Art imitating life…..
THE CAVE may appear to be simply the product of a writer's imagination, but new micro-ecologies have actually been discovered evolving in deep caves, especially in Romania.  One of the most famous is the Movila Caves discovery.  Acclaimed speleologist and Romanian editor of National Geographic magazine, Dr. Christi Lascu, served as a consultant on THE CAVE and was present at the Movila discovery.  He says: "The Movila Caves do bear a resemblance to the story of THE CAVE.  It was towards the end of the 1980s when the government wanted to build a huge power plant near Black Sea.  My mission was to inspect the soil to see if this land could support such a heavy building.  In one of the caves there was sulphuric thermal water full of unusual invertebrate animals." 
"There were probably hundreds of new creatures there, and 35 of them were noted by scientists as brand new species," he continues.  "These creatures only lived in this cave.  They are, in a way, living fossils because they have survived millions of years.  During the Ice Age these animals became underground refugees, using the thermal water there to survive.  An esteemed colleague of mine used the cave discovery for his PhD thesis. He said that if a nuclear war destroyed the planet and all the life of the surface disappeared, that the ecosystem in the Movila Caves would survive because it doesn't depend on solar energy or food from the surface."
The Movila discovery was a very big discovery because it was the first underground ecosystem based on chemosynthesis in the world.  Among the creatures discovered was a centipede that measured 10cm, and had a poisonous bite.  There has also been discovery of amphibian animals in Yugoslavia over 20cm long.  No discovery was made of a monster the magnitude of our creature in THE CAVE - but who knows?   In theory, there is not a limit for the size of animals living down there.  There are already large creatures in caves supported by chemosynthesis, so why not? 
Andrew Mason explains that although the movie is fiction, the creative team went to great lengths to keep the movie as technically plausible as possible: "We hired some of the greatest cave divers in the world as consultants.  We tapped into their experience and put into the script a number of incidents and flavors that relate to things that really happened with people who are diving underground."
  "A cave is an incredibly threatening environment," he adds.  "Apparently one diver in 14 dies each year!  So you've got that level of danger just in the physical process of moving through the environment.  In fact there has been a recent incident in Mexico where a bunch of British cave divers were trapped in caves." 
Diving consultant to THE CAVE and exploration legend, Jill Heinerth, has her own tales to tell:  "I was trapped inside an iceberg once while diving in Antarctica.  A piece of the iceberg basically closed up the opening where we'd gone in.  And then on a subsequent dive my team and I were held back by the current, unable to escape the iceberg.  So we've had some harrowing experiences.  The underwater DP for this film, Wes Skiles, was once trapped with 13 people inside a cave in Australia and had to dig his way to safety over a period of days.  So they are scary places!"
Richard Wright adds: "We worked incredibly hard on this script.  It's a deceptively complicated story, and we had to respect the basic underlying science.  We were dealing with completely closed ecosystems, chemosynthetic life forms and the physics and safety procedures of cave diving.  There's a lot of technical and scientific information that's woven into this script that you don't necessarily realize, but we hope that all the experts and enthusiasts will watch the film and - allowing of course for a certain dramatic license - will think 'Wow, they really did their homework'."

Getting Started
Australian Executive Producer Andrew Mason on (the Matrix Trilogy), discovered the script by L.A.-based writers Michael Steinberg and Tegan West while in L.A. on business in 1999.   "I loved it immediately," he says.  "I thought it was a great and original take on classic horror thriller films that rely on imagination terror rather than the scare of seeing something in particular, so I grabbed it.  I spoke to the guys at Lakeshore, Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg, who also liked the script immediately, and liked Bruce Hunt's work, who I was proposing as director.  We formed a partnership and away we went."
Producer Gary Lucchesi, thought the screenplay was very commercial and an interesting idea.  "When I first read the screenplay, I was reminded of Ridley Scott's ALIENS, which was a movie that had a great effect on me almost twenty years ago.  I thought it was sophisticated, scary, and stylistically accomplished, but was also tremendously credible in terms of how it was directed.  It didn't pull a lot of tricks."
