BRETT RATNER - RATNER'S CENTRAL PARK WOES

RATNER'S CENTRAL PARK WOES

Director BRETT RATNER ran into trouble when producing his contribution for forthcoming movie NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU - because authorities in the city enforced strict rules about filming in the famous Central Park.
The film is made up of six-minute segments, all telling different stories about New York and filmed by different directors - including actresses Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman, who both make their directorial debuts.
Ratner - who has directed blockbusters including the Rush Hour film trilogy and X-Men: The Last Stand - opted to produce his segment for the film in the city's famous green space.
But he admits the short, which required actress Olivia Thirlby to swing from a tree in the park, nearly didn't get made because of overzealous authorities.
He tells the New York Daily News, "You can do what you want in Central Park, unless you're doing it for a film. Then, you can't touch anything. Olivia weighs about 80 pounds, but we weren't allowed to have her hanging from a tree.
"We had to buy a dead tree from a prop house and bring it to Central Park. We also couldn't walk on the grass, so we had to get a crane to stand the tree up on concrete, then put grass and mulch around it, so it looked real. It was insane."