Sci-Fi Wire
DATE: 2002/01/11
URL: Sci-Fi Wire.comSci-Fi Wire.com
Dacascos Fights Wolf
Mark Dacascos, the American-born actor who co-stars in Brotherhood of the Wolf, told SCI FI Wire that some of his martial-arts fight scenes were abbreviated for the movie. In the French film, Dacascos (The Crow: Stairway to Heaven) plays an Iroquois warrior and the companion of an 18th-century scientist investigating a series of hideous murders in rural France.
"That first fight scene is only one-third of what we actually shot," Dacascos said in an interview. "If you get the special-edition DVD, that has as far as I know all three sequences of the fight scene. We shot for almost two weeks on that opening scene. It was very difficult, because I don't know if you can tell, but we are on a slant, on an angle of a mountain. It was muddy there. [Director] Christophe [Gans] brought in these huge rain machines. We had those outfits--the leather coats were thick leather, and then it got sopping wet, just drenched wet. It felt like it was 20 or 30 pounds, like a quarter of my body weight. We have wetsuits underneath, so not only was it heavy and cumbersome, but we're also freezing cold in mud with rain in our eyes. Christophe said, 'Make sure you cover your eyes.' Well, if I cover my eyes, I can't see, so how am I going to fight? The great thing about all that is it really makes you stay in the moment. It was like 'acting not required, just try and do your moves.' That's all you had to do, just try to get through the fight scene, and that was enough, because you had all the elements helping you to get there."
Dacascos, a proficient martial artist in his own right, also said the director incorporated fighting styles--choreographed by Hong Kong stunt coordinator Philip Kwok--that may or may not reflect the historical reality of 18th-century France. "I think Christophe may have taken a little creative liberty on some of the weapons," he said. "But the fact is, I think in America, when we think of martial arts, we usually think of Asian-influenced martial arts, kung fu or karate. But the fact is, everywhere in the world they have their own indigenous ways of fighting, because, unfortunately, people have always been fighting. So, whether it be the knights in shining armor or, in Brazil and Africa, the capoeira or different things, people have different ways of fighting." Wolf opens in limited release on Jan. 11 and everywhere in the United States on Jan. 18.
DATE: 2002/01/11
URL: Sci-Fi Wire.comSci-Fi Wire.com
Dacascos Fights Wolf
Mark Dacascos, the American-born actor who co-stars in Brotherhood of the Wolf, told SCI FI Wire that some of his martial-arts fight scenes were abbreviated for the movie. In the French film, Dacascos (The Crow: Stairway to Heaven) plays an Iroquois warrior and the companion of an 18th-century scientist investigating a series of hideous murders in rural France.
"That first fight scene is only one-third of what we actually shot," Dacascos said in an interview. "If you get the special-edition DVD, that has as far as I know all three sequences of the fight scene. We shot for almost two weeks on that opening scene. It was very difficult, because I don't know if you can tell, but we are on a slant, on an angle of a mountain. It was muddy there. [Director] Christophe [Gans] brought in these huge rain machines. We had those outfits--the leather coats were thick leather, and then it got sopping wet, just drenched wet. It felt like it was 20 or 30 pounds, like a quarter of my body weight. We have wetsuits underneath, so not only was it heavy and cumbersome, but we're also freezing cold in mud with rain in our eyes. Christophe said, 'Make sure you cover your eyes.' Well, if I cover my eyes, I can't see, so how am I going to fight? The great thing about all that is it really makes you stay in the moment. It was like 'acting not required, just try and do your moves.' That's all you had to do, just try to get through the fight scene, and that was enough, because you had all the elements helping you to get there."
Dacascos, a proficient martial artist in his own right, also said the director incorporated fighting styles--choreographed by Hong Kong stunt coordinator Philip Kwok--that may or may not reflect the historical reality of 18th-century France. "I think Christophe may have taken a little creative liberty on some of the weapons," he said. "But the fact is, I think in America, when we think of martial arts, we usually think of Asian-influenced martial arts, kung fu or karate. But the fact is, everywhere in the world they have their own indigenous ways of fighting, because, unfortunately, people have always been fighting. So, whether it be the knights in shining armor or, in Brazil and Africa, the capoeira or different things, people have different ways of fighting." Wolf opens in limited release on Jan. 11 and everywhere in the United States on Jan. 18.
