|
search for the actor
Screenwriter Charles E. Pogue: "<1993>
Kevin Hooks was a terrific director. We started testing actors and eventually
we found an actor who we decided we wanted to test named Thomas Ian Griffith.
Kevin directed a test with him and it was superb. [Griffith
has played Taligaro] But we couldn't get him past the brass.
They didn't know what they wanted but it wasn't him for some reason. Two
weeks became five months and by that time we were off shooting "DragonHeart".
<1994> Kevin Sorbo's name had come up at this time, and then was
dropped and came up again. We had people sending in tapes from all over
Europe, the United States and Australia." (09.97 Cinefantastique
#3)
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
| Producer de Laurentiis. "Before
I left Hollywood for Bratislava to make "DragonHeart", I saw Kevin's
audition video tape for Hercules and he made an instant impression on me."
(11.97 Starburst #231) |
| |
| "Producer Raffaella de Laurentiis
and Universal turned to what would be a massive, worldwide search for the
actor to play Kull; knowing all the time that the specter of Schwarzenegger's
Conan loomed in the background. "It was tougher to cast this film than
it would have been if there had never been a Conan movie." (12.97
Starlog special) |
| |
| "Finally, in February 1995,
Kevin Sorbo, who was beginning to make a name for himself in H:TLJ, did
a screen test for Kull. "We saw so many people for the role. It was
unbelievable. It was only when I found and tested Kevin that I felt it was
OK to make the movie. I saw immediately that he brought a fresh, younger
approach to the role. That was the kind of thing we were looking for, because
it would have been impossible to cast Kevin and then try to make him Arnold."
(12.97 Starlog special) |
| |
|
"In a strange coincidence it was Nicolella
who had actually shot Sorbo's Kull screen test 18 months before landing
the directing job himself." (11.97 Starburst #231)
|
| |
| Producer de Laurentiis. "Once
I finished "DragonHeart" I did a screen test with Kevin and knew
I had the right actor for Kull. Kevin was up to his neck in Hercules schedules
in New Zealand. We both had to wait a year before it finally came together
but it was worth all the delays." (11.97 Starburst #231) |
| |
| Screenwriter Pogue:
"In the Summer of '95 Raffaella, through minions, asked me to find
out what was going on with the negotiations with Kevin Sorbo at ICM because
we both had the same agent, and I found out; troubleshot for her there.
Then in December of '95 they finally made the deal with him. In
the meantime, because they'd wasted so much time trying to make their deal
with Kevin Sorbo, she went off and did "Daylight"." (09.97
Cinefantastique #3) |
| |
|
"Hercules had not yet become the worldwide
phenomenon it soon would be, so all parties agreed that a late 1995 start
date, during Sorbo's hiatus from H:TLJ, would be the time to shoot Kull.
"But then I got real busy," reflects the producer. "I was
in Italy shooting "Daylight" at the same time I was in post-production
on "Dragonheart" and pre-production on "Kull". We
had already missed the '95 opportunity to shoot Kull and we were coming
up on the one window of opportunity Kevin would have to do the film in
1996." (12.97 Starlog special)
|
| |
| Screenwriter
Pogue: "We lost director Kevin Hooks
because of all this frittering away. So in January '96, when they finally
made this deal [with Sorbo], we now had no director. At this point they
told me that they'd had a meeting with Kevin Sorbo, that I had not been
invited to, where he had some notes, which kind of ticked me off. They're
in a story meeting without the writer. That's sort of a silly thing, but
I bit my tongue and let that go by." (09.97
Cinefantastique #3) |
| |
| "As if things weren't rough
enough, de Laurentiis hadn't decided on a director. "The only way I
was going to be able to make this movie with Kevin in 1996 was to go with
a director that I had worked with before and could trust," she says.
"I didn't have the time to bond with an unfamiliar director. So, I
went with John Nicolella. I knew from working with him on the "Vanishing
Son" TV movies [part of the Universal's Action Pack,
which aired back-to-back with "Hercules" before "Xena"
showed up] that he could do action and that he would care about
the actors." (12.97 Starlog special) |
|
locations
"Kull" was filmed at Studio Koliba,
Bratislava (the capital of the Republic of Slovakia) and on locations
throughout Slovakia.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| More details can be found on the
Slovakian site
(in English). |
|
"Q: Do you have anything special that
you'll remember from having filmed "Kull" in Slovakia? -- Kevin
Sorbo: The castles. They were magical." (09.97 E!
Online - Star Boards)
|
|
| |
| Sea sequences were filmed in the
Kornat National Park (Adriatic sea shore of Croatia). |
| |
| Producer Raffaella de Laurentiis:
"I was a little nervous at first [because of the war, but] we had absolutely
no problem. We built a complete village and rebuilt a ship for sequences
shot near Split, and we ended up shooting for three weeks, and the team
at Jadran was great and provided us with 60 crew members." (04.97
Film & Video) |
| |
|
|
|
fight scenes
"We shot fight scenes anywhere from
two to five days long," Sorbo says. "They covered every possible
angle." (06.97 Entertainment Weekly)
|
| |
|
"Q: What were the most perilous stunt
fights in the "Kull"? -- Kevin Sorbo: The opening fight sequence,
when I was in the water fighting with a blindfold and a flaming sword,
was pretty intense. They gave a very slight slit for us to see through,
and even that, you know, 60-70 percent of your vision was gone. We had
to be pretty spot-on with swinging the sword at each other and "God,
I hope you're there." It was definitely nerve-wracking. It was fun.
