The Ghost and the Darkness - videos, teasers and stills from filming

All videos, teasers and footage from the filming of the film "The Ghost and the Darkness"

The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

Timing: 1:49 (109 min)

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All about film

Video 2

Photo 24

Actors and characters

The Ghost and the Darkness 1996 Trailer | Michael Douglas | Val Kilmer

English

2:17

Призрак и Тьма / В. Килмер, М. Дуглас / свой трейлер 1996

Pусский

6:17

What's left behind the scenes

Completely different actors were considered for the role of Colonel Patterson, namely Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, and Kevin Costner.
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.
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'.
A lot of money was spent creating special effects to generate animated lions, but the producers concluded that they would have to include live lions in most scenes. Five lions were used for the filming: Bongo and Caesar from Canada, who filmed together without any issues (lions of the same sex generally instinctively attack each other); 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 performer – simulating an attack without harming a person, which is extremely rare among domesticated animals, especially lions.
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”.
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.
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).

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