The Green Mile - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[clayton]

Tom Hanks accepted the role of Paul Edgecomb as a favor to Frank Darabont, after he was forced to turn down the role of Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), in order to play the title role in Forrest Gump (1994).

[toni]

The prison guards wear uniforms to give the movie an "authentic" feel, even though uniforms were not in use at the time in which the movie is set. The book states that all of the guards were in uniform when they were working The Mile.

[gerald]

More than 30 works of Stephen King have been adapted to movies, but this was the only one to have broken the $100-million mark at the U.S. box-office until It (2017).

[chris]

Just as director Frank Darabont was getting started writing the screenplay, he found out that his cat had developed a tumor. With the cat dying but not being in any pain, he decided to not have it put down. Instead he cared for it at home while adapting "The Green Mile", referring to it as his "co-writer" or "co-pilot", as it spent a lot of time keeping him company at his desk. Darabont said, "It's the whole 'Green Mile' death row experience . . . The writing of it was very much that. I had this creature I really cared about walking that mile". The cat passed away two months later, just about the same time the script was finished.

[steve]

According to Frank Darabont, the electricity is meant to sound like a beast being unleashed.

[tom]

Stephen King responded to criticism that saw the film as a racial allegory by saying the only reason he made John Coffey a black man was that, given the time, place and setting of the novel and the crime for which Coffey was convicted, it was the only way to leave no doubt that he would have been sentenced to death.

[janice]

Jennifer Lopez turned down the role of Melinda Moores.

[violet]

Coffey's bed was built shorter in order to make Michael Clarke Duncan look like a giant.

[christina]

Michael Jeter also appeared in another Tom Hanks movie, The Money Pit (1986).

[frances]

The main antagonist of Michael Jeter's character, Edward Delacroix, is named Percy. Jeter would go on to portray a likeable character named Percy in 2003's Open Range (2003).

[tom]

In the book Paul's wife is killed in a major bus accident and Paul is one of only four survivors. It is hinted that Paul survived because of the power John gave him.

[victoria]

Josh Brolin auditioned for the role of "Wild Bill" Wharton.

[lena]

(at around 2h 40 mins) According to Frank Darabont, it's no coincidence that the projector is creating a halo over John's head.

[toni]

In "Doctor Sleep", Stephen King's sequel to "The Shining", when Danny Torrance senses that someone is dying, he experiences it as insects and flies, in the same way that flies come out of John Coffey's mouth when he heals people. In "Doctor Sleep" Danny even speaks Percy's line, "Dead man walking." Also in "Doctor Sleep", flies portend something bad about to happen, such as before Percy is institutionalized.

[aaron]

This film went two months over schedule.

[jim]

The film flips the action of the first two installments of the novel. The first book, "The Two Dead Girls," begins with John Coffey arriving on the Mile, but at this point Arlen Bitterbuck has already been executed and Eduard Delacroix already has his mouse. The second book goes back to before John's arrival and tells of Bitterbuck's fate and the origins of the mouse.