The Ghost and the Darkness
Short description
In the late nineteenth century, a British engineer named John Henry Patterson is sent to East Africa to oversee the construction of a railway bridge. The project is far behind schedule, and the workers, drawn from different backgrounds, already live in fear of the local wildlife. When a worker is found mauled to death and further attacks follow, Patterson calls on the experienced hunter Charles Remington to help track the animals responsible. Two lions, unusually bold and cunning, are preying on the camp, and the pair must find a way to stop them before the bridge can be finished.
The film is directed by Stephen Hopkins, its sixth feature, following Blown Away in 1994 and preceding Lost in Space in 1998. William Goldman wrote the screenplay, and Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer head the cast as Remington and Patterson, with Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Emily Mortimer and Bernard Hill in supporting roles. The production, a German and American co-production, cost about 50 million dollars and took roughly 39 million at the worldwide box office, a return below its budget.
Audience response has been moderate: on IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 70,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.9 out of 10 from about 1,200 votes. A film critics' rating of 5.3 out of 10 from 51 reviews places it noticeably lower than the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A great deal of money was spent creating special effects for animated lions, but the producers concluded that they would have to introduce live lions into most of the scenes. Five lions were used for filming: Bongo and Caesar from Canada, who filmed together without any issues (lions of the same sex instinctively attack each other, as a rule); two from France: Voltan and Roman (they were filmed separately, confirming the aforementioned rule); and 12-year-old screen veteran Sudan from California, capable of acting like a real actor – mimicking attacks without harming humans, which is extremely rare among trained animals, especially lions.
- Although both lions are depicted with manes in the film, the real man-eating lions of Tsavo were completely devoid of manes.
- The location of the historical bridge construction where the described events took place is Tsavo National Park in Kenya, a place with coordinates 2.993558°S 38.461458°E.
- According to the book 'The Devil's Candy,' Brian De Palma was attached to direct the film in 1990. He was removed by the studio after the failure of 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' (1990). Kenneth Branagh was later briefly associated with the project following the success of 'Henry V' (1989).
- Paramount Pictures, which released the film 'The Ghost and the Darkness,' initially wanted to film most of the movie in Kenya, where the events actually took place. However, the political situation in the country at that time was far from hospitable, which forced the production to move filming to South Africa.
- After the lions were killed, their skins were used by Colonel Patterson as rugs. In 1924, Patterson sold them to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for $5000.
- Completely different actors were considered for the role of Colonel Patterson, namely Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, and Kevin Costner.
- The film's title originates from a legend about two monstrous lions endowed with such intelligence and mystical power that the Masai gave them the names 'Ghost' and 'Darkness'.
- The heroes' weapons were chosen quite carefully – they correspond to their time. Colonel Patterson arrived in Africa with a “Lee-Metford Mk.II” carbine, in a hunting version with a sporting stock and a shortened 6-round magazine. Incidentally, Patterson fired exactly that many times on his bridge at the end of the film. Professional hunter Remington, as befits a professional of those years, hunted with a “Holland & Holland”.
- There is only one scene using an animatronic lion. All other scenes were filmed using two real lions – Bongo and Caesar. The same lions also appeared in the film “George of the Jungle” (1997).
- Director Stephen Hopkins wanted his longtime collaborator Peter Levy to be the film's cinematographer, but he was rejected by the studio, which wanted to hire Vilmos Zsigmond.
- The figure of hunter Remington is entirely fictional from a historical point of view. In reality, Patterson killed both lions on his own.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
