Werner Herzog is a reckless, immature, narcissistic, lying jerk with a death wish. All of that emerges in Daniel Zalewski's recent New Yorker profile (sadly, not yet online), but somehow, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the acclaimed director emerges as a loveable and misunderstood rogue. The article follows Herzog as he navigates the toxic atmosphere he has created on the set of his newest film, Rescue Dawn. Among his many other self-created challenges, the New Yorker explains, Herzog must deal with a dimwitted production company principal who thinks that The Rundown represents the apex of fine cinematography.

Here's how the New Yorker describes the film: "a wildly kinetic 2003 feature staring Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson, the former wrestler, about a bounty hunter who scours the Amazon for buried treasure." Perhaps it's because we spend a bit too much time enjoying lowbrow pursuits here at Gelf, but our multiple viewings of The Rundown reveal that the famed New Yorker fact-checking system [Columbia Journalism Review] may have let one slip through the cracks.

While there is a character in the film who hunts for one unburied treasure in the Amazon, that man is not The Rock. (It's Seann William Scott.) The Rock plays the bounty hunter whose job it is to bring Stifler home. (It's also unlikely The Rock would like the article in his name lowercased, but perhaps that's a matter of taste.)

Speaking of taste, The Rock—whose character in The Rundown plays a wannabe chef and whose catchphrase as a wrestler inquired whether viewers could smell what he was cooking—would probably have been intrigued by a Herzog anecdote shared in the New Yorker piece. After losing a bet, Herzog ate his shoe. "The boot was leather, the chef was Alice Waters, and the key ingredient was duck fat."