After viewing Hunt's reel, Lucchesi knew the director could pull off a first feature with this movie.  "I brought the project to Screen Gems, who I thought would be natural partners for us since we had great success on ARLINGTON ROAD, THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES and UNDERWORLD with them.   I also knew that teaming with a first-time director could be risky, but never worried about Bruce Hunt.  Bruce is not a first-time director.  He's been directing for fifteen years and is perhaps the most renowned commercial director in Australia. He just hadn't directed a feature yet.  He shot second unit on huge films including THE MATRIX, so in terms of being comfortable with the camera, shooting action, and working with actors, we felt that he could achieve all of that very successfully." 
Producer Richard Wright says, "this was an extraordinarily difficult movie to make. One of the nice things about having Bruce do the movie (beyond his own creative skills, which are considerable) was that he brought a lot of his Australian crew with him.  They are utterly devoted to him and would do anything for him.  As a result we've accomplished things that ordinarily we would not have been able to do."

Casting
Casting the film would be challenging.  The actors who would play these roles would need to be not only fantastic actors, but physically would have to rise to the challenges of acting while under water, diving with rebreathers, swimming and climbing.  There would be a six week training period to learn how to dive with rebreathers, and it would be physically draining.  It was a tall order and Cole Hauser would fill the first role of Jack.   "We needed an actor who represented leadership qualities," says Lucchesi.  "Jack is the head of the diving team, the head of the exploration, and the role would be the most challenging of all.  Cole Hauser had everything we needed to best represent Jack - he is a brilliant actor, is physically fit, and takes charge of a room when he walks into it."
"The preparation for this was the most I've ever done on a film before," says Hauser.  "It takes fifteen years to learn how to do the stuff that we learned in two weeks.  I watched the documentary 'Amazing Caves' before I started on the film, and was blown away at the things that cave divers do.  They are really earth's astronauts.  I did most of my own stunts and it was pretty crazy.  When I felt like it was unsafe, I would use a stuntman, and I got off pretty easy - a cut on my head and a burn on my eyelash from a flare!"
Morris Chestnut would be second in the line of casting as Buchanan.  "With his ex-military kind of background, Morris is fantastic and had the physical presence to be Jack's main man," states Bruce Hunt.  "Buchanan is a long-time business partner of Jack's," says Chestnut.  "We started a dive company together and have been working together ever since.  He's not a guy who says a lot, but he's a strong leader who pretty much helps corral the troops.  He's a lot like me.  I joke a little bit more than Buchanan does, but I'm pretty quiet like he is in certain situations and I always try to lead by example in my everyday life.  So there's a little me in Buchanan."
Eddie Cibrian would fall into place with Tyler, Jack's brother.  "Jack kind of got Tyler into diving," says the actor.  "He's a more relaxed, carefree type of guy who is willing to take a risk because of the fun of it without thinking of the consequences.  But he's a character that throughout the movie, basically grows up.  It's a rite of passage for him and he steps up and becomes a man at the end.  Jack has always taken care of him, and in the end, he takes care of Jack.  I loved that about this character."
Training for the role was a lot of fun for Cibrian.  "They started us off rock climbing training and I've never rock climbed before in my life, so for me that was a lot of fun.  You don't have to pay me to do that!  We rock climbed for two and a half weeks and it was the most difficult, amazing thing.  Then we moved to scuba training and did some open water stuff and moved right into rebreathers, where there are basically 10 or 15 people in the entire world certified to dive with these things, so just being able to work with them was unbelievable."
Piper Perabo was quickly cast as Charlie, a role originally written for a man, and then changed to a woman.  Piper did a lot of training for the role as well.  "I started climbing in New York on indoor walls, and then in L.A., and then Vancouver," she remembers.  "I had never dived before this movie, but I did some climbing in college.  I do a lot of yoga, so that sort of helps in climbing as far as balance and movements go."  But the strength of the role is what initially attracted her.  "This is a really strong role for a woman.  The fact that it was written originally for a man makes it innately stronger.  I like that Charlie is just a part of the team; as much a part of the team as the rest of the guys and her sex doesn't matter."
Rick Ravanello followed suit with his role as Briggs.  "Briggs is an interesting study," says Ravanello.  "He's a no bullshit, straightforward sort of guy; the type of guy you would like on your team."
