ick-butt female heroes are becoming the in thing. Take Rollerball, the new action flick in which supermodel-turned actress Rebecca Romijn-Stamos plays a deadly leather-clad motorcycle-riding pro, sporting a bad attitude and a nasty scar on her face.

  "I don't know where it's coming from, but I think studios are finally realizing that people want to see girls who can kick butt as well as guys," said Romijn-Stamos. "I think they're finally giving women a chance. I'm all for equal opportunity in those terms."

  To portray the scarred Aurora in Rollerball, Romijn-Stamos, who'd never ridden a motorcycle in her life, had to learn to ride a hog. And on her fourth day of shooting she was doing stunts.

  In her debut feature film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Romijn-Stamos made a cameo appearance as herself - a supermodel. In the mega-hit X-Men, she sported an all blue painted-on body suit and as the villainous shape-shifting Mystique, she traded blows with Hugh Jackman's clawed hero Wolverine. "I had blue pores for months. My love affair with blue is over!"

  Now this tough chick is doing combat in a bloody arena in her new film Rollerball. "It's a kick-ass character... It's really exciting to be a part of this," she said.
     
actors
Rebecca
Romijn-Stamos
LL Cool J
Chris Klein

director
John McTiernan

location
Montreal

outtake
McTiernan constructed his own sports stadium in Montreal after none of the ones he scouted in Eastern Europe, the U.S. or Canada would do. "I want something that feels like a cockfight. I want a building where what you're going to see feels illicit, what you're going to see feels immoral and spooky."
  Rollerball is a remake of Canadian director Norman Jewison's cult favorite by the same name, which starred James Caan.  Though Jewison strove to stay away from the exploitations of violence that he was attacking in his 1975 version, the director of the Rollerball remake, Die Hard's action king John McTiernan, is tightening his focus on the game and its inherent violence.

  The new Rollerball, with an $80 million budget, is an ultra modern sci-fi action adventure that takes place in the not too distant future. It features a new sport, a brutal floor hockey-football mixture that's played out inside a circular arena on motorcycles and skates, laced with dangerous break-neck speed and lots of head-slamming action. Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein of American Pie) is the most successful Rollerball player ever, a fresh-faced American hotshot with a killer smile who is loved and idolized by fans all over the world. Along with his skilled teammates Marcus (rapper/actor LL Cool J) and Aurora, they're all living the high life thanks to their success in the Rollerball arena.

  Says LL Cool J of the remake: "I thought the original film was a cool concept, but this film takes it to new heights, with things that were technologically impossible to do at the time of the first feature. The special effects - balls flying around 200 miles an hour smashing people's jaws off - it's going to be a handful."

- Brigitte Berman