UNDERWATER WORLD:- The first phase of shooting on submarine thriller U-571 has been completed at Rome's Cinecitta Studios, heat visited the cramped sets of the $100 million WWII film, which is scheduled for summer 2000 release, and talked to stars Jon Bon Jovi and Matthew McConaughey. "I'm claustrophobic," said rocker turned actor, who plays Lt Pete Emmett, engaged on a mission to capture the infamous Enigma encryption device from a Nazi U-boat. "Even though the sets were built 15 per cent larger than normal, I've been facing my fear everyday." Production has now moved to an open-air tank in malta for six weeks. "I've veered away from action movies", adds Bon Jovi, " but this was a real character piece - an American Das Boot."
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The British are unhappy with Universal Studios' plan for a World War II movie about Americans who captured a piece of Hitler's encryption equipment and were able to break Nazi codes. What's bothering the Brits, explains the BBC, is that the feat was actually accomplished by the British Navy. Charles Baker-Cresswell, whose father commanded the Royal Navy destroyer that captured the machine, called the movie's twisting of history ``typical. . . . We've seen this time and time again.'' Universal says that the movie, with Harvey Keitel and Jon Bon Jovi, will not be advertised as fact but as fiction ``based on real events.'' The British Navy's official response is that ``it is unfortunate, but it is not the first time, and I am sure it will not be the last, that Hollywood has distorted history.'' - San Francisco Chronicle
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BON JOVI'S SUBMARINE MOVIE BACK ON COURSE (MAR. 7)
WENN - THIRD -
HOLLYWOOD, SHOWBIZ & PEOPLE NEWS - Rocker JON BON JOVI's new war movie
U-571 is back on course after a major script and cast overhaul. Filming on the $80 million
movie, producer DINO DE LAURENTIIS' 600th, got underway last summer (98) in Malta when
a marine filming team from TITANIC started pre-production shooting in new giant water tanks at
the Mediterranean Film Studios.
But since then, the names of original stars HARRISON FORD,
NICOLAS CAGE and MICHAEL DOUGLAS have been replaced by Bon Jovi and a younger
cast - and the script has been re-written five times.
Filming in Malta, which began last week, is
said to be on schedule and "a lot of fun" with De Laurentiis returning to the island where he
filmed ORCA THE KILLER WHALE in the 1970s.
Four life-size submarines have been built for
the purpose of the movie, which follows the story of the underwater struggle between Germany
and the Allies in World War Two.