The Witches of Eastwick
Short description
Three women in the small New England town of Eastwick share a sense of dissatisfaction with their lives and their luck with men. Alexandra, Jane and Sukie are single, independent and close friends despite their different temperaments and circumstances. When a wealthy and eccentric newcomer named Daryl Van Horne takes up residence in the grand old mansion outside town, each of them is drawn to him, and their lives begin to change in ways they did not expect. The three women come to suspect that they possess unusual abilities, and that their wishes and desires may carry real consequences.
The film is a comedy with fantasy and horror elements, directed by George Miller from a screenplay by Michael Cristofer. It is the fifth of the thirteen films Miller has directed, following Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and preceding Lorenzo's Oil. Jack Nicholson plays Van Horne, with Cher as Alexandra, Susan Sarandon as Jane and Michelle Pfeiffer as Sukie; Veronica Cartwright and Richard Jenkins appear in supporting roles. The production had a budget of 22 million dollars and took in about 64 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.6 from roughly 84,000 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 6.5 from about 1,620 votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 from 95 reviews places it close to the audience scores, indicating a generally moderate reception across both groups.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, the role of Alexandra, which ultimately went to Cher, was to be played by Susan Sarandon.
- The whistling of Daryl Van Horne in the scene at the ice cream vendor was whistled by the film's composer, John Williams, himself.
- Angelica Huston auditioned for the role of Alexandra.
- Mostly men in disguise played the witches at the gathering in the hotel.
- Initially, Daryl Van Horne was to be played by Bill Murray.
- The line, "A woman is a hole, isn't that what they say? All the emptiness of the world flows into it," is a quote from the book by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, "Being and Nothingness."
- The piece Daryl Van Horne plays on the violin is Caprice No. 16 in G minor by Niccolò Paganini.
- In addition to a happy ending, an alternate ending more faithful to the original book was filmed. Both versions were shown to test groups. It turned out that the audience preferred the happy ending.
- The snowy landscape against which the opening credits appear was filmed in Ulvik, a center of the Hordaland commune in Norway.
- Cher, Eartha Kitt, Geneviève Bujold, Ann Bancroft, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Blair, Faye Dunaway, Susan Sarandon, Jodie Foster, Vanessa Redgrave, Frances Conroy, and Liza Minnelli were considered for the role of the Grand Witch.
- The props department, led by Jim Henson (1936-1990), created mouse models of various sizes. Size A creatures were the size of real mice and were controlled using thin wires. Size B mice resembled large rats and were also controlled with wires. Size C mice were almost a meter tall and were operated manually. The latter were used in only a few scenes, as director Nicolas Roeg decided that it would be too difficult to combine a close-up of a person and such a mouse during editing. Roeg preferred to work with a single frame width, so smaller mouse models in reduced sets were most often used.
- The Headland Hotel in Newquay, UK, served as the Hotel Excelsior.
- Angelica Huston's transformation into the Grand Witch took 8 hours in the makeup chair.
- "The Witches of Eastwick" is a film adaptation of a work by John Updike.
- The scene in which one of the heroines falls from the balcony is a quote from Richard Donner's classic horror film "The Omen" (1976).
- Neither the novel nor the film explains why the witches hate children so much, or why the Grand Witch intends to get rid of all the children in the country.
- For the British release, a couple of scenes from the film (featuring the witch's face and Bruno's transformation into a mouse) had to be re-edited to allow the British Board of Film Classification to grant it a PG rating (all ages are admitted, but parental guidance is suggested).
- When the studio discussed possible ways to reduce the film's budget, George Miller offered to give up his personal trailer, arguing that the director was constantly needed on set and therefore had no use for it. The studio bosses saw this as a weakness and began to actively interfere with the director's production requests. For example, if Miller requested 50 units of some props, the studio would provide only a dozen. If he requested two cameras, the studio would provide one. Miller decided to "fight fire with fire" and began refusing to shoot scenes for which requests were not fully met. The studio responded by starting to search for a new director. Jack Nicholson saved George Miller from being fired, supporting the director and publicly vowing to leave the project if Miller were replaced.
- The snake featured in one of the film's scenes is a completely harmless gray-banded kingsnake (Lampropeltis alterna), which is a common sight in Texas.
- When the boys were turned into mice, rats and puppets were used to play their roles.
- The name of the character Walter Neff is a reference to the famous film noir by Billy Wilder, "Double Indemnity" (1944), where the protagonist has the same name.
- During test screenings, audiences were so dissatisfied with the original ending of the film that several alternative endings had to be shot.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
