THE MICHAEL DOUGLAS FAN PAGE
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The Lion King
By LOUIS B. HOBSON
The Calgary Sun
October 5, 1996


During his 30 years in film, Michael Douglas has shared sets with some pretty temperamental actors. None can compare with Douglas' co-stars in The Ghost And The Darkness.

This time we're not talking Hollywood bad boy Val Kilmer, who shares top billing with Douglas.

"We had five African male lions. Whenever any one or combination of them were on set, the director would yell `lion on set' and the rest of us would make ourselves scarce," recalls Douglas.

Set in 1896 in the Tsavo district of East Africa, The Ghost And The Darkness tells the true story of a pair of male lions who stalked and killed 135 men.

"This is the first and only time in the history of lion lore that this has happened," says Douglas, who also produced the movie.

"Man-eating lions are usually old males too slow to hunt game and they always stalk alone.

"These were two young male lions working together.

"It so shocked the natives that they thought they were ghosts and named them `ghost' and `darkness.' "

Screenwriter William Goldman, who won Oscars for scripting Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and All The President's Men, had been trying to option his script for The Ghost And The Darkness since 1989.

Douglas says: "There was always the problem of the lions. Producers couldn't figure out how to film around such unpredictable creatures.

"We used five lions with various performing skills. One could appear particularly ferocious on command. Another could climb trees and a third would sit still for closeups.

"Bongo and Caesar, the two Canada lions, were raised together from infancy and actually work as a pair. Bong is Ghost and Caesar is Darkness."

Douglas admits his special effects people also used some computer imaging and a mechanical lion for a few of the most difficult shots.

Though he was planning simply to produce the movie, Douglas eventually cast himself in a supporting role of Remington, an American big game hunter who was hired to kill the lions.

Remington brought 30 Samburu warriors to help him track and destroy the lions. Douglas had to find himself 30 of his own Samburu warriors.

"To be a warrior, a Samburu had to have killed either a man or a lion. They're pretty awesome people.

"Our Samburus had never been on an airplane before we flew them from Kenya to the game reserve in South Africa where we were filming. I wanted an authentic relationship with these men so I had them stay near my house."

Douglas used his new-found friends to play a joke on his younger brother Joel.

"The day Joel arrived from L.A., I told him I was throwing a small barbecue for the cast. He was sitting out in the yard when my 30 warriors came out of the jungle. Joel was terrified. I hope they have a similar effect on our audiences."





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