Starring: Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, Denise Richards, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Robert Wagner

Directed by: John McNaughton

WILD THINGS is an irreverent tale of revenge, lust and murder played out in the murky swamps of the Florida Everglades and the tiny yachting enclave of Blue Bay. Passion ignites passion, mystery uncovers mystery, as the lives of four cunning characters twist and turn amid a bizarre labyrinth of truth and illusion from which only the strongest will emerge.

When a high school guidance couselor (Matt Dillon) is accused of sexually abusing a popular student (Denise Richard), his carefully planned and structured life is ruined. As the case goes to trial, another student (Neve Campbell) steps forward with a similar claim against the counselor. When the detective in charge of the case (Kevin Bacon) probes deeper into the story, he uncovers a scheme with very high stakes that involves all three participants in the case.

Kevin Bacon stars as Ray Duquette, a detective caught between the law and his own passions. Bacon co-starred this summer with Jennifer Aniston in PICTURE PERFECT. He has also completed production on both TELLING LIES IN AMERICA and DIGGING TO CHINA. One of the foremost actors of his generation, Bacon reunited with director Barry Levinson last year on SLEEPERS, starring with Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro and Jason Patric. In 1995, Bacon appeared in Ron Howard's APOLLO 13, also starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and Bill Paxton. For his role as a convict on trial for murder in MURDER IN THE FIRST, Bacon was voted Best Actor by the Broadcast Critics Association and garnered Best Supporting Actor nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild and the London Film Critics Circle. In 1994, Bacon received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for his role in THE RIVER WILD, co-starring Meryl Streep. Bacon's performances also include the brilliant but self-destructive Fenwick in Levinson's DINER, the dancing rebel in FOOTLOOSE, the overly expectant father in John Hughes' SHE'S HAVING A BABY, a disarming, psychotic killer in CRIMINAL LAW, a film student/director wooed by Hollywood in THE BIG PICTURE, the hapless handyman cowboy in TREMORS and the voice of the title character in Steven Spielberg's animated film BALTO. Oliver Stone's JFK and Rob Reiner's A FEW GOOD MEN also highlight his filmography. Bacon recently directed his first film, LOSING CHASE, featuring his wife, actress Kyra Sedgwick, Beau Bridges and Helen Mirren (who received a Golden Globe Award for her performance). Produced for Showtime, LOSING CHASE was honored with two additional Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture made for television. Released theatrically in the fall of 1996, the film screened at the 1997 Sundance and the 1996 Toronto film festivals.

Matt Dillon is Sam Lombardo, the handsome, charming guidance counselor who attempts to sleep his way into Blue Bay society. Dillon most recently starred In Kevin Spacey's ALBINO ALLIGATOR and Allison Anders' GRACE OF MY HEART. In September, he co-starred with Kevin Kline in Frank Oz's IN AND OUT. Dillon made his feature film debut In Jonathan Kaplan's controversial OVER THE EDGE. For director Francis Ford Coppola, he starred in adaptations of S.E. Hinton's THE OUTSIDERS and RUMBLE FISH. Dillon also starred in director Tim Hunter's THE SAINT OF FORT WASHINGTON and TEX. In 1989, Dillon received the Independent Spirit Award as Best Actor for his performance as a junkie in Gus Van Sant's acclaimed DRUGSTORE COWBOY. Dillon's filmography also includes Van Sant's TO DIE FOR, BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, A KISS BEFORE DYING, SINGLES, THE BIG TOWN, THE FLAMINGO KID, MY BODYGUARD, MR. WONDERFUL, LITTLE DARLINGS, NATIVE SON and TARGET. He lent his voice to Bill Couturie's DEAR AMERICA: LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM and also starred in an adaptation of Irwin Shaw's short story Return to Kansas City for the HBO anthology series "Women and Men: In Love There Are No Rules." Dillon made his Broadway debut In "The Boys of Winter."

