MILO" COUNTRY by Alex Lewin
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FINNEY TAKES TO "MILO" COUNTRY By Alex Lewin "It's the day after Halloween, and the man who played the Shape (i.e., killer Michael Myers) in Halloween is handing out yellow roses to every woman in sight. 'We were closing in on the last days,' slas- her-turned-director Nick Castle says, 'and we were outside a flower shop, so I just gave a flower to all the women on the Indeed, when Yelchin talks about Milo, set--just to keep everyone's spirits up.' he sounds like a parent describing his child: 'He's sensitive. He's a good kid, and Castle (a film-school buddy of Halloween when it's his turn {to be born} he gets director John Carpenter) and his crew are scared and runs away because he doesn't outside the Carnegie Deli in Manhattan, know what parents he's going to get.' But where they have come to shoot the ask him what he did for Halloween, and remaining scenes of Delivering Milo, a the ten-year-old emerges: 'I ate my tur- Capra-esque fantasy about an unborn key sandwich and I watched Child's Play 2. child (newcomer Anton Yelchin) and the angel figure (Albert Finney) who must convince him to say the words I want to be born. 'I'm his escort on Earth,' Finney says. 'I show him around. I take him to the Statue of Liberty. He's got to say those five words.' The boy's would-be parents are played by Bridget Fonda and Campbell Scott, whose father, George C. Scott, died early on in the shoot. 'We were able to work around Campbell while he was with the 'He's an interesting combination' says family,' Castle says. 'But he was a real tro- Castle (Dennis the Menace), who also oper.' auditioned Star Wars: Episode I--The Playing the ambivalent Milo is ten-year- Phantom Menace's Jake Lloyd and The old Yelchin, whom Finney describes as 'a Sixth Sense's Haley Joel Osment for the terrific kid. He's very bright and articulate role. (In fact, the script, which has been in some areas, and then you realize he's circulating in various forms for more than only ten.' 20 years, was once attached to a pre- Home Alone Macaulay Culkin.) 'Haley was so mature and so worldly. {Milo} has never been alive before, so I didn't want someone that urban.' City life, however, was a distinct draw for Finney, who savors the cacophony of midtown as he relaxes in his 40-foot trai- ler, smoking a Nat Sherman cigarillo. 'When you shoot in Manhattan,' he says, 'with all the noise, the sirens, the people, you've got to focus even more. There are so many distractions, but it's fun. That's why I joined.' His voice is a hybrid of his natural English accent and the heavy New Yorkese he has adopted for this film. 'I'm doing New Yawk,' he says, practicing. 'New Yawk!'" --Alex Lewin Published February, 2000 .