FD4 - Mobile PressRegister

Movie car crashes will be filmed at Irvington speedway

Movie will be released in 3D and 2D versions

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
By MIKE BRANTLEY
TV & Media Editor

Safety will be the top job on the movie set of "Final Destination 4" — really the Mobile International Speedway in Irvington — as stunt drivers deliberately wreck specially prepared stunt cars today and Thursday, according to stunt coordinator Buddy Joe Hooker.

"We're going to be doing a lot of crashes. So far, we've been just racing around," said Hooker at the speedway Tuesday.

Minutes earlier, he and other drivers made numerous moderately paced circuits around the track as a black SUV equipped with a state-of-the-art, two-eyed 3D camera at the end of a long, articulated boom captured their maneuvers for the movie.

"Final Destination 4" — the next entry in the popular New Line Cinema horror film franchise that began with the initial "Final Destination" film in 2000 — will become the first release in the series to be filmed in 3D. Expected in theaters next year, the film has been shot mostly in the New Orleans area.

The production came to the Mobile area last week to begin filming the speedway accident sequence that drives the plot this time around. Filming will conclude Saturday during the annual Ronald McDonald House race at the speedway, when the 3D cameras will capture footage of real racing fans attending the 3 p.m. event.

Hooker, whose film credits as a stuntman, actor or second unit director date from TV and movie productions in the early 1970s, described one planned shot this week that will send a race car into a high-speed barrel roll.

"At 80 miles an hour, we're going to pop the cannon and go for a ride," he said.

Another dangerous shot will require great care and meticulous attention to safety, he said.

"We're going to have a pipe ramp that will send the car up into the air, and we're going to crash on pit row," Hooker explained.

His enthusiasm for his work was as plain as the smile on his face.

"This is real stunt work," Hooker said, "not stuff done with computers. It's the stuff we like to do."

Craig Perry, a producer on all the "Final Destination" movies so far, said the series has continued because audiences continue to buy movie tickets and DVDs.

"We keep going," Perry said in the Mobile International Speedway infield Tuesday. "We are the Energizer Bunny of horror films. Ask me in about a year when this one is out, and I will tell you then whether there's going to be another one."

The first "Final Destination" delivered a story about a group of teenagers who cheat fate by avoiding a plane crash after one of them has a premonition about their deaths. In that film, the protagonists then find themselves falling victim, one by one, to mysterious freak accidents.

Sequels follow a similar plot formula, with the invisible antagonist Death determined to fell any victim who escapes his or her intended demise.

"Final Destination 2" director David Ellis, who is back at the reins for the current production, said the new movie will center on a young man who saves the lives of several people who were meant to die in a horrific crash at an auto race.

The cast includes Bobby Campo, Shantel Van Santen, Haley Webb, Nick Zano, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella and Mykelti Williamson.

The players are all newcomers to the series, since all prior protagonists have been killed off.

"What we learned in 'Final Destination 3' was that we can kill everybody and the audience will be happy," Perry quipped.

The producer said none of the principal players joined the crew shooting in Alabama. They finished their scenes in Louisiana, where a section of the speedway grandstands was recreated for filming the main actors. The shots done there will be joined with the Alabama shots to form a cohesive scene at the fictitious McKinley Speedway.

"It's a very complicated shoot, not just because there's a lot of stunts and special effects, but you are literally shooting the same scene in two different states," Perry said.

Ellis, who acknowledged that "Final Destination 2" enjoys an informal ranking as "the fan favorite," said he expects the fourth installment to be well received.

"This is going to be the best one," Ellis enthused. "It will play in 2D theaters as well, and it will be a great experience. But in 3D it will be really special."


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