Neve Campbell is Suzie Toller, a high school rebel intent upon avenging the past. Campbell currently stars as Julia Salinger in the celebrated FOX-TV drama "Party of Five," which received a Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1996 and a second nomination in 1997. Campbell's motion picture career is in full force with the box office smashes SCREAM and SCREAM 2 to her credit. In 1996, Campbell starred in Andrew Fleming's THE CRAFT, a black comedy about a group of teenage witches who wreak havoc upon their Catholic school. She also appeared in Alex Chapple's RUSKIN, BAREE for director Arnaut Seligna and as the voice of Klara in THE LION KING II, which Disney will release on home video at the end of the year. Campbell grew up in Toronto, where she studied acting with a variety of teachers as well as classical singing and dance at the prestigious National Ballet School of Canada. Trained in six different varieties of dance, Campbell appeared on stage with Canada's National Ballet in productions of "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker." At 15, she made her acting debut as the Degas Girl in the Toronto premiere of "Phantom of the Opera" for director Hal Prince. For her performance opposite Patrick Stewart in ABC-TV's production of the classic "The Canterville Ghost," Campbell garnered a Family Film Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Film. Additional television credits include the NBC-TV movie-of-the-week "I Know My Son Is Alive," the telefilm "Janeah" and the series "Catwalk."

Denise Richard joins the cast as Kelly, a young woman propelled by her mother's apathy, her father's death and the Van Ryan estate. As WILD THINGS' Kelly Van Ryan and as pilot Carmen Ibanez in Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS, Richards is poised to make her mark in motion pictures. Richards began modeling in high school, eventually secured an agent and worked regularly in New York and Tokyo. As an actress, she made her debut on ABC-TV's "Doogie Howser, M.D." Her television credits also include three episodes of "Melrose Place" (as Loni Anderson's daughter) and a recurring role on the series "Against the Grain."

Submitted to director McNaughton in early 1996, WILD THINGS offered him an opportunity to create "a classic tale of revenge." He was wary of doing a run-of-the mill thriller, but the serpentine plot of WILD THINGS stood out. "I don't like most thrillers I see. I read the first five pages of the script, and I can already predict what will happen on the last two pages. Most are very clichГ©d," he says. "With WILD THINGS, I read about 30 pages, and when I got to the end, I had no idea what was going to happen. I was completely surprised. I was a little sleepy when I first read it, but this script kept me awake." McNaughton agreed to do the film, and, once Kevin Bacon came on board, "we had a cast," he says.

In terms of style and production design, WILD THINGS marks a departure for the director, whose previous efforts include HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER and MAD DOG AND GLORY. "I think I've done 'gritty' pretty well in my previous work," McNaughton explains. "But if people want to see 'gritty' they can walk out their front door. I wanted this film to look big and glossy. The male and female characters should appear to be beautiful, which is in direct opposition to who they really are," he says. "It has a lot of the elements of film noir, but it was never intended to be derivative of that style of film," he explains. WILD THINGS was an unconventional choice for McNaughton in other ways. "I like to call WILD THINGS my first 'movie' movie. I had a larger budget to work with; my last movie was NORMAL LIFE, which I made for $2.75 million. Plus, none of my movies fit any genre at all, and they are more character-driven. In this story, the plot determined the behavior of the characters, as opposed to the characters driving the plot." Directing a film with such a tangled story line that involves several distinct characters presented some interesting challenges to the director. "Usually, you'll have a core cast - you are working with two or three actors the whole time." With WILD THINGS, we had two weeks of rehearsal with ten actors. It was important to use our time wisely to give our actors the attention they needed." The cast was presented with a formidable task as well. "In this film, characters are lying to each other in almost every scene. That made it a satisfying but difficult process for the actors, because they really needed to act twice," McNaughton points out. A fan of true crime, McNaughton delighted in the story's more lurid aspects. "Even though it was a fantastic tale of twists and turns, this story could really happen," he explains. "Real people really do some of these stupid things."