The challenge was there, and it was fun to do that fight sequence, but
also there was another one I had on the boat - the movement of the boat,
the jumping around and bashing heads and tweaking backs and, you know,
hurting necks. You know, we took a lot of nicks and cuts. There were people
with a few stitches on the show, but it was, it's you know, that's part
of the hazard pay." (08.97 TVGuide-Online)
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| "Q: What was the hardest
item to try to accomplish while filming "Kull"? -- Kevin Sorbo:
The hardest scene was a five day fight scene in an ice cave." (28.08.97
Universal Chat) |
|
birthday party
"Kevin's birthday party was great! We
gave him a surprise party and 30 members of the cast and crew attended.
The birthday wishes Forum members had put together for me I printed and
made a banner that was 28 pages. I stood up and said here are so me more
messages from your fans. Then everyone started reading them. I wish I
remembered the one that was read out loud first exactly, but it mentioned
what a hunk Kevin was. That increased everyone's interest in reading more
of them. Kevin got a kick out of it!" (09.96 H:TLJ's
Forum Report by Olympiana)
|
| |
|
"Live, from the former communist country
of Slovakia I bring salutations, mirth, warmth, hope, love, praise, adoration,
and other unmentionables. I am in shock. Total shock over the wave of
affection and outpouring of gifts that were shipped my way here in Europe
for my birthday. It was amazing to say the least and I wanted to thank
each and everyone of you for taking the time and effort to let me know
you remembered my day. We are only 21 once, and I am proud to say that
I am 21 yet again!! At least I feel that way.
I had a great birthday dinner that my manager, Beverlee Dean, along with
Susan Vadner (Herk fan club Prez), and Raffaella
de Laurentiis (producer of the movie I am doing now, "Kull")
put together for me. A bit of a surprise. The best bit was that my father
made the trip over as well. First time in 11 years I had a birthday with
one of the parents around. My mother couldn't make the trip due to a bad
back. Next time!!" (14.10.96 Kevin Sorbo to H:TLJ's
Forum)
|
|
nice dinner on the Island
of Death
"Q: What's the best date you ever had?
-- Kevin Sorbo: I'd probably get killed if I didn't tell you about a date
with my girlfriend [Sam] right now. She just came over to visit me in
Croatia, where I was filming my new movie. And we had a really wonderful
day. We took a walk along the beach. In Croatia, they have rocky shorelines
and the sea is crystal clear. We went to this island, Murter, which means
the Island of Death. It was so named because centuries ago, pirates came
and slaughtered everyone there. We found a wonderful restaurant and had
a nice dinner." (3.11.96 New York Sunday Daily News)
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
sea urchin - take 1
"Kevin Sorbo: During one scene in Kull
I stepped on a sea urchin and it embedded in my heel. If you don't have
any ammonia you're supposed to pee on it, because you can get an infection.
-- TVW: So did you pee on it? -- KS: Well, no. Luckily we had ammonia.
I had a couple of offers from women, though." (23.08.97
Australia TV Week)
sea urchin - take 2
"I stepped on a sea urchin and it got
embedded in my heel. There are only two ways to keep such a wound from
getting infected," explains Sorbo. "One is to clean it with
ammonia. The other is to urinate on it. And they didn't have any ammonia
on the set." (24.08.97 Calgary Sun)
sea urchin - take 3
"Q: I was at the taping of the Tonight
Show [15.08] and you never finished the story about stepping on the sea
urchin... what did you end up doing? -- Kevin Sorbo: (throws his head
back, cackling with glee) I did what I had to do." (28.08.97
Universal Chat)
|
| |
|
|
|
on Hercules side
Kevin Sorbo: "H:TLJ only gave me two
months a year and that didn't leave me with the time to do anything. The
only reason I was able to do "Kull" was because Universal owned
my show and they made that movie, so they gave me four months off to do
that movie." (12.00 SFX #72)
|
| |
| "When Sorbo took and extended
studio-approved hiatus to work on "Kull The Conqueror", the staff
on H:TLJ had to think fast when he was late returning from the film. "Without
getting into nasty studio politics, had I really known that he was going
to miss three episodes, I would have written a storyline for it," says
producer Tapert who admits to having mixed feelings about the actor working
on another sword and sorcery project." (10.97 Cult TV) |
| |
| Producer Robert Tapert: "I
was concerned that he was overextending himself. I was concerned that he
was going to come back from shooting 12 weeks of "Kull" and would
be physically depleted. My advice to Kevin had been:"'Kevin, you work
incredibly hard, and there will always be an opportunity to do a loin cloth
movie and that, maybe, you would be better off doing nothing for your break."
(12.97 Dreamwatch #39) |
| |
| "Q: How long did "Kull"
take to finish? -- Kevin Sorbo: I spent 14 weeks, but the production crew
went on for another 2-1/2 weeks. I had to get back and shoot more Hercules."
(28.08.97 Universal Chat) |
| |
|
Robert Tapert: "When he came back from
"Kull", he was quite tired. And it did take him a while to get
back on his feet." (12.97
Dreamwatch #39)
|
