Frog alert as cane toads invade Hollywood

Reuters

FROG ALERT: Cane toads have taken over the Hollywood film The Spiderwick Chronicles.

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George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio had better look out - Australia's despised cane toad is moving in on their turf.

Just as the ugly pest relentlessly spread from Queensland to other parts of Australia after its misguided introduction in 1935, the cane toad has infiltrated Hollywood's new $US90 million fantasy film, The Spiderwick Chronicles.

It shares the screen and lines with Nick Nolte, Freddie Highmore and Seth Rogen.

The cane toad was cast after the movie's special effects wizards searched for creatures to play Spiderwick's villainous goblins.

With its thick skin, creepy eyes and relentless demeanour, it became the perfect model.

"We just call them toads, their scientific names are Bufo marinus but Australians know them as cane toads," a special effects supervisor on the film, Joel Friesch, said.

Friesch, based in San Francisco's Tippett Studios, obtained two toads to study, photograph and film to help the Spiderwick special effects team bring them to life as animated goblins in the movie.

"We actually had a couple of them at the studio," Friesch said.

"We wanted to see how the skin moves, how it responds to light and how a real frog moves.

"Frogs swallow by pushing their eyes down into their head.

"That stuff is so creepy, but very cool, so we wanted to see that kind of stuff."

The film is based on the popular Spiderwick novels and tells the story of a family discovering their new home is surrounded by a mostly hidden world of goblins, fairies and other creatures.

Highmore, the 16-year-old British star of Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was well aware of his ugly cane toad co-stars, although he did not have to come face to face with them on the set.

"They are pretty scary creatures," Highmore said.

Spiderwick's director Mark Waters showed Highmore and the other actors photos of the toads before they shot scenes involving them.

When Waters called "action", the actors had to pretend they were fighting the cane toad-like goblins.

The special effects wizards inserted the computer generated goblins into the scenes months later.

The Spiderwick Chronicles opens in cinemas on April 3, a day after Queensland National Party MP Shane Knuth called for
a national day dedicated to ridding the state of the cane toads.

Based on Clean Up Australia Day, residents will be encouraged to place cane toads in their fridge, before euthanasing them humanely in the freezer.