Species Overload
Forget picky actors; when animals are on set, 81 guidelines must be followed.
June 21, 2007 — -- "Evan Almighty" may not win any cinematic honors, but it did already garner one distinction it can be quite proud of -- no animals were harmed during the making of this film.
That's a big achievement given the hundreds of creatures on set in Virginia for what is considered the most expensive comedy to date, at a cost of $175 million.
In the new release, Steve Carrell stars as a congressman who talks to God and then builds an ark and saves every creature in the world. But first, they had to get the animals to get along, on set.
"You don't want to have the raccoon in a space right next to a fox; it will stress him out," explained Sandi Buck, one of 10 field monitors from the American Humane Association who made sure the animals were cared for in compliance with the group's 81 pages of guidelines for movies.
"Somebody needs to be there for the animals," Buck said.
So she was on the set taking notes on everything the animals did for the film and making sure filmmakers adhered to the guidelines that include the following:
One of the biggest challenges for the makers of "Evan Almighty" was to film the big scenes that include many animals on screen at once.
"Obviously, you never want to put a prey animal with a predator," Buck said.
That means you can't have a tiger and a hen on set at the same time without someone getting eaten.
"Each individual animal was brought into the shot all by themselves, and filmed over and over again," Buck explained.
Editors later pieced all the shots together, creating one massive menagerie as this modern-day Noah collected species for his ark.
Given the careful treatment for the animals on set, some actors and members of the film crew chided Buck that the animals received better treatment than the humans on the project.
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