LOUDER, FASTER, FUNNIER THE 2 WOMEN BEHIND BIG-SCREEN 'I-SPY' GIVE A DEBRIEFING ON HOW THEY BENT THE ACTION-COMEDY GENRE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

WHAT DOES IT TAKE to make your average buddy action comedy?

Two guys who can handle the action and - we hope - be funny, right?

Turning the movie remake of the 1960s television series ``I Spy'' into an other-than-average buddy comedy was, however, a mission that required two funny women - director Betty Thomas and her producing partner, Jenno Topping.

``The total reason I wanted to do it was because of Eddie Murphy,'' says Thomas, who worked with Murphy on the 1998 ``Dr. Dolittle'' remake, ``and I thought it would be weird to have a girl producing-directing team do a movie like this. If I could make it funny, this could be up my alley anyway.''

``The action in and of itself wasn't the draw of this film; it was that it was funny,'' adds Topping, who has had a producing hand in all of Thomas' mostly comic directing efforts (``The Brady Bunch Movie,'' ``Private Parts,'' ``28 Days''), and with Thomas produced the female action hit ``Charlie's Angels'' and its upcoming sequel.

``We thought we could do character-based action in a way that other people hadn't,'' says Topping. ``In other words, scenes that could still be funny and action, rather than how so many action films are done, which is have funny, funny, funny and then a big action set piece, and then funny again. We really tried to integrate the two.''

With Murphy - who essentially originated the modern buddy action comedy with ``48 HRS.'' in 1982 - on board, the behind-the-scenes team went for Owen Wilson as his on-screen foil. Wilson, no stranger to the genre, did time with Jackie Chan in ``Shanghai Noon'' and will do it again in next year's sequel, ``Shanghai Knights.''

This time Murphy is the athlete Kelly Robinson, a champion boxer. (In the original, Robert Culp's Robinson was a full-fledged secret agent traveling undercover as a top-seeded tennis pro). Wilson's Alexander Scott is, like Bill Cosby's, highly educated and multilingual, but - unlike the TV version - something of a screw-up at other spy skills. They're running around Budapest, Hungary, trying to find a stolen super attack airplane before it's sold to the highest bidder.

A different view

As you may have figured out by now, ``I-Spy'' the movie has little in common with the dashless ``I Spy'' the TV series, which ran from 1965 through 1968.

``Although I have not seen the new 'I-Spy,' I know it is not my 'I Spy,' '' Cosby told the Hollywood Reporter trade paper last week.

Thomas makes no apologies for the many differences, although she does note that she only called the film ``I-Spy'' at the insistence of its bankroller, Columbia Pictures.

``It needed to become my kind of movie,'' the director insists. ``Which would mean it would be relevant to the times in some way, it would involve a great amount of comedy, and I would hire Owen Wilson, which would be the greatest thing in the world, to have his new kind of approach to humor with Eddie's already established, bombastic form of comedy.''

Of course, there was also the big-budget movie's key advantage over the TV show - the chance to blow a lot of stuff up.

``Oh no, no, no, this is comedy, dude, comedy, comedy,'' cautions Thomas who, although best-known as an actress on the television cop drama ``Hill Street Blues,'' got her training at Chicago's improv comedy landmark Second City. ``It's a comedy/action film done by a woman production team. I don't know if it's a good point, I'm just saying that's why we took it on. We like to learn (stuff) every time we do a movie.''

That said, though ...

``Yeah, you really want the opportunity to flip cars because, you know, until you've done it...'' Thomas admits.

And Thomas did get that hoped-for education, even as she tried to teach the well-worn genre a few new tricks.

``I had a lot to learn as a girl,'' she admits. ``But to make it fun, I wanted to exaggerate slightly but not comment on the form.''

Asked if Thomas brought a discernibly feminine perspective to the ballistic proceedings, Topping shrugged.

``I don't know if that kind of thing captures women's imaginations in quite the same way that it does men's,'' says Topping, who notes that Kathryn Bigelow (``Point Break,'' ``K-19'') is the only female director who regularly tackles the action genre. ``But both Betty's and my taste has never been very easy to quantify. She was pretty good at this. And I've always thought of Betty as the link between genders, anyway. What she does really well in all of her work, regardless of whether it's masculine in nature or feminine in nature, is walk a really interesting tonal line between being very original and quirky and almost dark, and hitting a mass sensibility that connects with a large commercial audience.''

Shock and resolve

That sensibility was sorely tested when production of ``I-Spy'' began in Budapest - on Sept. 12, 2001.

