Gorillas in the Mist

Gorillas in the Mist (1988)

Timing: 2:9 (129 min)

7/10
558

7.599/10
2228

7/10
31000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 13

Actors and characters

Release date

1988-09-23

Country

United States

Production

Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, The Guber-Peters Company, Guber/Peters Company

Genre

Drama, History

Budget

$22 000 000

Revenue

$61 149 479

Website

Director

Michael Apted

Actors

Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, John Omirah Miluwi, Iain Cuthbertson, Constantin Alexandrov, Waigwa Wachira, Iain Glen, David Lansbury, Maggie O'Neill
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Arne Glimcher, Terence A. Clegg, Peter Guber, Jon Peters

Operator

John Seale

Composer

Maurice Jarre

Artist

Audition

Editing

Stuart Baird
All team (18)

• The film is based on the works of zoologist Dian Fossey and an article by Harold T.P. Hayes dedicated to her work.
• Later, one of the costume designers revealed that chimpanzees were used as the baby gorillas, their faces were darkened and their fur was slightly altered to make them look more like gorillas. The reason was that filming actual baby gorillas could have angered or simply displeased the adult gorillas, and the film crew would have been in danger.
• Gorilla suits used in cinema prior to this project had a number of anatomical differences from real animals. For example, the actor's eyes could be seen inside the suit, which necessitated doing something about the faces. In this film, director Michael Apted (1941-2021) wanted to film real gorillas wherever possible, but in some scenes it was still necessary to use actors in animal suits, so the difference was still noticeable. Rick Baker managed to create gorilla suits that made the actors indistinguishable from real animals.
• The character played by John Omirah Miluvi was based on a former servant of Rosamund Carr (1912-1996), with whom she founded an orphanage in 1994 after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda on July 18, 1994.
• Both Universal and Warner Bros. were independently filming biopics about primatologist and wildlife conservation popularizer Dian Fossey (1932-1985) at the time, and both film companies were competing for the right to be the first to obtain permission to film gorillas in Rwanda. The Rwandan government refused to issue a permit until both film companies reached an agreement. It was then decided that both companies would pool their resources and efforts and release the film together.
• For a number of reasons, the film crew tried to stay away from the gorillas during the periods when filming was not actually taking place. Once, preparations were underway for the start of filming, crew members and actors were busy with various tasks near the filming location, and a stuntman put on a gorilla suit. The suit looked quite realistic. In the scene they were about to shoot, a gorilla was supposed to attack the heroes and chase them on all fours. After putting on the suit, the stuntman decided to try running, and he took off, and since no one had paid him much attention up to that moment, those present decided that it was a real gorilla and fled. They only realized what had happened after a while.