't have a car," he said. "I didn't know the city, didn't have bus fare. Now here I am, living a dream."
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