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The Ghost and the Darkness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Ghost and the Darkness | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Stephen Hopkins |
| Produced by | Grant Hill, Michael Douglas, Paul Radin |
| Written by | William Goldman |
| Starring | Val Kilmer Michael Douglas John Kani |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| Editing by | Roger Bondelli, Robert Brown Jr. |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 11 1996 |
| Running time | 109 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 film about the Tsavo maneaters, lions who attacked the builders of the Uganda-Mombassa Railway in 1898, and the subsequent hunt to kill them. The attacks, which took place in Tsavo, Kenya, were recounted by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.
Tagline: Prey for the hunters
The film, although based loosely on Patterson's account, romanticises his story and fictionalises important elements of the plot, William Goldman's script introducing Michael Douglas's big game hunter Remington. In reality, he did not exist and Patterson shot both lions. Many Maasai characters in the film were actually portrayed by South African actors, although the Maasais depicted during the hunt are real Maasai warriors who helped for the movie.
The film shot mainly on location at Songimvelo Game Reserve in South Africa rather than Kenya due to tax-laws. The main lions featured were two male lions with manes (brothers) named "Caesar" and "Bongo"(deceased), who were residents of the Bowmanville Zoo in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The film also featured three other lions (two from France and one from USA).The real man-eaters were, like all lions from the region, a more aggressive, maneless variety: those used for filming actually being the least aggressive available, for both safety and aesthetic reasons. The man-eating lions shot by Patterson in Tsavo in 1898 are now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
The film also won an Oscar in 1996 for Sound Editing.
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Val Kilmer | Col. John Henry Patterson |
| Michael Douglas | Charles Remington |
| John Kani | Samuel |
| Tom Wilkinson | Robert Beaumont |
| Om Puri | Abdullah |
| Bernard Hill | Dr. David Hawthorne |
| Brian McCardie | Angus Starling |
| Emily Mortimer | Helena Patterson |