Fall movie preview: Into the woods

Crafting a modern drama out of the famous James Fenimore Cooper novel posed | another challenge for Mann (who cowrote the script with Christopher Crowe). Though a rousing classic, Cooper's sentimental adventure isn't strong on historical accuracy. ''The book diminishes the Indians by making them into noble savages that we should feel sorry for, and that's bulls -- -. These people were tremendously powerful,'' Mann says. But he doesn't mean the movie to be a history lesson. ''I don't want to make historical mistakes, but there is no virtue in reality in and of itself,'' he says. ''Its value is that it's tremendously exciting.'' Still, he was unsparing in his efforts to avoid historical mistakes. A 20-acre frontier farm, a Huron village, and a fort were all constructed from scratch. ''There was nothing to rent,'' Mann says, ''We had to make everything.''

''It was like a small war taking over a little country,'' says visual consultant Gusmano Cesaretti of the re-creation of Fort William Henry, the historic battle site near Albany, N.Y. The replica's locale near North Carolina's Lake James was so remote that the crew had to build a road just to get there. Hills were leveled, 38 acres of trees cleared, and 130 carpenters hired to create the 400-foot-by-300-foot fort.

Small details received the same attention. ''It wasn't good enough that the moccasins looked as they would have back then, we had to wear them out to see how they looked after 60 miles,'' says visual consultant Lee Teter, a specialist on Northeastern American Indians. For the battle scenes, 1,000 Native American actors had to be outfitted in traditional garb-and trained to fight with tomahawks.

Mann's unrelenting approach pushed some of his crew too far. ''He wanted to do everything himself,'' says Doug Milsome, the director of photography who was fired midway through the project. ''If you are a sycophantic, sniveling yard dog and want to be a camp follower, then you stay. I couldn't.'' Neither could James Acheson, the first costume designer, who quit. The director is unapologetic about what he terms ''the attrition.'' ''If something isn't quite right so the effect of the scene is diluted, or one extra pops out wrong to your eye and blows the authenticity of a major moment, these things can't be allowed to happen,'' he says.

Still, Mann wasn't altogether in enemy territory. His maniacal commitment was matched by that of his stars. Even during his training for his role, Day- Lewis wore a loincloth and moccasins. By the end of a month he was proficient with his 18th-century muzzle-loading rifle-and carried it even on | his morning jogs.

''I really admired Mann's absolute perfectionism,'' Stowe says. ''He wouldn't roll the cameras until they were lined up exactly as he wanted.'' For an emotional scene at a waterfall, when Nathaniel and Cora must separate, the actors stood in bone-chilling water for three straight days. ''We had to stop shivering every time the cameras rolled,'' Stowe recalls. ''We were so completely involved in what we were doing that we were almost in this hallucinatory state. I almost felt that Michael was in the scene with us. I would do it again for him in a minute.''

Mann himself is in a bit less of a rush to shoot again in the wild. ''If there is one thing I can walk away from this thing with, it's that it's great to be in a parking lot, standing under a neon lamp, away from green things,'' he says. ''In my next movie, people will definitely have zippers.''