"Six years ago, I completed a basic instruction for scuba diving," he continues.  "We did some classroom work and put on a tank and mask and went into the water.  So when they said this was about diving, I got a little cocky.  Then they showed us the gear and what we would be doing and we started the training and my cockiness went right out the window!  I showed up in Romania expecting to see a couple of rocks and a really big blue screen, and when they gave me the tour and we saw the walls, and the pools and the caves, I knew I was in for something really special.  Ten to twelve hours in a wet suit - in and out of the water - body temperature dropping one degree and your whole body shaking uncontrollably - this role was physically overwhelming, but I had a great time."
The role of Alex Kim was filled by Daniel Dae Kim, who plays the cameraman for the team.  "I read the script and thought it was a fantastic story," says Kim.  "I like the genre and there happened to be a role written specifically for an Asian American which is pretty rare.  Usually when characters are written for an Asian American, it means you're doing a Kung Fu or some kind of accent.  But this character was just another member of the team, and that was appealing for me."  At the time, Kim was in Hawaii so he quickly got his certification for diving and joined the team.
Lena Headey came on board next for the role of biologist Dr. Kathyrn Jennings.  "We went to great lengths to get a completely believable, but attractive, female scientist," recalls Bruce Hunt.  "It's always a tricky thing, but Lena sells it completely.  She has a very important role in the film, which I think she pulls off.   She's lovely and charming and I think everybody's completely besotted with her.  She manages to achieve the credibility that we need as well as illustrating that she's got the toughness to get through this cave system."  Headey was anxious to put her diving credentials to the test, having been qualitied six years prior.
Casting the role of Doctor Nicolai was an easy one, according to Executive Producer Richard Wright.  "It's a Romanian character.  So you cast the best Romanian actor - who is, without doubt, Marcel Iures!"   Bruce Hunt adds: "You can call Marcel the elder statesman, not just of our group but of Romanian acting.  He is the most charming and eloquent man you could hope to meet." 
Marcel was happy to get the chance to work in his home country.  "It's so nice to actually be able to go home and sleep in my own bed, and see my family after a day of filming," says the actor.  Romania suffered financially in 1989, and the country went from producing 30 films a year to producing one.  I have had to travel around the world to film, so this one feels good to be home."
Rounding out the cast is Kieran Darcy-Smith in the role of Vincent Strode.  "Strode is the real tech guy," Darcy-Smith explains.  "I had only done some snorkelling in Australia and have always wanted to get further down and check it out a bit more seriously, and the best thing about this film for me is that I am now certified and can do that!"

Putting together the team of experts…
The world's leading diving authority, Jill Heinerth, was pulled on board to serve as Underwater Technical Advisor.  She was charged with the task of helping to design some of the underwater technology for the film, and train the cast in the use of Rebreathers.  She also coordinated the underwater film unit.  "I started training the team about two weeks before everyone left for Romania," she says.  "Some of the team I didn't have access to until we actually arrived in Romania, so I worked in pools and on set trying to get in as much time as we could underwater.  I needed to make this as real and cutting edge as possible."
"Most people who go on recreational dive trips use standard scuba technology and every time they exhale, they vent bubbles into the water column.  Rebreathers are a really interesting technology that captures those bubbles, recycles them, cleans them up and allows the diver to rebreath the gas they've exhaled.  What that does is create an incredible savings.  Instead of using dozens of tanks for a long and deep dive, you can use a small air supply and optimise their oxygen every moment of their dive.  It's sort of leaner and meaner diving."
"Rebreathers are used to allow astronauts to do space walks," she continues.  "They are used to clean the air in submarines so that submariners can stay down for great lengths of time.  So we used the real technology and trained the cast on that real technology.  It was very exciting."
Heinerth managed eighteen members of the underwater unit, filming, organizing safety and acting as their doubles.  She was amazed at how real the sets for THE CAVE were.  "They were just spectacular," she says.  "I would get lost in the set, drifting off because it felt so real.  And then I would turn around and there was someone coming towards the cast with a hairbrush!  It was a very interesting experience!"

Filming in Romania
It is suitable that a movie about a cave is set, and shot, in Romania.  The country has over 12,000 registered caves, and is thought to have as many again that are uncharted as yet.  The country's expert in this area, Dr Christi Lascu, says:  "We have a file for each cave discovered.  The range is amazing.  We have huge cavernous caves, ice caves, caves with archaeological remains and even some that are well preserved prehistoric cemeteries.  We are still finding new caves.  Recently they discovered the deepest cave in Romania - it was 17km long!"
