Ham act brings home the bacon

TEN years ago George Miller, the director of the Mad Max series, read a little-known children's book by Dick King-Smith, The Sheep-Pig. It is about a piglet who challenges the social order of the farmyard by daring to be a sheepdog. He decided it was a 'perfect little tale' and, instead of putting it back on the shelf, optioned it for a full-scale movie.

'I just thought it would be wonderful if one day we could film real-life animals and make it appear as if they could actually talk,' Miller said. 'Something about the quality of the story, something that shone out, made me determined to somehow get it on to the screen one day.' Back in late 1985, that was impossible. When he first put the budget together, Miller was horrified to see it mount to US$100 million (about HK$773 million). But he still called friend Chris Noonan, who directed episodes of the Miller-produced television mini-series Vietnam. In 1988, they wrote the screenplay for a movie called Babe.

'After we finished the screenplay, I went off around the world searching out special-effects houses for the techniques that we required to create realistic, believable animal dialogue,' said Noonan. 'I met virtually every animal trainer in the world. There was a hell of a lot to work out. It seems almost ludicrous to me too, that I spent seven years of my life on this film. But we didn't know it was going to take that long.

'I was captivated by this story, and the more I worked on it, the more the story developed as a film, the more faith I had in it. It's almost like a religious cult. You develop a faith in something and want to follow it to the ends of the earth.' While many producers and directors will talk about taking years to make a film, it is almost unheard of for a movie-maker to spend 21/2 years on the production process. Noonan said: 'Of course, during that time, late at night after a difficult day directing every variety of farmyard animal, I would have fantasies about the movie going to No. 1 and staying there for a year. But I didn't think it would actually happen.' Babe, a beautifully-crafted tale which tackles the bigger issues in life, has taken US$60 million in America and almost the same to date worldwide. It cost US$25 million to make.

'It was reviewed so respectfully by very august organs like The Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker that it became a date movie - where adults who couldn't borrow someone else's children would turn up anyway at night,' said Miller. It has since won the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy.

Producer Miller, director Noonan, and animal trainer Karl Lewis-Miller are holed up in London's exclusive Dorchester Hotel, 'living high off the hog', cracks Noonan, and answering questions from an intrigued press corps. Miller and Noonan display the irreverence you might expect from experienced Aussie film-makers, but American-born Lewis-Miller regards Babe as something more than just another film on his CV.