``We actually started second unit the 10th, with a car explosion,'' Thomas explains. ``Thank God we did it then, and on the 12th we shot the reaction footage, so it was appropriate at that time.

``Everyone was affected deeply,'' she recalls, while noting that nobody on the crew, which consisted primarily of European talent, lost a loved one in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. ``We were so separated from our families and from New York. We were all sitting at our computers and watching CNN.

``Yes, there were questions. People called and said, 'We're not gonna work, are we?' And I said, 'Yes we are. We need to do that, we need to work right now.'

``One reason to do this movie, maybe, is because we wanted to find out why girls don't do this kind of movie,'' Thomas says. ``So we did. And what we found out was, the important thing is to make whatever movie you make your own movie, so you are satisfied with taking something of yourself and slamming it out there into the world.

``That's what I always do, and I think I did it in this movie, too. Maybe that makes it a slight hair less commercial or placeable in terms of genre, but, on the other hand, I think it makes it more interesting.

``I want $100 million or $80 million or whatever budget, that kind of movie to be made by women, if they want to make it,'' Thomas concludes. ``Don't make it if you don't want to; but I like that we could.''

Buddy system works just fine for Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson is turning into the designated movie buddy of the millennium.

Whether it's with his brother Luke (their 1996 on-screen debut ``Bottle Rocket,'' ``The Royal Tenenbaums''), cut-up contemporary Ben Stiller (``Meet the Parents,'' ``Zoolander''), Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan (``Shanghai Noon'' and its in-the-can sequel, ``Shanghai Knights'') or even Gene Hackman, a revered dramatic actor more than twice his age (``Tenenbaums,'' ``Behind Enemy Lines''), the Texan with the twice-broken nose obviously enjoys working with the same co-stars over and over again.

With ``I-Spy,'' the new movie version of the old comic espionage TV series, Wilson partners for the first time with the comedy idol of his youth, Eddie Murphy. The project has potential franchise written all over it, and you can bet Wilson would be up for a second round with Murphy.

No matter how scared he was the first time out.

``I'm pretty comfortable with improvising, but all of a sudden working with Eddie, he seemed to be 10 times more comfortable at it,'' Wilson, 33, said in his light Dallas drawl. ``That kind of inhibited me because he was just really quick, so it took me a couple of days to figure out how we were going to play off of each other. Suddenly, I knew how Luke must have felt in films like 'Bottle Rocket,' when I'd just go off.''

``I-Spy'' director Betty Thomas was glad that her co-stars quickly found comic compatibility. But she maintains that she did not hire Wilson for his buddy skills.

``I think they're two first bananas; Owen is no second banana,'' Thomas insists. ``They have two distinguished, singular approaches to comedy that have meshed only by luck in this movie, I swear. I do think I'm talented, but who knew that putting them together would work?''

Uh, maybe the people who've seen Wilson mesh so well with other disparate partners?

``That had nothing to do with what I was doing, truly,'' she vows.

Wilson attributes his knack for screen camaraderie to his upbringing; he's the middle of three brothers whose father was a writer and TV station executive and whose mother is a professional photographer.

``It's probably just the way it's happened - these are the kinds of movies I've been offered,'' Wilson reckons. ``But it's also feeling comfortable in that kind of dynamic. Growing up with my brothers and the close friendships I've had in my life, that's the stuff you draw on in a duo-type movie.''

Wilson's second career as a respected screenwriter is also a buddy thing. He co-wrote ``Bottle Rocket,'' ``Rushmore'' and ``Tenenbaums'' with a friend he met at the University of Texas, Wes Anderson. It was also director Anderson who urged Wilson to act in ``Rocket,'' launching them both professionally.

Ironically, Wilson has been too busy with a full acting schedule to work on Anderson's next script, but the writers hope to collaborate again after that film is shot.

At the moment, Wilson is preparing for one of his rare headlining gigs, a Hawaii-set remake of the crime comedy ``The Big Bounce.''

``It's a more uncertain feeling,'' he admits, ``because so much of it relies on the director being able to make it exciting. In a buddy-type movie where you're playing off someone, I feel more in control of how it's gonna turn out. I kind of know as I'm doing it if it seems funny.''

Wilson won't have to fret for too long. The next film project he's attached to is a movie version of the ultimate '70s cop-team show, ``Starsky & Hutch,'' with Stiller.

- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) covert operation 

`I-Spy's' secret plan was getting the right buddies - Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson - to complete the mission

(2 -- 4) Owen Wilson, left, director Betty Thomas and Eddie Murphy

(5) no caption (Owen Wilson)

Box:

Buddy system works just fine for Owen Wilson (see text)