Time Code 2000 - Spring Movie Preview

starring Salma Hayek, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, Holly Hunter, Laurie Metcalf, Steven Weber, Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsgård
directed by Mike Figgis what's the big deal? Either the future of digital filmmaking or a recipe for a really bad headache
release date April 28

It's been both the weirdest and the most enjoyable thing I've ever done,'' Figgis says of his daring new experiment, a film that in just 93 minutes shatters virtually every rule in the moviemaking handbook. ''Time Code 2000'' used no special effects, no dubbing, no editing, and -- horror of horrors! -- no hair or makeup people. There wasn't even a script. ''It was an exercise in extreme self-governing,'' says Figgis. Even more unusual, the entire movie was shot 15 different times in one continuous unedited 93-minute take (the time it takes for Figgis' digital camera tapes to run out).

Figgis directed four roving cameras to capture the satirical psychodrama about a group of L.A. denizens, including an aspiring actress (Hayek), a studio exec (Skarsgård), his wife (Burrows), and the actress' love interest (Tripplehorn), who changes the fate of everyone involved. The completed film will show all four angles at once on the big screen.

Without the usual wagon train of Winnebagos common to most Hollywood productions, few passersby realized that the ''Leaving Las Vegas'' director was actually shooting a movie. When Figgis filmed Hayek in a scene on Sunset Boulevard, a group of unsuspecting fans stepped into camera range and started yelling ''Salma! Can we have your autograph?''

In another scene, Hayek's costar Leslie Mann was applying lipstick in an illegally parked car's rearview mirror when a real-life cop told her to move it along. Even celebs were caught off guard. ''Once, Whoopi Goldberg walked by and wanted to know what I was doing,'' says Hayek. ''I had to say, 'Shhh, Whoopi! I'm filming a movie.''' BUZZ FACTOR: 6