Roar - or what happens when you attempt to make a film with wild animals and no trainers

[shadowkat]

I read about this in Entertainment Weekly a few weeks back. About 30 years ago, Tippi Hedren (of Hitchcock's The Birds) and her husband, decided to make a thriller about a family raising a bunch of wild animals in Africa. To save money, they decided to bring the wild animals home with them and raise them as house-pets. Cast their family (Melanie Griffith, Noel Marshall) in the roles, and film it in California. Basically it was professionally made home video.

Nice plan, except, it's quite different when you roll around and play with a lion on the grass as opposed to a puppy dog or domestic cat. As they discovered, the hard way.
30 years later, the film is being released in theaters.

Here's the trailer - with the following disclaimer: no animals were hurt, killed or injured in the making of this film. But 70 cast and crew members were critically hurt.

Watch on YouTube

Sort of acts as a public service advisory: Don't try this at home.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Wow! I can't believe how dumb some folks are. Most dogs are nice enough that you might get fooled into thinking similar animals like wolves can't be dangerous. But even a kitty cat owner ought to realize from the stray scratches we pick up, that you'd never want to trust a bobcat let alone a bigger cat. Just playing around they can tear you to shreds.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

That's what blew me away. They actually thought they could adopt a few lion cubs and raise them, safely, and make a film about it.

In the EW article, Noel Marshall, who I think was their son at the time, states how amazed he was that they survived. And it still gives him nightmares. There's no way he could watch it.

He also stated..."how insanely naive and ignorant they were."

Tippi Hedren got an infection and almost lost a leg - from an elephant crushing her leg. Noel Marshall was mauled. As was her daughter, Melanie Griffin. They had to get reconstructive surgery.

At the end of the filming? They had an entire zoo. And everyone on the crew and caste had suffered a serious injury. Then they had difficulty finding a distributor. It took them 30 years...to get it released.