STARRING KIM BASINGER, VINCENT PEREZ, EVA MARIE SAINT, LIAM AIKEN, GARRETT STROMMEN DIRECTED BY HUGH HUDSON
BUZZ-O-METER 7
WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? Basinger's first role since she nabbed the Oscar for L.A. Confidential.
''I would wake up in the middle of the night, literally in night sweats, worrying about taking my baby girl into the bush,'' recalls Basinger about the courage she had to muster up to film on location in Kenya. ''[I worried about] all of the shots she would have to have and living with the puff adders and the spitting cobras — everything has teeth.'' Who wouldn't be afraid? Based on the autobiography of wildlife activist Kuki Gallmann — a well-to-do divorcee who left her comfortable life in Venice for the wilds of Africa — this romantic drama is spiked with adventure (chasing elephants out of the garden) and real-life terror (a character dies by snakebite). ''When one's life is a bit humdrum, you fantasize about going off to live in Central America or somewhere [exotic],'' says Hudson (Chariots of Fire). ''It's what everybody sort of fantasizes about. And she did it.'' And while Hudson thrived on location, he admits his next project will be ''something simple and urban.'' Episode II: I Dreamed of Cleveland. (May 5)
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