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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, April 11, 2002

Willis movie uses Hawai'i as Nigeria

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

WAIKANE — Off Kamehameha Highway and adjacent to the Moli'i Pond, with the Ko'olau Mountains as a backdrop, an outdoor movie set serves as a stand-in for a Nigerian village.

Set designer Naomi Shohan's interpretation of an African village sits off Kamehameha Highway in Windward O'ahu. A church authenticates the missionary influence of the time. The set will be used for shooting "Hostile Rescue," a movie starring Bruce Willis.

Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

A vegetable garden grows in several patches near a church, outfitted with an altar inside and a bell tower outside. There is a cluster of huts, one with a thatch roof, near the water, where canoes idly rest.

The set serves as one of about 10 Island locations for a Revolution Studio film starring Bruce Willis, now titled "Hostile Rescue."

With an estimated budget of $70 million, "Hostile Rescue" stars Willis as a Navy SEAL-type sent to a West African village to retrieve an American doctor, played by Monica Bellucci. The war-time saga is directed by Antoine Fuqua, whose last film, "Training Day," earned Denzel Washington the Academy Award for best actor.

"Hostile Rescue" is filming in Hawai'i because the terrain here could credibly double as the rainforests of Africa. Filming — with about one-third done at night — will continue until June.

On the set, production designer Naomi Shohan said her job is to make certain that everything before the camera has a look of African authenticity. "I'm responsible for everything but the actors," Shohan said.

"The church originally wasn't scripted, but it seemed obvious you'd have it," she said, "because our research indicated that missionaries came (to Africa) and made a headway into the community. As people settled, huts were built."

The movie set takes up several acres, and includes reproductions of a hospital with about 16 beds, a kitchen laden with pots and a wood-burning stove, a huge building erected over an existing structure that was not architecturally suited for the movie, several huts and a cluster of refugee tents.

"We chose this site (because of) the environment," said Shohan. "Before we built the sets, we were on a boat off shore, to determine the right angles to build. So far, we've only done night shooting here, but when we film during the day, we'll go out on a boat and there will be mist. It's spectacular."

The set is detailed right down to its galvanized tin, cinderblocks and seemingly rotting stucco, to give the sense of time and use.

"I have the best plasterer in the business, Jeff House," said Shohan. "And the best painter, too, Tom Hrupcho; he's my lead scenic painter and his detail work is incredible. Look how he made the mission beat-up."

Shohan said the setting will figure prominently in the opening moments of the movie. "The story really begins here, at the mission," she said. "This is the setup for a coup; and with the church, the setup has soul, for the story to play out."

The film crew planted the vegetables, but the monstrous monkeypods, palms and banana trees are homegrown. "Luckily, these things also grow in Africa," said Shohan.

Among Shohan's other credits: Sam Mendes' Oscar-winning "American Beauty" and the acclaimed "Zebrahead," directed by Anthony Drawan. "Hostile Rescue" is her third film with director Fuqua.

"At this point, he's given me a lot of trust," she said. "He wants detail and authenticity; I want that, too."

Shohan also is building a set resembling an indigenous village in Maunawili and will convert part of Honolulu's downtown post office building to resemble a palace for the film.

Reach Wayne Harada at e-mail wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, phone 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.