THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606010044
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 68 lines
DAVID TWOHY, the director and writer of the new movie ``The Arrival,'' has a motto: if you've got an alien, get him out there fast.
Twohy realizes that this is the summer of ``strange things'' from outer space at the movies. He's not threatened by the fact that ``Independence Day,'' the more than $80 million film about super-bad aliens attacking Washington, will compete with ``The Arrival,'' which cost about half that to produce.
The highly touted ``Independence Day'' opens July 3. ``The Arrival,'' with Charlie Sheen as a lone astronomer who knows ``they'' are here, is in theaters now.
``I urged the studio to get `The Arrival' out there, pronto'' Twohy said. ``I didn't want it to come after `Independence Day.' ''
Twohy, writer of ``The Fugitive'' and ``Waterworld,'' makes his directorial debut with ``The Arrival.'' Taking time out from filming ``G.I. Jane'' in Washington, Twohy, admits that it's been a challenging year. In addition to creating aliens, he had to persuade Demi Moore to shave her head. She plays a Navy SEAL in ``G.I. Jane.''
``It's all about women in combat, and should they be there,'' Twohy said. ``I'm aware of the fact that action movies starring women have not fared well at the box office lately, but we have Demi. And, actually, she was quite willing to shave her head.''
A tougher job, he said, was to create the aliens in ``The Arrival.'' ``We had to have them created first, before any camera turned, before any human went to work.''
He came up with a heat-loving species who have chosen the planet Earth because of its potential for a polar meltdown. That eventually will make this place hot enough for them - and too hot for us.
The new movie aliens have back-bending legs and a ``skull flap'' that cools off their overheated brains. The director believes that this may be the first time that a movie alien was created entirely by computers. ``No one inside a suit could look like these creatures,'' he said. ``They're too thin. It's done entirely with computers, and it costs a great deal less than it would otherwise.''
But can Charlie Sheen play an intelligent character, much less the loner-guy who is the sole hope of planet Earth? After all Sheen's wild reputation, with hookers as close friends, was the brunt of Whoopi Goldberg's jokes at this year's Oscar ceremonies.
The director flinches a bit.
``It's a change of pace role for Charlie, but he wanted to do it very much. I didn't want an elitist scientist. I wanted a regular guy who gets trapped into this extraordinary situation and is forced to be a hero.
``Charlie is a very hard-working actor. He's had a lot of turmoil in his private life, but the filming on `The Arrival' came just three weeks after his wedding. He's grown up. He'll grow up some more.''
He's a bit surprised that his directorial debut is a science-fiction film. ``I'm not particularly a fan. I like science realism, not voodoo stuff. I'm not sure that I even believe in UFOs, but I know a good plot when I write one. `The Arrival' is based in realism and it's based on our own paranoia - the paranoia..."< But if these beings are so powerful, why don't they just take over?
``They don't need to,'' the writer-director reasons. ``They see that we're doing ourselves in on this planet. They just have to wait. And, besides, they aren't equipped for a full-scale invasion.''
Perhaps an invasion takes a bigger budget - the kind of budget that the upcoming ``Independence Day'' has. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
David Twohy wrote and directed ``The Arrival.''
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW PROFILE by CNB