Like an unexpected Texas thunderstorm, pathos of biblical proportions pours onto the perfect life of Dr. Sullivan Travis in DR. T AND THE WOMEN (2000). However, bringing this modern day "Story of Job" to life in Dallas, Texas, couldn't have been a sunnier experience for Director/Producer Robert Altman and company.

In fact, the only lightning bolt striking this film is its surprise ending. While all involved have been sworn to secrecy, it can be revealed that there are two surprises that wrap up DR. T AND THE WOMEN (2000): one a plot point and the other a moment that is both unforgettable and unprecedented in feature films. Astounding and deeply moving, it's a moment that only Altman could deliver.

Ending aside, what made this production a particular delight for the director was its beginning-the casting.

Once cast, "I knew 85 percent of my job was done, most of my creative work finished," he said. "The actors know what to do. Mainly, I'm just here to turn off the light switch," added Altman, the modest four-time Academy Award® nominee (Short Cuts (1993), Player, The (1992), Nashville (1975), MASH (1970)).

From the beginning, he could only see Richard Gere as the gynecologist of choice for women - young and old alike. "Richard as a gynecologist will titillate a lot of women," Altman notes slyly, "and make a lot of men very curious. "

Then there were the women-nine principals, 50-day players and innumerable extras floating in and out of the film from beginning to end. Aside from eight of the leading actresses, the rest-including Janine Turner - were cast right in Dallas, Altman said. "And they all improvised brilliant small bits, creating the crazy atmosphere of Dr. T's office staff and patients. "

Screenwriter Anne Rapp, a native Texan and former "Dallasite" herself, who with this film marks her second theatrical collaboration with Altman (Cookie's Fortune (1999)), was quick to note this satiric romantic comedy "is complete fiction. Bob and I had been talking about doing a story of what happens to this guy swimming in a sea of women. We thought it would be great to make this guy a gynecologist, which for many men would be the perfect job. At least that is what they might think. "

"This story is just incredibly fresh and probably the straightest character I've ever played," said Gere. "He's a real Republican, a gynecologist to the country club set a good, solid guy who loves his family. He genuinely loves women. They're everywhere in his life. Even his shotgun is named after a woman. Everything is a woman's energy. And he won't allow his hunting buddies to say anything negative about women because women to him are saints. He loves them too much. "

Gathering the necessary medical information to play a gynecologist was simplified for Gere as his wife was expecting a baby at the time, prompting many visits to the OB/GYN. When asked about the fascination that men have about women and their relationship with their gynecologist, Gere defers to Altman. "I think it's Bob's demented curiosity," he joked.

"I think there is a curiosity about gynecologists and women," Altman retorted, laughing. "Husbands, men, don't really know what goes on in the gynecologist's office. It's not that they mistrust their wives, but they wonder what that guy is doing, poking around and all that. "

Gere loved the role and said he expected collaborating with Altman "to be fun. " What surprised Gere was the incredible freedom an auteur like Altman affords actors, allowing them to improvise and surprise him in whatever direction they take the character. At the same time, Altman "exerts a kind of control and structure over the work without ever letting you see it. You feel you've got this safety net around you all the time, but it's not obvious, and it happens in this kind of creative buzz that's all around the work. It's been wonderful for all of us. "

All of the actors involved echoed Gere's comment and, like Gere, say Altman's unique approach to directing is what lured them to work on the film.

"I am a big fan of his movies and was very curious about the Altman experience," said Oscar® winner HELEN HUNT (As Good As It Gets (1997)) who plays golf pro Bree, Dr. T's lover. "It was crazy, a great experience. There was a very high estrogen factor on this set. I liked that it was a story about a man finding himself in a sea of women. I know a lot of men who are surrounded by women, raised by women and have to sort of break free from them in order to re-discover themselves. That's actually what I liked about it. "

Hunt, who never swung a golf club before accepting the part, took lessons with a 30-year-golf pro in L. A. "I did one of those things where I worked for 2-and-a-half months for about 16 seconds of screen time," Hunt noted. "But I didn't want to look lame when I was swinging the club. So now I'm camera ready in case you need someone to pretend to be a golfer. "

In fact, she said the most challenging scene was "swinging the golf club because every time the camera was off, I was fantastic, and, when they rolled, I was ridiculously bad. I think that has been my biggest challenge. When you're playing golf, you can't be self-conscious or worry about your acting because you just want to get the clubface on the ball. That's the new vocabulary I picked up. "

Golfing tips aside, she said the chemistry between Bree and Dr. T worked because of her character's honesty. "She sort of has her own kind of philosophy about the way she has romance in her life," Hunt noted. "She feels if she's straight with them and they're straight with her then they get to do whatever they want to sort of a unique relationship that I haven't seen in the movies a lot. She gets the sense early on his marriage isn't a viable thing and that she's not really stepping on anybody's toes. "

That would be because Dr. T's wife Kate (FARRAH FAWCETT) has stepped out of reality and into the "Hestia complex. " Fawcett, a native Texan, says research meant studying the Greek goddesses, namely, Hestia, one of the virgin goddesses. Fawcett literally gives it her all, stripping down to the character's core, a surprise twist that actually occurs at the beginning of the film in a fountain. It's sort of a freeing of Kate's "spirit. "

"She becomes very uncomplicated, mentally," Fawcett said. "There's a contradiction here because her condition complicates everyone else's life, but for her, she's trying to simplify things. "

Kate and Dr. T have two daughters whose lives may be just as complicated: Dee Dee (KATE HUDSON) is a cheerleader hopeful who's planning her upcoming wedding, Connie (TARA REID), the maverick in the family, works at the conspiracy museum-an institution dedicated to JFK assassination conspiracy theories.

