Gerard Butler banned from doing own stunts for Point Break remake

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/373314/Hollywood-star-Gerard-Butler-banned-from-extreme-sports-stunts-for-Point-Break-film


Gerard Butler banned from doing own stunts for Point Break remake

By Gavin Docherty/Published 8th April 2014

The bank robbery flick involves sky diving and surf riding exploits that are considered risky even for professional stunt men.

So the producers of the picture - who want to raise the thrill ride to a new level from the 1991 original - are going to bring in sports professionals as doubles.

"They are going to use the best of the best,” revealed Glasgow-born Butler, 44, who started work on the £90 million action fantasy Gods of Egypt in Sydney last week.

The hunk said that Garrett McNamara, who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed after riding a 78-foot tall break off the coast of Portugal in November, is on the payroll.

So is BASE-jumper Jeb Corliss, who famously leapt off the Eiffel Tower.

The original starred Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, an FBI rookie sent undercover to infiltrate a band of L.A. surfers, led by Patrick Swayze's Bodhi who robs banks.

Reeves proved a resourceful actor and learned to surf for his role.

Accomplished sky diver Swayze did over fifty of his own jumps.

Butler has been cast as Bodhi. Former Home and Away actor Luke Bracey, 24, is Utah.

The reboot, which will film on location in Tahiti, Venezuela, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany, recasts the two protagonists as environmental terrorists.

“These guys are poly-extreme sports athletes on a quest to get through eight suicidal challenges," said Butler, who nearly drowned while shooting Chasing Mavericks in California in 2011.

"Their whole journey comes from a reverence for nature rather than stealing money to fund their adventures."

While the Scot intends to work on his free climbing and surfing skills before a six-month Point Break film shoot he commented: “The BASE jumping they will not let me do. And squirrelling (landing from a wing-suit flight without deploying a parachute for the uninitiated) that’s a bit much.

“But you still have to be familiar with hanging off a mountain and hanging around big waves."

Butler got addicted to painkillers after injuries sustained on 300.