THE SUN
San Bernardino County's Newspaper


WILD THINGS

By Priscilla Nordyke Roden, Staff Writer, July 18 2004

Cambodia and Thailand are a long way from Big Bear City, but close to the heart of exotic animal trainer Randy Miller. For nearly a year, Miller and his tigers Shirkon and Tara, along with cubs Titan and Eden, were on location with the film crew of ``Two Brothers," an epic adventure directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and produced by Jake Eberts. Starring Guy Pearce (Memento, Hollywood Confidential), the movie is showing in theaters now. Miller, who won a World Stunt Award for his work in ``The Gladiator," was an easy choice for the film.

``They wanted the best tigers and the best tiger trainers they could find," said Miller, whose Big Bear City-based company ``Predators in Action" supplies exotic animals to the film industry.

Working with trainer Thierry Le Portier - a Frenchman who first collaborated with Annaud on ``The Bear" 16 years ago - Miller put his tigers through daily workouts and routines to prepare them for the camera. Filmmakers said the real casting challenge was that of the tigers that would portray Sangha and Kumal at various stages in the story, as well as those portraying their parents.

A motion picture for the whole family, ``Two Brothers" is the story of twin tiger cubs - one shy and gentle, the other, bold and fierce - who are born among the temple ruins of an exotic jungle, but are one day separated by fate.

The bold brother is sold to a circus, where homesickness and living in a cage rob him of his spirit. The shy cub becomes the beloved companion for the governor's lonely young son, until an accident forces the family to give him away to a man who resolves to break his gentle nature and turn him into a fighter for sport. When they are fully grown, the brothers are reunited, but as forced enemies pitted against each other. Miller's Shirkon, 10, and Tara, 7, were cast as lead tigers, along with two tigers from France.

``My tigers did most of the running, a lot of the action shots, jumping, chasing vehicles and the river scene," Miller said. ``And they did a lot of snarling." It was all part of the show.

``We had a good run," said Miller, whose animal compound sits on 55 acres of pine forest near Big Bear City in the San Bernardino Mountains. Miller has raised and trained exotic animals for 25 years. During that time, he has taken his tigers, lions, leopards, cougars and bears to Asia, Africa and Australia. He has worked on films with Richard Harris, Tom Criuse and Jean-Claude Van Damme, appeared as a stunt double for Russell Crowe in ``The Gladiator," has done documentaries for television's Discovery Channel, and just completed commercials for Nissan and Suzuki.

Recently, he has recreated for television reports the October 2003 white tiger attack on Siegfried & Roy magician Roy Horn at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Such an attack always is a concern, said Miller, who has white tigers at his animal compound. ``I'm always watching the animals we work with for signs of any problem."

Miller, was injured on the set of ``The Gladiator" while performing a stunt with a tiger. Tempted by the leather armor wrapped around his arm, the big cat tore it away, biting Miller in the process.

``She started grabbing at the leather and even in that instance, I could see (a problem) was developing." Yet, Miller was intrigued, knowing that the animal's aggression would play out well on the screen. ``I liked the way it was developing and decided to let it go on. She grabbed it and tried to take it from me and I was injured. She was going after the leather and not me personally."

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Predators in Action

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE