Word: dicaprios
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...film is based on British writer Alex Garland's acclaimed novel about a remote island paradise settled by a commune of world travelers, with disastrous results. Local environmentalists claim the landscape has been just as disastrously damaged by the film crew. DiCaprio has been an irresistible target of criticism from some media-savvy Thai activists and newspapers (the more artsy protesters performed skits in Leo masks decorated with fangs dripping blood), and the actor complains that he's been unjustly painted as an ecovillain. "It's a stab on my reputation if I'm associated with a film that comes...
...effort to show good faith, DiCaprio has issued spin-control statements, done photo ops with Buddhist monks and praised the quality of Thai cuisine. Still, the controversy rages on. Daily tabloids--yes, they have them in Thailand too--print reports that he's got his female co-star pregnant (although amused, she denies it), that he's been rude to young fans and that he's so paranoid about being poisoned that he's hired food tasters. "This is something I probably have to get used to--lies culminating in something much more hysterical and out of hand," he says...
...ongoing ecology debate is only one of the challenges that the actor is having to face as he undertakes to carry his first movie alone as a major star. On one particular day in early February, for example, some of the friends who regularly travel with DiCaprio are missing in the park, and one of the star's brawny bodyguards frantically screams out their names while searching for them; they're eventually found unharmed. During another crazed moment, about a dozen save-the-forest protesters attempt to rush onto the set but are held back by armed officials. Meanwhile, studio...
...DiCaprio wasn't the first choice for the role. In the novel, Richard is a Brit, and Boyle had planned to cast Ewan McGregor, the young Scottish actor who appeared in all three of his earlier films (and who stars as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming Star Wars prequel, The Phantom Menace). However, DiCaprio had expressed strong interest in working with Boyle ever since they crossed paths at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996. DiCaprio had recently made The Basketball Diaries, a dark indie film about heroin addicts, while Boyle was there with Trainspotting, a light indie...
...American going into Southeast Asia and mucking it up for everybody was pretty irresistible," Boyle explains. "It gave the story added frisson." Nabbing this particular American for the lead also instantly added to the profile of the film, and to the cost of making it. Boyle had tentatively approached DiCaprio before Titanic came out, but by the time serious negotiations got going, the star's asking price had soared to $20 million, effectively doubling the film's budget...