While filming The Edge, he was in the Rocky Mountain range in Alberta, Canada, when an old ailment came back to haunt him.

As most people know by now, Hopkins is a perfectionist and while shooting Nixon a few years earlier, the Oscar-winning star had to achieve a stooped posture in order to capture the essence of the late US president, Richard Nixon.

They say don't take the part home with you but Hopkins had little choice when the stoop caused a trapped nerve in his back.

"It was a rite of passage for me as well as for my character," Hopkins remarked at the time. "For the first eight weeks of shooting the pain became progressively worse. Somehow I was able to put all my energy into the action of this film, braving the elements and the cold, and tried to forget the pain. But as soon as I let go and went back home at night, the pain became worse."

One weekend, Hopkins admitted himself to a hospital in Calgary and underwent a surgical procedure to remove a ruptured disc. He was back at work filming the following Wednesday, having missed just one day of shooting.

Upon returning, he was more than ready for the film's gruelling action scenes, including fighting a monstrous bear, running through dense wilderness and being immersed in icy water. "We tuned Tony up for the action genre," says director Lee Tamahori. "Anyone that works with him now has a seasoned action veteran."

Hopkins plays billionaire Charles Morse, a bookworm who lives life's adventures in the comfort of his armchair. Alec Baldwin plays brash fashion photographer Robert Green, a man with an eye for beauty.

Elle Macpherson is Mickey, Morse's beautiful young wife who he suspects is having an affair with Green.

Hidden tensions are unleashed when they engage in a desperate struggle for survival after their plane crashes in the hostile Alaskan wilderness.

Written by David Mamet (The Untouchables), the film began with a very simple idea.

"David's screenplay started out with him saying, 'Well, it's going to be one guy trying to kill another guy,'" remembers producer Art Linson. "Within a few days, Mamet had them in the middle of the wilderness - with a wild Kodiak bear trying to kill them. And suddenly they had to find a way to connect in order to survive."

Some locations were so steep and perilous to reach that helicopters had to be called in to carry equipment into the shooting location.

"I wanted that extreme ruggedness - the almost overwhelming sense that this is big dangerous country," comments Tamahori. "The actors had no idea what they were in for... otherwise they might have backed off."

As with all of Mamet's screenplays, the movie bristles with witty one liners and cracking diaolgue. Perhaps not on a par with his memorable speeches in The Untouchables but The Edge has its moments. Such as a post bear-grappling scene in which Hopkins' character emerges triumphant from the unwanted attention of his razor-clawed rival.

Green (Baldwin): "See, Charles, that's why they call it personal growth. A month ago, old Smokey here would've reared up, you probably would've called your lawyer."

Morse (Hopkins): "Nah, I wouldn't do that to an animal."

Hopkins could soon be quoting more of Mamet's dialogue if things go to plan. He's completed new movies Instinct and Titus and is currently putting the finishing touches to much troubled sequel Mission: Impossible 2. Then expect sales of Chianti and fava beans to go through the roof as Ridley Scott takes the director's chair for Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal.

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