Single Parents co-stars Adam Brody, Leighton Meester, and Taran Killam star in The River Wild, a contemporary reimagining of the 1994 film starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon.
In this remake, Joey (Meester) plans to go whitewater rafting with her brother Gray (Killam) in an attempt by the siblings to reconnect. But the trip takes a deadly turn when Gray’s co-worker and childhood friend Trevor (Brody) unexpectedly joins them, dredging up dark secrets from everyone’s past.
Brody and Meester, who are married in real life, told Entertainment Weekly that filming their tense scenes together felt “oddly natural,” though they were worried it would be “uncomfortable.”
“I was a bit worried at the outset that we would take our work home with us, but it was easy enough to switch off between takes, let alone on the way home,” Brody said. “But my absolute favorite part of filming was chasing Leighton through the woods at full speed.”
Meester similarly said filming “outside in the elements” was made easier since she’s so close to Brody and Killam. But where was The River Wild filmed? Read on — we’ve got answers.
Though the film takes place in the Idaho woods just a few hours outside of Boise, The River Wild was actually filmed in Eastern Europe.
“We filmed in Hungary, Slovakia and Bosnia, and drove to and from each location through Eastern Europe. We were outside in the elements — the heat of summer, on the ground or in the cold water, the racing rapids, or on the raft,” Meester told EW.
Killam also joked that his experience filming The River Wild now puts him on par with his wife Cobie Smulders, who has appeared in various Marvel projects as Maria Hill.
“My wife has done a bunch of action films but I’ve never been a part of something so physically demanding,” he said. “Now I’ve got one up on her because I’ve trained at an Olympic whitewater facility in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia and she has not.”
The movie’s thrilling action is emphasized by the high-stakes tension of whitewater rafting, so it makes sense that they invested so much into making sure everything was as believable as possible. The film’s stunning vistas certainly helped, too.
The River Wild is now streaming on Netflix.