A New Water World Flooding Forces ‘Postman’ Crew To Rearrange Schedule

Here he is. Actor-director Kevin Costner.

Star of last year’s relatively successful “Tin Cup” and, well, “Waterworld.”

The temptation to ask him is almost too great: With all the flooding on the Pend Oreille River, is he feeling a little deja vu? But Costner has enough water woes.

Filming of his new movie, “The Postman,” moved indoors Friday because of heavy rain and Costner took an hour out of his 16-hour work day to meet the local press.

He said the flooding could cause the 200-member production crew to move to the Portland area and return here later to film scenes in an apartment village being built on the face of Boundary Dam.

Shooting in Metaline Falls and the nearby Pend Oreille Mine is proceeding on schedule. But no filming can be done at the dam until the flood recedes and the two side-mounted spillgates are closed.

It’s difficult enough for construction crews working under plastic sheets, producer Jim Wilson said. By putting on more workers and working Sundays, it appears the construction can now be finished in time for the shooting scheduled in July.

Wilson said he has learned more about dams than he ever wanted to know, and is now optimistic that filming at Boundary can be completed on schedule.

In view of Costner’s tight schedule and limited opportunities to interview him, there was no time to squander on frivolous questions.

So how many strokes did Tiger Woods spot Costner when the two played golf together in Bend, Ore.? Part of “The Postman” was shot there before it moved here about two weeks ago.

“How many strokes somebody gives me, I’m not allowed to give out - because then I’d have to kill you,” Costner said.

It’s a secret akin to a good fishing hole, he explained.

That didn’t keep a weekly newspaper editor’s wife from offering to take Costner fishing, or the editor of another weekly from sending a golf invitation.

A correspondent couldn’t work up nerve to ask Costner to autograph the “Where in the hell is Metaline Falls?” T-shirt she brought along, but a Spokane television newswoman left one of her station’s shirts for Costner.

Costner declined the golf and fishing offers, but said he is an avid hunter and fisherman who has been tempted to “play hooky” since arriving here.

He said he chose the area in part because its natural beauty may help make the movie unique. Metaline Falls struck him as the kind of place to which people might retreat if they felt threatened.

The movie is about a reluctant hero who assumes the role of a postman after a nuclear war almost wipes out civilization.

“This is not a cynical movie,” Costner said. “Hopefully, what they’ll see will not be trees, but they’ll see hope and they’ll see joy, and they’ll see pain and they’ll see all the things that make up a good movie.”

All right, let’s work with that. Let’s suppose it’s six months from now and Costner is on David Letterman’s show. Letterman smirks at the camera, turns to Costner and says, “So, Kevin, your new movie is about a mailman who saves civilization?”

Picking up the cue, Costner suggested it must have something to do with that million-dollar check the postman delivers. “You know, that Reader’s Digest thing.”

Seriously, he said, “I don’t always have a glib answer. That’s why I just stumble and laugh on David’s show. He asks me things and I just laugh. I’m like this blubbering idiot.”

How closely does Costner’s “Postman” follow the book by David Brin? He’s not going to let leading lady Olivia Williams die as happened in the book, is he?

“You’re going to have to pay your money,” Costner replied with a big grin.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo