ANTHONY HOPKINS WITNESSES DEATH ON SET

Anthony Hopkins’ own experience with seeing death on the set inspired Slipstream.

In Slipstream Anthony Hopkins has experienced his most personal project to date. The legendary star has written, directed, and composed the score for the film, which is a stream of conscious tale of a movie within a movie.

Christian Slater’s leading man suddenly dies while shooting a scene putting the production into havoc. That idea came to Hopkins as so much of his real life is marked by movies which he wrote into the script.

“There was once the member of a crew killed, some crazy man put some hash in a birthday cake. It was in Holland, we were doing A Bridge Too Far and this guy was killed on the road.”

And while filming the television biography Peter and Paul 27 years ago, Hopkins experienced another devastating loss when a crew member died.

“I was in a movie in Greece with Robert Foxworth years ago and one of the members of the crew, a Greek guy called George had a heart attack and he died on the set in front of us. I saw him collapse and the doctors took him and I was standing there and they said, ‘cut’ to everyone and stand by and somebody came back in tears and said, ‘he’s dead.’ And I remember that and it was in 1980. We finished for the day and there were big strong men weeping because I had talked to George that very morning. It was so strange. It was like for a moment some huge face. I thought this is a movie because they were all concerned about the movie and this is a life just gone.”

Slipstream opening Friday, October 26th also stars John Turturro as a Harvey Weinstein-esque producer, Michael Clarke Duncan, and his wife Stella Arroyave acting beside her husband of four years.