Okay, so we all know Uwe Boll likes making movies. I mean, he must REALLY like making movies, cuz the man just doesn’t let up. Give him credit for that much. And now he’s switching gears a bit by working on something not based on a video game(!), his very own Vietnam opus(!!), which he’s apparently shooting in Africa(!!!!) Don’t believe me? We here at AITH have got the story, a blog from the man himself as he talks about fighting snakes, hiring mercenaries, coating himself with a fine sheen of bug spray, and jogging with the antelopes. Oh, and shooting a Vietnam movie in Africa! Enjoy!
PRODUCTION BLOG OF “TUNNELRATS”
After the co-financing with the Hawaiin Filmgroup did not take place, I was able to win Chris Roland of CFQ Films South Africa for joining us to produce this Vietnam War movie. CFQ did not only set up the total co-financing, they also provided perfect jungle locations only 1 ½ hours driving from Durban. The first scenes were shot in KwaZulu-Natal, so it was very important that all L.A. actors were transformed into the real military boot camp athmosphere. We hired a couple of war mercenaries that had been fighting in South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania to make sure that this was as real as possible.
“Smiley”, a giant of approximately 150 kgs and a reputation to have killed more than 100 people in combats, trains the boys to be fit and authentic in sneaking up, loading guns, shooting, etc. Originally we had the plan to have all actors sleeping in tents in the jungle to enable them to absorb as much as possible of the totally different climate, sounds, circumstances etc. but one of the wardens found a Black Mamba. Unfortunately it seems we have quite a lot of them on our locations here. The Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is the largest venomous snake in Africa and the second largest venomous snake in the world (behind the King Cobra). It has an average length of 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) and a maximum length of 4.5 meters (14 ft).The Black Mamba receives its name from the black coloration inside of its mouth, rather than their skin color which is a gray to olive tone. The Black Mamba is the fastest moving snake in the world, capable of moving up to 20 km/h( 12.5 mph). It uses this speed to evade danger, rather than catch prey, however.
Bites from Black Mambas to humans are rare, but they are very deadly! The Black Mamba is also the second most deadly snake in the world. A single bite may inject enough venom to kill from 20-40 grown men, easily killing one unless the appropriate anti-venom is administered in time. When cornered, it will readily attack. Such a bite of the Black Mamba kills within 45 minutes if one is not able to give an antidote. Of course, such antidotes, are stored in hospitals only. But the next hospital is more than 45 driving minutes away from our film set. Without having the chance to store the antidote on our set, we all have to be very careful and watch every step we take.
In fact, many snake experts from all over the world have cited the Black Mamba as the world’s most aggressive snake, noting tendency to actively attack without provocation. To make things even more exciting for us, Black Mambas love to rest on trees or hide in bushes, so Mathias Neumann, my camera man and I check all bushes and trees around us constantly.
Every morning I run. One morning I get together with a herd of antilopes grazing in the meadow on my jogging path. I slowed down and approached them, but none of the animals was afraid of me, so I ran right through. The antilopes did not even stop to graze. This is Africa!
The first day of shooting passed faster than lightning. We all agreed that the bootcamp worked miracles: All actors are perfectly training now, know exactly what to do. We start with a camp scene to catch as much of the real athmospehre as possible. On one of the next days we relocate at a crook of a river and started to shoot quite compexe scenes with man to man combat: Two Americans have to fight in the water against the VC [Viet Cong]. Lucky us, that day our stunt co-ordinator Dan returned from hospital where he had to spend the night on a drip because he was bitten by a tick the same day. The ticks are also a big problem too, I use anti-insects spray at least four times a day. Useless to say, the ticks are everywhere. In one of the next scenes two soldiers stop behind a rock were we placed a snake to attack them. We have hired an animal trainer with to trained snakes. Both animals are as gentle as lambs.
Our weekly shooting schedule here in South Africa is different to others, we have six working days instead of five, so only the Sunday is off.
South Africa’s greatest export…