Terry Gilliam  

US

"Terry was really interested in the political undertones – what happened at the end of those vibrant years. I think it was a time of real freedom of thought and experimentation – of people standing up for their beliefs. The book is partly about the disappointment that those freedoms didn't continue, as Nixon clamped down on America." 

In 'The Foul Year of Our Lord, 1971' Thompson went some way to recording the sick state of a cynical nation which saw Elvis Presley recognised by the US Junior Chamber of Commerce as 'One of Ten Outstanding Young Men in America', Charles Manson sentenced to death and 12,000 anti-war protesters arrested in Washington DC. The text – a powerful mix of hard fact and fabrication – has been dog-eared in the pockets of punks, rebels and students ever since. Gilliam's movie version will have what promoters of boy bands call a 'loyal fanbase'. 

"It will be fascinating to see how people react to this film," says Cassavetti. "There are some people who just won't get it, but they probably wouldn't have read the book in the first place. I think middle class Californian lawyers will love it, as will check-in clerks in hotels – all the creatures from the book are there. It is, in a sense, the Trainspotting of the early '70s. 

Trainspotting was a wonderful but quite a nihilistic film – I came out feeling rather depressed. I think this has more fun to it, like the book. The comedy reflects the madness and the craziness of the characters that were created in the book." 

Thompson's anti-heroes, Raoul Duke (a fictional version of Thompson) and Dr Gonzo (Chicano activist attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta), are played by Johnny Depp, who last hit cracking form in Donnie Brasco, and Benicio Del Toro (The Usual Suspects, Basquiat). 

Aware that Gonzo is supposed to be a fat bloke, the slimline Del Toro went into training at the canteen until he had put on 40 pounds and resembled what Depp describes as a "Puerto Rican Buddha". Depp's preparation for the Raoul Duke part was grounded in first-hand observation, as Cassavetti explains: 

"Depp did spend a lot of time with Thompson, and drew a lot from the original animal, so to speak. The resemblance is startling. Depp really got under his skin and I think he found it quite frightening at times. Thompson is an extraordinary man who survived the rigours of all kinds of interesting 'experiments', shall we say – you'd think he shouldn't be alive any more, but his mind is still incredibly fertile. There also is a certain terror about his character and to portray it is a journey into the unknown. Depp is not just a character actor but an actor who will try and emulate the real thing." 

When it came to filming the Mint 400 off-road race, the event Thompson was supposed to be covering for Sports Illustrated when he wrote Fear and Loathing, the difficulties of characterisation were temporarily shelved as the weather turned a little Old Testament. "We expected the middle of August to be hot as a furnace in hell, but it rained," says Cassavetti. 

"When you expect a particular weather pattern it never happens. We were filming on what's known as a dry lake bed, and when it rains you get a lot of mud." The solution arrived courtesy of Frank Whittle. "We had to bring in a jet engine mounted on a truck and sacks of Fuller's earth to create the dust necessary to make the scene effective," recalls Gilliam.

Recreating the book's hallucinogenic set-pieces, not least those featuring human-sized lizards, proved less of a headache. It was simply a matter of allying the latest camera and CGI techniques to the brain that 'illustrated' Monty Python and filmed a future called Brazil. 

"Terry has never needed to take any interesting African substances because he has that kind of imagination anyway," says Cassavetti. "Fear and Loathing is a fairly visceral experience. You do not need to take anything or smoke anything to go and see it – it'll do it for you."  
Mike Hodgkinson