MOVIES: Thomas Crown Affair infographic
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Thomas Crown Affair infographic
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MOVIES

Thomas Crown Affair

August 6, 1999 - U.S. release of remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Illustration of movie The Thomas Crown Affair. Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo follow in the footsteps of original stars Steve McQueen and Fay Dunaway.

IT was the blockbuster movie that typified the thrill of the chase during the sexual revolution of the Sixties. Steve McQueen starred as the millionaire art thief and Fay Dunaway the saucy investigator embroiled in a dangerous mating game in the 1968 release of “The Thomas Crown Affair”. Thirty years on the film is back, with Pierce Brosnan as the irresistibly sexy conman and catwalk queen Rene Russo the hard-nosed detective. Rekindling fond memories, perhaps, Fay Dunaway herself makes a cameo appearance.

The film is due for release in the U.S. on August 6 and in Britain on August 20. Brosnan plays a self-made billionaire desperate for a challenge; hardly a prime suspect when a priceless Monet painting is stolen from a world class museum in New York.

Detective Catherine Banning (Russo) smells a rat and has been hired to sniff out the art work at all costs. But during their battle of wits she succumbs to Crown’s charms.

Brosnan, fresh from his record-breaking success in his second James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”, conceived the concept behind the remake with his producing partner Beau St Clair, and sold the idea to United Artists under his own Irish DreamTime banner.
While the original film was essentially of the caper genre, the latest cranks the sexual tension between the duo up a notch and focuses more on the romance.

While the characters are hardened professionals they are hopeless at love. Director John McTiernan describes the plot as being “about two porcupines mating” and says the duo can only get it together under dangerous circumstances. Brosnan describes his character as a “powerful man, for whom winning is not enough. He craves the stimulation of a good gambit, the more dangerous the better”. Enter Dunaway, who plays Crown’s psychiatrist. Brosnan says Crown is so apparently flawless that he remains guarded, even in the confines of his shrink’s private rooms.

The film gives Russo, a former top fashion model, her first chance to play a glamorous part, and as she says, a role where she can “put a little sexual energy into it”.

The filmmakers’ biggest challenge was creating the scene of the crime, and they were forced to build their own museum in a sound stage.
“You probably can’t get permission to film an art theft in any major museum in the world” said McTiernan.

A team of legitimate Parisian art forgers were used to recreate some 200 works of art for the set, including the stolen Monet painting, “San Giorgio Maggiore Soleil Couchant”.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 3/8/1999; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Bob Hoare
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