Inside Move: Twisted turns

Pics soldier on when thesps take a fall

By DAVE MCNARY

Having a star injured during a shoot always throws a monkeywrench into production, but the degree of the headache for studios and producers varies widely. And for thesps, one star's debilitating turn is sometimes another's opportunity.

"You're always sweating bullets any time your star's in a dangerous spot," one veteran producer admits. "That's why you bond the actors and that's why you have stunt doubles."

Paramount and MTV were forced Aug. 31 to shut down "Aeon Flux" for several weeks due to an unspecified injury suffered by Charlize Theron on the Berlin set while on a trampoline. Theron, a former ballet dancer, portrays an acrobatic superheroine and is expected to recover handily and get back to work quickly.

But a spate of injuries has sidetracked a number of projects in recent times, creating both angst and opportunity.

Among recent productions delayed for accidents: "Gothika" (Halle Berry's broken arm), "Cinderella Man" (Russell Crowe's shoulder), "The Hunted" (Benicio Del Toro's broken arm) and "Hollow Man" (Elisabeth Shue's Achilles tendon).

Sometimes the actors soldier on, like George Clooney, who sprained an ankle playing basketball on a lunch break during the final stages of the "Batman & Robin" shoot.

Other times, a mishap necessitates a cast change. Ankle injuries forced out Courtney Love from "Ghosts of Mars" and Nicole Kidman from "Panic Room"; the actresses were replaced by Natasha Henstridge and Jodie Foster, respectively.

Sometimes pics and actors just dodge a bullet: Colin Farrell broke his foot slipping on a hotel stairway two days before the end of the "Alexander" shoot -- after emerging unscathed from an array of tough stunts on the epic.