Producer Lake remembers, "When I saw Paul Verhoeven's `Starship Troopers,' I was struck by Casper Van Dien's performance and his physical appearance. He had the brains, the brawn and the charm to be our Tarzan."

Van Dien comments, "I think what excited me the most, outside of filming in Africa, was the fact that, as a child, I really did look up to Tarzan and his combination of strength among humans and gentleness with the animals. It was a great thrill to get to portray him at last."

Jane March came to the filmmakers' attention because of her spirited feistiness, a quality the actress shares with her on-screen persona-Jane, a modern heroine with a `90s sensibility. The producers and director also felt that March's delicate beauty balanced the intense physicality of Van Dien.

Canter notes, "Jane March brought a lot of femininity to Jane without sacrificing great strength, an essential part of this woman who sets out into Africa alone to find her fiancé."

Jane March enjoyed getting the chance to breathe life into Tarzan's Jane. She wanted to "be able to play a really fresh character and make an adventure film. This gave me the opportunity to do both at once."

For the part of the cold-blooded mercenary and Tarzan's nemesis, Nigel Ravens, Canter looked to Britain. He says, "I had seen Steven Waddington's work and was impressed by his physicality, a quality not every British actor shares. His brooding nature is suited to the determination that drives Ravens."

The production also sought a "guide" who could transform the veritable babble of the multiple African settings into a singular on-screen language. Noted Austrian production designer Herbert Pinter was commissioned to oversee the production design. (Pinter's extensive work in Africa and experience with period pictures-most recently with Bruce Bereford's "Mister Johnson," set in 1923 in Africa-proved invaluable to realizing the filmmakers' vision.)

Pinter was in agreement with Canter, Geissler, Lake and Schenkel. He notes, "All of us wanted to steer clear of the clichéd Hollywood interpretations of Africa. No Zulu shields for us." Instead, the designer stayed with earthy materials indigenous to the country and augmented with exotic props from the northern parts of the continent.

Pinter, employing five construction crews, erected 17 separate sets to tell this Tarzan's story. These included the Mbiko and Chiromo Village, the riverfront hotel, trading post and Tarzan's bamboo treehouse, as well as the several sets and set pieces that represented the mythic treasure city of Opar. The architecture employed for the sets built by the natives has, according to Pinter, a "grand primitiveness of an industrious civilization that is reflected in the large Aztec-like staircase and the mammoth idols of Opar, as well as in the rough-hewn animal reliefs on the traditional mud huts. The architecture depicts the purity of a tribe isolated from any influence of Western intruders."

The Opar set, by far the most challenging of the sets, comprised an astonishing 180 tons of steel, with the completed structure standing more than 100 feet high, making it one of the largest sets ever built in South Africa. (Particularly daunting were the ever-present electrical storms that plague the open countryside where the steel-framed staircase was built. Pinter notes, "We had to halt construction several times because of the storms. It's not exactly safe climbing around on a huge metal frame in the middle of an electrical storm.")

Indeed, the weather proved troublesome throughout the brisk two-month shoot. The heavy rains on the Wild Coast slowed construction on the forest and jungle sets, which had to be reinforced to withstand the heavy downpours and possible flooding. Additionally, the builders had to stay within the stringent confines set down by the National Parks Board, the custodian of the ecologically sensitive areas used in some of the filming; in order to preserve the wildlands, activities such as tree-trimming or hole-digging were prohibited, and the usage of heavy vehicles was curtailed.

Concern for authenticity also dictated the costumes created for the denizens and looters of these sets by designer Jo Katsaras, who utilized a wide array of muted natural fibers and materials along with distressed leathers and some actual hides for the Mbiko warriors. Designs also had to reflect the gradual "Africanization" of Jane and the transformation of Tarzan from Lord Greystoke to Lord of the Apes. The mysterious Mugambi's outfits were adapted from the exotic tribal dress common to equatorial African natives and shifted as the shaman adopts different guises throughout the tale.

Specially designed body paint and makeup worn by the warriors and their mystical leader were drawn from the elaborate body art of the Nuba tribesmen. The labor-intensive makeup process sometimes stretched into hours, particularly on the days where more than 200 extras were seen on camera. Research indicated that the tribesmen utilized ash as a body paint, but this process did not show up well on film. The solution came when a makeup assistant used river clay instead-it dried white on the skin, photographed well and was plentiful and inexpensive.

Casper Van Dien's preparation for the film included extensive research into the history of the character, the continent of Africa and its wildlife. He also stepped up his already rigorous physical training to sculpt his body into a powerful feral appearance. Hair extensions were also incorporated to give his modern-day haircut the wild look of a man raised by apes. (Jane March did not escape the transformation process, either-her hair was lengthened by extensions to the waist-length appropriate to the period.)



Although the production had been prepared for the usual wet season that coincided with their filming schedule, the rains proved unseasonably heavy even to the local residents. The rains also brought forth large swarms of mosquitoes and other irritating creatures and turned the usual hard African ground into knee-deep mudpits.

Adapting a little of his character's undaunted outlook, Van Dien allowed nothing to interfere with his portrayal of one of his childhood heroes while filming; he was even given the names Amandla (which means strength) and Sipho (a gift) by the South African extras.

Van Dien also completed the majority of stunts himself, some unplanned. Casper remembers, "We were shooting in the bamboo grove when I approached a baby elephant, intending to scratch its head. The elephant charged me, lifting me about four feet up and throwing me back several feet to the ground. It shook me up, but I only got a couple of bruises." The actor's relationships with the other on-screen animals, including an African python, were less contentious.

Re-creating the classic vine-swinging mode of transportation proved a particular challenge to the actor. Van Dien practiced the intricate maneuver for months prior to filming. The actor recalls, "I'm lucky that I'm of average height and build. It's easier for me to accomplish this than, say, a taller or bulkier person. But let's get real here-I think that the chimps are the only ones that can do this without the benefit of a personal trainer."

Warner Bros. Presents A Dieter Geissler/Alta Vista Production, In Association With Village Roadshow Pictures-Clipsal Film Partnership, of A Carl Schenkel Film: "Tarzan and the Lost City," starring Casper Van Dien, Jane March and Steven Waddington. The music is by Christopher Franke. The production designer is Herbert Pinter. The special effects are by CineMagic/HDO. The visual effects supervisor is Julian Parry; the editor is Harry Hitner; and the director of photography is Paul Gilpin. The executive producers are Greg Coote, Peter Ziegler, Kurt Silberschneider and Lawrence Mortorff. "Tarzan and the Lost City" is produced by Stanley Canter, Dieter Geissler and Michael Lake, and is based on the "Tarzan"reg. stories created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The screenplay is by Bayard Johnson and J. Anderson Black. The film is directed by Carl Schenkel and distributed domestically and in select international territories by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Company.