Michael Clarke Duncan must have a great deal of animal attraction.

That would explain why he's so often paired with non humans.

For his Oscar-nominated role in The Green Mile, Duncan's little buddy was a mouse.

In the family comedy See Spot Run which opens Friday, Duncan plays Murdock, an FBI agent whose partner is a 100-lb. English Bull Mastiff named Bob.

This summer, as Attar the captain of the simian army in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, Duncan bonds with a chimp named Jonah.

"The chimp got me into some major trouble recently," admits Duncan. "When I first met Jonah it was love at first sight. He was the cutest little thing."

Jonah likewise fell head-over-heels for his towering human co-star. The two did not see each other for three months.

The next time they did, Duncan was in full ape make-up. "Jonah walked by with his trainer. I called out to him: 'Hey do you remember me?' He broke away from his trainer, rushed over to me, climbed up my body and started hugging me and kissing me on the face."

The chimp's trainer was just as shocked as Duncan that Jonah could have recognized the actor even under all the make-up.

Later that day, Duncan and Jonah were shooting a major scene.

Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the chimpanzee Ari, was holding Jonah and Mark Wahlberg had to come up to take him away from her.

"I was trying to look straight ahead but I snuck a peek to see how Jonah was doing. He looked so cute because he had on his little space suit and little space boots. He saw me and started reaching out to me begging for a hug."

Burton had to stop his cameras. When the trainer came over to reprimand Jonah, the chimp threw a temper tantrum. They got him calm and tried the scene again but Jonah swatted Carter, broke away from her and rushed over to Duncan.

"That made everyone angry at me. Tim needed to get the shot. The trainer had great difficulty communicating with Jonah and Helena was frightened he might actually hurt her.

"I didn't even acknowledge Jonah after that but it was very, very difficult because he is so cute."

The Planet of the Apes trailer will be seen in theatres beginning Friday, playing in front of Hannibal and the Brad Pitt-Julia Roberts comedy The Mexican. The movie opens July 27.

If things work out, Duncan could soon be shooting a movie with scorpions.

One of Duncan's best friends is wrestling superstar The Rock, who has been signed to make a prequel to Brendan Fraser's hit movie The Mummy.

The Scorpion King is already being written, inspired by the character The Rock plays in The Mummy Returns which opens May 4.

"The Rock phoned me last year shortly after he had finished filming The Mummy Returns. He said he was going to do a spin-off from The Mummy II and that there was a good part in it for me.

"We've been talking about doing a movie together for a couple of years now because he is such a good friend.

"It would be a great thrill to be in a movie with him."


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