LIHU’E – Kaua’i moviegoers will get a chance tonight to see if mauka forests in Wainiha, Kealia and Wailua can be made to look like the Amazon. The three locales are prominently featured in Kevin Costner’s new film thriller “Dragonfly,”
LIHU’E – Kaua’i moviegoers will get a chance tonight to see if mauka forests in Wainiha, Kealia and Wailua can be made to look like the Amazon.
The three locales are prominently featured in Kevin Costner’s new film thriller “Dragonfly,” which opens tonight at the Kukui Grove Cinema and hundreds of theaters across the country.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing this movie,” said Judy Drosd, Kaua’i’s film commissioner. “Kaua’i has been many locales in many movies, but this is the first time we’ve doubled for deep in the heart of the Venezuelan jungle.”
Trailers for “Dragonfly” have been shown in local theaters, and are downloadable at www.DragonflyMovie.com, the official Web site for the film. However, there’s a lot more Kaua’i footage in the film than is apparent in the previews.
“You won’t see much of Kaua’i in the trailers, because the movie has a surprise ending and it was all shot here!,” said Drosd.
The PG-13 film tells the story of Dr. Joe Darrow, as played by Kevin Costner. Darrow is head of emergency services at a Chicago hospital. His wife, who works with terminally ill children, dies in a bus accident while on a medical mercy mission in Venezuela. The film’s title comes from the heavy use of a dragonfly totem that she favored as she a birthmark on her shoulder that resembles a dragonfly. Her young cancer patients, are visited by Darrow following her death and they seem to have messages from beyond for him from his late wife. The messages haunt him and eventually lead him on a quest to Venezuela as played by Kaua’i.
Kaua’i casting director Angela Tillson of Casting Kauai also served as a translator during filming for native Venezuelans from the Amazon Basin who played themselves in the film.
The Venezuelans traveled from their homeland to Kaua’i for the filming, and were shown a lot of aloha by Kaua’i cast and crew, she said. Tillson speaks Spanish fluently and served as a go-between for the filmmakers and the Venezuelans.
Gifts of clothing, books and other items went home with the Venezuelans courtesy of Kaua’i residents. Tillson said Universal Pictures help cover the shipping cost.
The film is directed by Tom Shadyac (“Patch Adams” and “Ace Venture – Pet Detective”) and director of photographer is Dean Semler, who filmed Costner’s budget-busting film “Waterworld” at Kawaihae, Waipio Valley and other Big Island locations in the mid-1990s.
Location scouting for “Dragonfly” began in May 2000, and location filming took place between February 2 and February 17, 2001.
Some 20 Kauai crewmembers worked at total of 500 days, and 50 Kaua’i extras put in 650 days on the set.
The cast and crew paid for about 4,000 hotel room nights, and the film’s producers spent $5.3 million while on Kauai.
Universal Pictures, Shady Acres Entertainment and NDE Productions produced “Dragonfly.” MCA/Universal Pictures is distributing the film in the United States.
