May 1, 2001. On Oxford Street in London, hundreds of anarchists march in the annual May Day protest, smashing windows and menacing those foolish enough to be seen in suits. In Hollywood, actors threaten to shut down the industry, at a potential cost of billions. And on a stage at England's dank Shepperton Studios, writer-director David Twohy -- with a downright frightening gleam in his eye -- wields a hose and howls at actors Matt Davis, Jason Flemyng, and Zach Galifianakis.
''Everyone will be soaking, right?'' he barks like a drill sergeant, unleashing a torrent of chilling liquid. ''More water! Great! Great! Tee-hee-hee!''
Nope, May 1 is not a good day to be a Londoner or an actor -- but on the set of Dimension's supernatural thriller ''Below,'' it is a particularly damp hell to be both. Twohy, a short man with an impressively foul mouth (''She's got a glob of s--- on her face.'' ''F---. F---. F---!''), marshals weary troops for his follow-up to 2000's surprise sci-fi hit ''Pitch Black.'' (He's now in preproduction on ''Pitch'''s sequel, ''The Chronicles of Riddick.'') Long considered a master of the skillful genre film -- his scripts include ''The Fugitive'' and ''Waterworld'' -- he's tackling a tale about the hallucinatory breakdown of the crew of a haunted World War II sub. A very leaky World War II sub.
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