Producer Gary Lucchesi explains:  "Bucharest is an amazing place to shoot.  We were based at the Media Pro studios complex, which was originally developed to resemble Paramount Pictures. It has a huge main administrative building, which is all very grand, and houses four good soundstages and a beautiful back lot.  The potential for this particular studio is really quite extraordinary.  And what was exciting for me as a producer was that we controlled every one of the stages. We had about 500 acres to ourselves.
Bruce Hunt found control in being able to film in tanks versus caves for a number of the more dangerous takes.  "It became very obvious to us right away that to take a crew down into a cave would either ruin the caves that we were in or it would be an access problem and an insurance issue for our crew.  We had a lot more control at the studio."
Producer Richard Wright chose Romania for other reasons as well,  "Romania is an up and coming production center where you can achieve very high quality production values for very affordable prices.  So the fact that it matched the story and made economic sense made it difficult to shoot anywhere else.  Saying that, it did of course present challenges.  We had to build, from scratch, a three quarters of a million gallon tank to shoot our underwater photography.  There is not a soundstage anywhere in continental Europe that could accommodate this, so we had to build a set and the soundstage around the set simultaneously - in four months!  These are things that you couldn't really do anywhere but Romania.  You'd never be able to do it in Los Angeles. 

The Mexico Shoot
After the main shoot, Jill Heinerth and the team went off to the Yucatan in Mexico to film more of the amazing underwater scenes.  She says: "The tank in Romania offered a good controlled location for stunt work, but it lacked the mesmerizing beauty of a cave that cannot be duplicated.  So we covered about one mile of underwater conduits to shoot the different set locations in the real caves of the Yucatan.  These caves are one of the natural wonders of our earth. We shot in a location called Hidden Worlds, a place which is very dear to my heart.  I have been involved in exploration in this system for many years and I cannot think of a more beautiful place on the planet. I come back year after year to explore, film and photograph this wonderful place.  Wes Skiles directed the underwater portions of the IMAX film JOURNEY INTO AMAZING CAVES in the same location in 1998.  He has been mesmerized by the cave ever since then."
"We utilized closed circuit re-breathers on and off camera during our time here," she continues.  "This is because we needed to minimise the bubbles we create in the cave to stop silt-outs. Traditional scuba gear that makes bubbles will often create so much silt that the team has to retreat and wait for the water to clear for additional takes."
"The team itself was an absolutely historic collection of the 'silver backs' of cave diving, with a few up and coming cave explorers sprinkled in the mix," she adds. "The world's finest and most active cave divers were involved in this shoot and we were privileged that they all took the time to participate as most have other jobs.  Collectively, I believe the team on this project has laid more 'virgin line' in unexplored caves than anyone on the planet."
"In Romania there were many dangers involved with the magnitude of the stunts that we were performing underwater. We had divers plunge into the water through bubbles of propane that were lit into an exploding fireball as they departed.  We had to orchestrate landslides of rock on top of guys who were diving without masks and fins.  Since the project is now finished, and everyone is safely in their beds sleep, I can confess that I feel a great deal of relief after delivering a safe project for all involved!"

The Sets
Producer Andrew Mason describes the sets: "Pretty much every corner of the studio facility was full of bits of set.   And most of them had water in them.  A couple of buildings had to be specially built because we wanted something that was twice as big as any available stage here.  The studio also built a very large pool on the back-lot to house our underwater sets.  We had a brilliant production designer, Pier Luigi Basile, and a whole team of Romanians, Italians, Germans and Czechs who made organic looking sets that are sculptural masterpieces."
For Richard Wright, the issue was not the size of the soundstages but what went in them:  "My biggest worry was the water.  How do you do a movie that takes place in, around or under water for almost the entire film, and do it safely, affordably and in a way that looks good?  That was a real challenge for a number of reasons.  You can drown in it.  When the electricity is around, it becomes complicated.  And when you're simulating waterfalls and rivers, and some of our tanks were 20 feet deep, there was water treatment and water flow issues.  There were issues of water clarity; how clear should the water be?  Can we shoot it cloudy one day and then two days later have it be perfectly clear?  And you can't forget the health issues; are people going to get sick going in and out of the water all the time?  Water adds a layer of complexity that you can't possibly imagine until you actually go through it yourself."
Stunt and Diving Teams           The Creature
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