Cultural and Entertainment

The Green Mile: Interesting Facts about the Movie

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The Green Mile is a professional and unforgettable adaptation of the book by Stephen King. Even though the film was released almost 19 years ago, it remains one of the best movies, which had a great influence on the cinema in general. However, the movie itself is only a top of the iceberg. The story of film creation has its own peculiarities, which make the film even more interesting for watching.

The Green Mile Facts: High Quality Drama for Genuine Appraisers

There are some interesting The Green Mile facts, which distinguish the drama and can get the audience interested in watching:

  • To accompany perfect performance of the actors in the movie The Green Mile, the director gives it a feeling of authenticity with the uniforms of the prison guards. It contradicts the history as the uniforms were not worn at that period, but helps the viewers get involved in the story.
  • Michael Clarke Duncan makes the scenes more emotional by recollecting his own tragedy: his father left him when he was little.
  • All actors in The Green Mile movie were invited by Tom Hanks to a Friday meal.
  • To look like her character, Bonnie Hunt had to put on fifteen pounds. She joked that nothing had been so easy.
  • John Coffey took his name from Rev. John Coffee, a college professor. Having met him once, Stephen King liked how the name sounded and borrowed it from his book. One of The Green Mile facts is that actual Rev. Coffee was a history teacher in Massachusetts, Boston Emerson College.
  • A huge prison brick wall is, actually, easy to move as it is made of fiberglass.
  • Frank Darabont defined the sound as the voice of the unleashed beast.
  • One more of The Green Mile facts is that Melinda looks weird because of her makeup with no eyebrows.
Facts You May not Know about the Movie

Two main roles could have been played by different people.

Casting is always a long and tense process. It is difficult to choose the right actor sometimes and it is not a wonder that the unexpected decisions are made at the last moment. In this case, the roles of Warden Edgecomb and Wild Bill could have been played by John Travolta and Josh Brolin. Luckily or not, the things have gone differently and the final decisions were made for Tom Hanks (this choice was supported by Stephen King) and Sam Rockwell.

Bruce Willis made his contribution to the casting process.

Actually, one of the leading roles of the movie (the role of John Coffey), was given to Michael Clarke Duncan thanks to Bruce Willis. As soon as the actor found out about the casting and about the characteristics of a person that was being looked for (strong stature, gentle look), he thought about his friend and co-star Michael. The film producer was smart enough to listen to the advice and invite him to the movie.

How many did mister Jingles you see?

It may seem that there is only one mouse in the movie. However, almost 30 mice were used for playing the role of smart Mr. Jungles. Well, let’s say 31, considering that one of them was created using modern technologies and CGI effects.

Tom Hanks was supposed to play old himself in a movie.

As you may remember from the movie, it shows the old Edgecomb at the beginning and the end of the narration. He is played by Dabbs Greer. However, the idea was that Tom Hanks himself will play this role. It was supposed to be reached by using simple make-up. Anyway, the task turned out to be difficult to complete and the transformation failed. As a result, it was decided to take another person for this role not to make thing too complicated.

A stand-in actor got the job NY snucking onto the film set.

Michael Duncan’s stand-in wanted to get the job in a movie so badly that he even snuck onto the set! The reason he did it was that he had always dreamt of meeting Stephen King and saw this gig as an opportunity to make his dream come true. His deed impressed the film produced Darabont so much that he actually invited him to play in the movie.

Was Duncan that tall?

The answer is no. In a movie, Duncan is depicted as a real giant compared to other actors. Regardless of the fact that in real life Michael used to be a really big man, he was not THAT big in a movie. His actual height is close to that of, for example, Hanks. Simple blocking tactics were used to make the actor stand out on a set.

Who said “No” to daily regimens?

There were actually a couple of actors who refused from their usual diets and exercises to look more average on screen. They included Bonnie Hunt (Hanks’ wife in a movie), Michael Duncan who stopped visiting gym not to look extremely athletic and Tom Hanks who gained some weights.

Tom Hanks stood up for movie’s runtime.

It is not a secret that films are getting longer nowadays. Compared to 90 minutes of the runtime as it used to be some years ago, modern films last up to 120 or even more minutes. And now just think about 188 minutes of The Green Mile, which was released in 1999! The critics were frustrated with the film length and made a couple of unpleasant statements regarding the film runtime. In response, Tom Hanks said that they got more entertainment for the money they would pay for a film of a regular duration.

The Green Mile is the most successful film of Stephen King.

Without a doubt, everyone remembers The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption. However, even these cult film have not managed to overcome the fame and popularity of The Green Mile with more than $400 million tickets sales in America and worldwide.

Lots of the same people worked on two movies of Stephen King.

It is an interesting fact that such films as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption share the same actors, as well as the same crew members. Some of them are actors William Sadler, Brian Libby, etc., decorator Michael Seirton, and many others.

How long will Paul Edgecomb live?

At the end of the movie, 108-years old Edgecomb reflects on how long he will live considering the fact that Duncan’s hero John Coffey gave him a special gift – unnatural life. Some people tried to answer this question by calculating the life of Mr. Jingles and then projecting it on the life of Paul. The results were astonishing! The estimated lifespan of the character was approximately 10 quadrillion years.

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