Lowe Attempts To Save Denver From `Atomic Train'

If he hadn't been working on one project about a train, Rob Lowe might not have gotten aboard another one.

The actor plays hero Sunday and Monday in the new NBC miniseries "Atomic Train" at 9 p.m., about a locomotive that runs amok while carrying a cargo of bombs, chemicals and nuclear waste toward Denver.

Lowe portrays a National Transportation Safety Board investigator who faces a domestic quandary while trying to stop the out-of-control train, since the situation also involves his wife's (Kristin Davis) policeman ex-husband (Esai Morales).

(Because of the recent tragedy at Columbine High School, NBC's Denver affiliate is opting not to show the program this week.)

"I'm in the process of setting up (production on) a screenplay that I've written," Lowe reports. "It's called `Union Pacific,' and it takes place in the world of railroads. NBC found out about it, and I went in to meet Lindy DeKoven, the chief of the network's long-form programming. She said, `We're doing our own train movie here.' I said, `You are? Tell me more!' One thing led to another, and that's how I ended up in `Atomic Train.' "

Having done several adaptations of Jack Higgins espionage novels for Showtime and The Movie Channel, Lowe considers those good preparation for this work. "I think I'm at a place in my life that makes this right for me. I've been married for a while (to makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff), and I'm a father of two. I couldn't have played this guy four years ago, but at long last, my screen persona has caught up with who I really am."

Staying in shape proved essential for Lowe on "Atomic Train." He says that otherwise, "I don't think I would have made it past the first three or four days. I had to hang from the sides of boxcars, climb up ladders, make 20-foot jumps, and be swung 50 feet above the ground. I love doing scenes that make the audience go, `Wow!,' and the only way to do that is to put yourself in the jeopardy."

Lowe takes pride in that. "When I sat with the producers and watched the footage, we all said, `What irony. Everyone will think it's all CGI (computer-generated imagery),' but it's really me."

Disaster stories can shortchange characters in favor of spectacle, but Lowe feels "Atomic Train" avoids that. "When I first saw the script," he says, "I knew it could go one of two ways. The network was very supportive about taking it in the right direction, smartening it up, and - above all - making it real. They let me take the screenplay and pepper it with true railroad vernacular, which I knew from writing `Union Pacific.' I had done a lot of research."

"Atomic Train" is airing as the 1980s' so-called "Brat Pack" of young actors is getting renewed attention in magazine articles and an "E! True Hollywood Story" documentary. Often cited as a key member of the "Pack," Lowe says, "We're all fortunate enough to be doing interesting work right now, but I also think people in today's media look back on movies like `St. Elmo's Fire' and `The Breakfast Club' the way I look back on `Saturday Night Fever' and `Grease.' They think, `Hey. We want those guys back.' "