The Iceman
Short description
The Iceman tells the story of Richard Kuklinski, a New Jersey family man who led a double life as a contract killer for organized crime. To his wife Deborah and their children he appeared to be an ordinary husband and father, while over roughly two decades he carried out killings for figures in the New York underworld, earning a reputation for composure that gave him his nickname. The arrangement holds until he is drawn into a conflict with the mobster who first employed him, putting his family and his livelihood at risk.
Ariel Vromen directed and wrote the screenplay with Morgan Land, and the film stands third in a run of features that began with Rx and Danika and continued with Criminal, The Angel and 1992. Michael Shannon plays Kuklinski, with Winona Ryder as Deborah, Ray Liotta as Roy Demeo, and Chris Evans, David Schwimmer and James Franco among the supporting cast, one of 43 credited performers.
The production, backed by Millennium Media and Bleiberg Entertainment, was made for 20 million dollars and took about 2 million dollars at the worldwide box office. The film drew a 6.2 out of 10 from 122 critics' reviews, a slightly lower figure than the audience scores of 6.8 from some 84,000 IMDb voters and 6.6 on TMDB.
What's left behind the scenes
- Many of the cars driving down the street in 1976 only appeared after 1977. These include a Chevrolet Malibu (1978), a Chevrolet Impala taxi (1977), and a parked Oldsmobile Delta 88 station wagon (1977). The parked Ford Econoline's rectangular headlights only appeared after 1979.
- When Ice goes to shoot Marty Freeman, his gloves appear and disappear on his hands with each shot change.
- Although Richard Kuklinski is referred to as Polish throughout the film, his mother was the daughter of Irish immigrants from Dublin.
- Before filming began, director Ariel Vromen shot a test scene with Michael Shannon as Richard Kuklinski and with Michael Winckott as Robert Prongay. Ultimately, the role of Richard remained with Shannon, and Chris Evans was cast instead of Winckott.
- While in prison, Richard Kuklinski claimed that, along with four other men, he was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of former truck drivers' union boss Jimmy Hoffa, which took place on July 30, 1975, in a restaurant parking lot in Detroit. Their team was allegedly commissioned by Hoffa by a man named Tony Provenzano, the leader of the Genovese crime family. Kuklinski was paid $40,000 for the murder. Kuklinski said he knocked Hoffa unconscious with a club and then stabbed him in the back of the head with a hunting knife. Hoffa's body was placed in the trunk of a car, which was then crushed and sold for scrap metal to Japanese car manufacturers. The facts surfaced only after Kuklinski's death in March 2006 in a book by Philip Carlo and will likely never be confirmed.
- The role of Deborah Cooklinski could have gone to Maggie Gyllenhaal, but she declined due to pregnancy. Ultimately, the role went to Winona Ryder.
- James Franco and Benicio del Toro were initially cast in the leading roles. But in the end, Franco's role went to Chris Evans, and he himself played Marty Freeman, while Ray Liotta replaced del Toro.
- The hospital has visual fire alarms in the corridors. Such alarms only appeared after 1990.
- Winona Ryder deliberately familiarized herself only with the pages of the script involving her character. She believed this would better allow her to portray the main character's wife, who is completely unaware of his true activities.
Similar movies
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