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CINEMA
MARCH 8, 1999 VOL. 153 NO. 9
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"I thought it was fantastic because it wasn't Lord of the Flies," recalls Boyle. "It's not about primitivism; it's about trying to develop a perfect society built on a complete falsehood: that you can create paradise in the middle of someone else's culture with no relation to that culture at all." Boyle was also drawn to Garland's narrator, whom he saw as "deeply flawed, difficult, disillusioned, impressionable, weak and a bit crazy. It's the kind of character I love, but also the kind that's difficult to sell to a mainstream audience." Boyle grins a bit, then lets loose a high-pitched giggle. "So, Leo's got the responsibility to sell it!"
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 independent film about heroin addicts, while Boyle was there with Trainspotting, a light indie film about heroin addicts. Back then DiCaprio lobbied Boyle's team for a shot at a future film; two years later, in the wake of Titanic, the Brits were chasing him down to take the part of Richard.
"The image of an 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.
During the year he took off after Titanic, DiCaprio considered several projects, including a film version of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel American Psycho. But he was intrigued by the story of The Beach. "I waited quite a while for my next movie because I wanted to truly find a project I was in love with," says the actor. "This character clicked with me, and the story line clicked. It was a character that went on a journey within himself while exploring the exterior of a beautiful island." Yet when Boyle and his longtime producer Andrew Macdonald met to discuss the project with DiCaprio at New York City's trendy Mercer Hotel last May, the young star hadn't even opened the script. "That doesn't matter," said the director. "We'll read it out loud now." By the July 4 weekend, DiCaprio agreed to make the film, leaving McGregor to rattle his light saber. "I was gutted," he harrumphed to Vanity Fair, stung by what he perceived to be the sheer financial opportunism of Boyle & Co. "Ewan was upset, very upset, and that's natural," concedes Macdonald. "But in the end, we really didn't feel it fit him; it was a better choice for Leo."
The budget, casting and local scenery weren't the only things to get chopped up in making The Beach; the story was revamped too. As in most adaptations, characters have been combined, events telescoped. "The first time I read the script it was partly flattering, partly unsettling," admits Garland, the novel's 28-year-old author. Among the major changes: a reduction in gruesome violence and the addition of love scenes, which allow DiCaprio to get passionate with French actress Virginie Ledoyen. "I'm slightly worried if I can see it with my mother or not," says Garland. "There's certainly no way I'll sit next to her."
Screenwriter John Hodge, who has collaborated on all Boyle's movies, felt the picture needed sex to succeed, especially since DiCaprio's character Richard develops a crush on a fellow traveler's girlfriend. "My friends all read the book and said, 'He's got to shag the French girl,'" Hodge notes. "Alex set up a perfect triangle but didn't follow through--it's probably more realistic because guys usually don't get to shag the French girl. Life isn't like that. But movies are. Novels are subtle, screenplays blunt."
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