For Dee Dee, the complication is a contradiction between the societal expectations placed upon her and being true to herself.

"Dee Dee just goes along with the way things are supposed to be until she realizes her heart is somewhere else and that's more important," said Hudson of her character. The problem is, Dee Dee is the daughter of a wealthy, prominent Dallas doctor and impetuous behavior isn't easily accepted. "But she has no control over how she feels," added Hudson, "and that's the beautiful thing about love, the lack of control. "

The only one who has any influence over Dee Dee is her sister, Connie - the one person everyone else seems to ignore.

"Everyone kind of shuns her. She always has the answer but no one really listens to her and usually at the end of the day, Connie's right," said Reid. "In her work at the conspiracy museum, she gets to tell people facts and they listen. Everything about her is a statement, even her clothes. She's the black sheep, the odd ball out. She is special. I love Connie. "

But she's not the only black sheep.

LIV TYLER's Marilyn is an uneasy fit with Dee Dee's crowd. "She's very out of place, very awkward in this world," noted Tyler. Considering her relationship with Dee Dee, life takes a particularly interesting twist when Marilyn is examined by Dee Dee's father, right after Dr. T learns some unsettling news. "It was really funny and uncomfortable to have Richard Gere looking between your legs all day long," Tyler said of shooting the scene. "But I got used to it after awhile. It was funny because he didn't really know what he was doing with all of those instruments and I was like, 'no, it would go a bit lower. "

One of the film's strong comedic characters is Dr. T's sister-in-law, Peggy (LAURA DERN). "She was just extraordinary," added Gere. "I never worked with her before and have come away with such respect for her. "

Dern saw Peggy as a wonderful woman in a very sad state, drowning her sorrows in champagne. "She is really the comic relief of the film but we pay for the laugh," she added. "She's so caught up in being a good mom, a good sister, a good aunt that she's drowning her pain, drinking to become more capable and therefore becoming incapable. She always tries to be the perfect Dallas everything. "

Like Laura Dern, SHELLEY LONG, gives another one of the film's stand-out comedic performances. She plays Carolyn, Dr. T's nurse and office manager. "I like my characters to have something about themselves that they feel good about and I don't think she feels good about the fact she doesn't have a life outside the office," Long said. "It's when she tries to find a life within the office, outside of patronizing angry patients in the waiting room, that things change for Carolyn. In the end, she experiences her own personal epiphany."

When asked if she would go to Gere if he were indeed a gynecologist, a bemused Long - like her female co-stars - exclaimed "No! No! No! He's so handsome, so charming, I think it would be really tough to stay out of the way of certain fantasies and things that you really don't want to think about during those exams. I would be finding other medical assistance for that. "

But, as evidenced by Dr. T's overcrowded waiting room, most of the women of the Dallas country club set don't agree. As writer Anne Rapp noted, the film both exaggerates and embraces the eccentricities of becoming and staying a member of that crowd for comedy's sake.

"You know this is a comedy, and it is not meant to be critical of the women in that world. I've got a lot of 'Dallas woman' in me," Rapp said. "What Bob and I were trying to show was a way of life, a world in Dallas that's really like no other. These women dress to the nines and look their best in everything they do. "

To capture that "look," costume designer Dona Granata, who has designed five Altman films including the recently released Cookie's Fortune (1999), thought of "the clothes like a character unto themselves. It's because many women in Dallas bring that look to life. These women have their feet on the ground, but they love to laugh and get a kick out of life. They just love looking great. The way they see it is basically anything goes as long as you look fabulous. "

Granata, however, veered away from the extravagant, haute couture look when it came to dressing Helen Hunt's Bree, opting instead for sporty clean lines. That complimented the 1940's heroic style of Dr. T's cashmere jackets.

Designing the sets were a bit easier than the wardrobe, added Stephen Altman, who began working with his father as production designer on Fool For Love (1985). Since then, the two have collaborated on 10 films.

"Bob is from Kansas City, and he wanted Dr. T's office to have that Kansas City Super Chief '30's train interior look," he said. "The way he approached this whole gynecologist office thing is like we do everything. You check it out, you find out everything you need to know, you use what you absolutely have to have and throw the rest away. Somehow it always works. "

The nine-week production was shot in Dallas, from mid-November to Feb. 3. That followed with a one week shoot in the desert, replicating a scrappy Mexican village, points unknown. The film wrapped production March 3.

"I don't really know what people will take away from this experience," concluded Altman. "But we were trying to capture a particular culture, a certain strata… a slice of Dallas life. "