`DEEP' THOUGHTS; IN RENNY HARLIN'S WATERY ADVENTURE, SUPER-FAST CREATURES WITH BIG BRAINS - AND EVEN BIGGER APPETITES - MAKE HUMANS JUST ANOTHER KIND OF SEAFOOD.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

``Oh the shark has razor teeth, dear.''

The opening line from ``Mack the Knife'' must have gone through director Renny Harlin's mind a few times while he was making ``Deep Blue Sea.''

After all, with a project like this, there were lot of ways to end up as many of the characters in ``Deep'' - shark munchies.

Since ``Jaws'' - the 1975 film that put Steven Spielberg on the cinematic map - shark movies have tanked, including the three ``Jaws'' sequels. And water movies such as ``The Abyss'' and ``Waterworld'' are notorious for production problems - as was ``Titanic,'' although that was the exception to the rule that proved worth the soggy effort.

So why risk the perils of the ``Deep''?

``I'd been looking for a scary movie to do for years,'' said Harlin, 40, whose 1990 signature hit, ``Die Hard 2,'' hauled in $117.5 million on a $70 million budget. ``Nobody was making the big-scale horror movies like `Jaws' or `The Exorcist' anymore. When I got this script, I said, `What? I'm going to kill myself trying to do `Jaws' again?' But I read it and felt it really worked on its own as something different from `Jaws.'

``And rather than do another movie where people were shooting at each other and having fistfights, I wanted to do something visually exciting that's kind of a roller-coaster ride that explores horror.''

To achieve those thrills, Harlin's film depended on animatronic, computer-generated and real-life sharks.

Shot in Baja Mexico at the state-of-the-art studio that was built for James Cameron's ``Titanic'' production, ``Deep Blue Sea'' is the story of a scientist (Saffron Burrows), on a floating laboratory called Aquatica, searching for a way to regenerate human brain tissue in order to cure Alzheimer's disease. Convinced that the magic serum is in the brains of sharks, she genetically re-engineers aggressive mako sharks, growing three of them to 40 feet (that's 10 feet longer than the shark in ``Jaws'') and increasing their brains to five times normal size.

Needless to say, ignoring the don't-fool-with-mother-nature axiom leads to disaster as the MENSA maneaters begin to do some methodical re-engineering of their own.

All this may sound wild, but at a recent screening in Hollywood, the crowd was clearly enjoying the ride. The $80 million Warner Bros. release also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane and LL Cool J, whose cool comic touch made him an audience favorite.

But the real stars of ``Deep'' are the authentic-looking sharks. While not as famous as the much bigger great white (star of ``Jaws''), the mako shark, which can grow to 12 feet, is a highly prized sport fish known for its speed and maneuverability in the water, clocking in at 60 miles per hour. They're also aggressive and have a preference for consuming live prey.

To suggest realistic, lightning-fast makos - and not kill their human cast in the process - the producers of ``Deep Blue Sea'' had to seamlessly mix high-tech engineering with primordial nature.

``It all depended on how lifelike we could get,'' Harlin explained. ``We decided to go with three types of sharks - real ones, hydraulic models and computer-designed.''

A decision was also made to use as much footage of animatronic or hydraulic model sharks as possible.

``We figured we'd supplement that with the digital sharks,'' explained shark action supervisor Walt Conti, whose credits include ``Free Willy'' and its two sequels. ``We were brought in early to design the look of the mako sharks. People are so used to great whites. These are makos, the fastest shark in the world. The idea was to keep it as closely based on reality as possible, but tweaked a bit. We enlarged the teeth and the cranial area, but basically, reality was as scary as fiction as far as the design of the shark.''

As Harlin points out, one of secrets of the success of ``Jaws'' was that the gigantic shark - called Bruce on the set - was mostly suggested rather than fully revealed, because the technology of the time wouldn't support such a creature.

``They turned a disadvantage into an advantage,'' he said. ``But it's 25 years later, and audiences accustomed to animatronics and computer-generated imagery need to see more.''

The most difficult part of capturing the mako on film was getting its energy, Conti said, adding: ``They're always cruising kind of slowly, then they snap and just go with this incredible burst of energy.''

That's where live shark wrangler Stuart Cove came in. Cove hosted Harlin's crew in the Bahamas, where footage was shot of actor Jane swimming with sharks. That's where a grip was bitten.

``The shark bit his hand but released it right away,'' Cove said. ``Oh, he needed a bunch of stitches.''

As for Jane, who plays shark expert Carter Blake at the research facility, he swam through a shark ``feeding frenzy'' for the camera, Cove said.

``He was amazing,'' Cove said. ``My stunt people don't even like to do that. We were very impressed.''

For his part, Harlin - whose other successes include ``Nightmare on Elm Street 4'' and ``Cliffhanger,'' but who also helmed the seagoing disaster ``Cutthroat Island'' - realizes the summer release schedule is crowded but hopes word gets around that ``Deep Blue Sea'' is an enjoyable ``popcorn'' movie for the masses.

``This is a movie where people can have fun in the theater,'' the Finnish director said. ``It's not like they have to analyze the subtext of the scenes. I'm also thinking of the international market when I make a film. I want a person in Asia or Europe as well as the U.S. to be able to have a good time.''

Harlin hinted he'd like to tackle stock car racing next.

``There hasn't been a good racing movie in this age of digital technology in sound and picture,'' he said. ``We could make a movie that could blow the audience away again without having people shooting guns or anything like that. That's something I'd really like to do.''

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Cover--Color) TERROR OF THE `DEEP'

Action you can sink your teeth into

(2) Shark expert Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) watches an attack made by toothy creatures genetically altered for a medical experiment in ``Deep Blue Sea,'' directed by Renny Harlin.

(3) In ``Deep Blue Sea,'' scientist Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) tries to reach Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) as he dangles over a shark.