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Treachery lurks on an Amazon river barge heading unknowingly to its final
destination -- an encounter with a giant Anaconda.
The Brazilian Rainforest possesses its own ancient and paradoxical order.
A beguiling jewel of a jungle, neon birds glitter in its canopy of prehistoric
trees as capricious, nimble monkeys scamper along their branches. Craggy
caimans and sinuous serpents slither into the dark Amazon River. Shimmering
dawns give way to torrid sunsets. Yet this tangle of life quickly becomes
an ominous labyrinth. Danger lurks at every bend of the mighty Amazon and
these exotic residents prove to be as deadly as they are beautiful. At
the top of this complex and powerful food chain is the largest and most
vicious killer snake in the world... the Anaconda.
A documentary film crew enters this mysterious world, armed with cameras,
sound equipment and the optimism of the uninitiated. Headed by anthropologist
Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz), the crew, including director Terri Flores (Jennifer
Lopez), cameraman Danny (Ice Cube), sound mixer Gary (Owen Wilson), production
manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer) and narrator Warren Westridge (Jonathan
Hyde), embarks on a river expedition to find the legendary and undocumented
Shirishama Indians, their boat piloted by the colorful Mateo (Vincent Castellanos).
Along the way, they encounter Paul Sarone (Jon Voight) stranded on a deserted
boat.
A charismatic loner who has lived by his wits in the jungle for years, Sarone
engenders their friendship, if not their complete trust. Nevertheless,
his professed knowledge of the elusive Shirishama tribe entices them. They
follow him down the river, despite their misgivings.
But Sarone has own motives for driving the crew deeper into the river.
He is on his own dark quest to track a lethal 40-foot Anaconda, a predator
so vicious it has become legend, and he will sacrifice anything and anyone
to find this adversary. The expedition becomes a jungle nightmare as Sarone's
obsession leads them directly into the jaws of the ultimate evil, and they
must use every primal resource just to stay alive.
Columbia Pictures presents Anaconda, produced by Verna Harrah, Leonard Rabinowitz
and Carole Little. It is executive produced by Susan Ruskin. The co-producer
is Beau Marks. The film is directed by Luis Llosa and written by Hans Bauer
and Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr. The director of photography is Bill Butler.
The production designer is Kirk M. Petruccelli. The film is edited by
Michael R. Miller.
Eric Stoltz, who has garnered acclaim for his performances in such films
as Pulp Fiction, Mask and Sleep With Me, portrays anthropologist Steven
Cale. "Cale is the one who hires the crew to make a documentary about
a group of unacculturated Indians up the Amazon whom no one's ever really
seen but that have been rumored about for years," the actor notes.
"We set out to do one thing, and fate takes over and we end up with
a much greater adventure than an of us had planned, or packed for. What
happens to this disparate, rag-tag group of people is that they are forced
to get along and help each other in order to survive this adventure."
Cale also shares a complicated relationship with the documentary's director,
Terri Flores, played by Jennifer Lopez, whose recent film work in such films
as Money Train and the forthcoming Blood and Wine and Selena has garnered
the young actor international attention. The part appealed to Lopez because
it offered an opportunity for her to play a character who finds the steely
courage within herself to deal with a danger and treachery she could not
possibly have imagined. "Terri starts out as a documentary film director,
not an action hero," notes Lopez. "This is her first big job
and she really wants to succeed. Then things start to go wrong and she
gives everything she's got just to survive. I think some people are stronger
than others by nature, but they might not realize it until circumstances
force them to find that strength. Through the course of the movie, Terri
finds an inner strength she never knew she had."
The crew reaches a turning point when they pick up a man left stranded in
the river. The man is Paul Sarone (Jon Voight), and the various members
of the crew have different reactions to him. Cameraman Danny, played by
film and music star Ice Cube, immediately suspects that Sarone is trouble.
"Danny doesn't like him from the very beginning," notes Ice Cube,
who has garnered acclaim for his work in such films as On Deadly Ground,
Friday and Boyz in the Hood. "Sarone is a stranger. And a thumb on
the side of the road or in a boat on the Amazon River is still a hitchhiker.
He charms everybody. He can fish, he can cook, he's a river man, but he
doesn't fool Danny. The real snake in the movie is Sarone and my character
knows it."
Veteran actor Jon Voight, who was most recently seen in opposite Tom Cruise
in the blockbuster Mission Impossible and John Singleton's Rosewood, stars
as the brutal, enigmatic Paul Sarone, whose fanatical hunt for the giant
Anaconda leads him and the documentary film crew he commandeers into a realm
of terror. "To me, the Anaconda snake is a symbol of evil," notes
director Luis Llosa. "We also have in the film a character who also
symbolizes evil, and that is Paul Sarone. When he gets on the boat with
the film crew, everything changes. Every character is affected in a terrible
way by this man. People who were every-day good people discover that there
is a tortured dark side they didn't know they had, but which is brought
out by this character. I don't think the documentary crew ever feel comfortable
about his presence because of his strange, wild mystery."
Voight concurs, noting that "Sarone shares many characteristics with
the Anaconda. He has a strange attraction and a kind of identification
with the snake. Everything in nature fits into a kind of puzzle that the
snake has its place in. In this film, Sarone has his place in the puzzle.
It was fun to play him because he's set up to be a classic villain. One
hopes he will become memorable for his particular kind of insanity."
Owen Wilson, who made a memorable feature debut in the quirky hit Bottle
Rocket, which he also co-wrote, appears as Gary the sound mixer, whose reaction
to Sarone is the opposite of Danny's. "Gary kind of looks up to him,
thinks he's cool," says Wilson. "So, Sarone takes him under his
wing and uses him as a tool to take over command of the boat."
"At the outset, Professor Cale is in charge of the boat," Ice
Cube explains. "He's overseeing the documentary and he's leading the
charter. But when things start getting bad, Terri has to take over and
all this time Sarone is trying to sabotage the trip. There is a power struggle
way before the snake ever comes into the picture."
A turning point in the film comes when the party blows up a dam, leaving
a trail of destruction, including the habitat of hundreds of baby snakes,
in its wake. "Snakes literally rain down on us," says Wilson.
"We've upset the ecological balance of this part of the river, and
that's when things start to turn bad."
"There is a subtle message in this film," says Kari Wuhrer, who
has most recently appeared in the films Thinner and The Crossing Guard.
Wuhrer plays production manager Denise Kalberg. "It says that we're
down here in the Amazon messing around with what is the most awesome, incredible
power on the planet: the Amazon Jungle. I think that just by showing the
awesome beauty of this place, this film might open a few eyes about just
what we're toying with when we talk about burning it down. There also could
be hidden dangers."
Voight concurs: "Cale and his documentary crew want to go in and find
this tribe of people for whom the snakes are guardians. Their egos drive
them. Their curiosity drives them. And in the end of the movie, we realize
that all the disasters that have accompanied this journey have probably
taken place because of an irreverence on the part of the members of this
group. Some of them have been noble enough to have the right ideas at certain
times. But others are lost in this sacred world. It becomes a story about
how people grow to an understanding.
Rounding out the cast are Jonathan Hyde, who most recently starred as the
ferocious hunter in Jumanji and the forthcoming epic Titanic, as documentary
narrator Warren Westridge; and acclaimed stage actor Vincent Castellanos
appears as the colorful Mateo, who captains the boat that takes the crew
up the river.
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