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DiCaprio film gets green light from Thai judgeEnvironmentalists fail to halt filming in national parkWeb posted on: BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A civil court judge rejected pleas from environmental groups Tuesday to halt filming of Leonardo DiCaprio's latest movie on an idyllic beach in a Thai national park. Twentieth Century Fox plans to start filming for "The Beach" later this week on Phi Phi Island in the southern Krabi province, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southwest of Bangkok. Environmentalists went to court, backed by local residents and hotel and tour operators, to stop the filming, claiming film crews have already done enough damage to the area. "They've changed something wild into a coconut plantation," said environmentalist Ink Kanjanavanit. "Maybe that's Hollywood's idea of a tropical paradise, but it's not what you do. You cannot alter a national park."
The film's opponents had asked for an emergency injunction to stop work on Phi Phi Island's Maya Beach. They have filed a lawsuit against Fox, the Thai film coordinator and the director general of the Royal Forestry Department, who gave Fox permission to film. A hearing is scheduled for March. Critics accuse the movie makers of removing native plants, planting 93 coconut palms in their place and landscaping sand dunes. Fox and the Thai government agencies involved argue the environmental impact will be minimal. Fox has already paid a six-figure bond against ecological damage. "We'll refill the holes, we'll replant everything, water it and it'll grow," said "The Beach" producer Andrew Macdonald. "... It will be exactly the same again." Lawyers for the filming's opponents say they are considering other legal avenues to stop the project. The film, a comedy-adventure, stars DiCaprio as an American pop-culture buff who sets off on a trip after finding a map giving directions to a legendary island paradise free from society's conventional problems. It is currently slated for release in December 1999.
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