Witness: the first appearance of Viggo Mortensen opposite Harrison Ford

This thriller in the Amish community, Harrison Ford's only Oscar nomination, returns to France 5. Not to be missed.

Lots of anecdotes about the making of witnessby Peter Weir, who will return to television this evening.

A long-term project

witness features Inspector John Book whose investigation into a murder leads him to take refuge in the Amish community to which the only witness to this assassination belongs. But if the film was released in 1985, its script, inspired by an episode of the series Gunsmoke, had been hanging around Hollywood for a long time. When Edward S. Feldman decided to produce it, it was titled Called home (which means ” dead “ in Amish) and is still 182 pages long. He orders a rewriting of history by sacrificing numerous passages solely devoted to Amish tradition to reinforce the thriller aspect. And after only 6 weeks of work, Feldman went to see Fox with whom he then had a development agreement. But Fox instantly rejected him, explaining that its production policy excluded any film ” rural “ ! And this regardless of the actor at the top of the poster. And Feldman subsequently received numerous refusals from other big studios before Paramount gave the green light.

A project passed through the hands of several directors

witness is the very first American film by Peter Weir, Australian filmmaker, then already author of four feature films including The Year of All Dangers which earned him his first international recognition with a selection at the Cannes Film Festival. But he was not the first choice of Paramount, which first contacted David Cronenberg (who had just signed in quick succession Videodrome and Dead Zone) and John Badham (who has just been a hit with WarGames). Both are declining. Feldman, for his part, has been thinking of the future director of Circle of Dead Poets. But Weir, then in full preparation for Mosquito Coastdeclines in turn. Until lacking funds to complete his project, he finally accepted.

Sylvester Stallone should have been the hero

Many actors were considered for the role of John Book. And not the least. Sylvester Stallone was the first and will repeat for a long time that refusing to play this character was one of the worst decisions of his career. Then Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Richard Gere and Jack Nicholson declined in his wake. And would therefore allow Harrison Ford to become John Book before finding Peter Weir in Mosquito Coast.

Viggo Mortensen's on-screen debut

Although he has been doing theater since the early 1980s, Viggo Mortensen's first relationship with cinema was complicated. It actually turns in Swing shift by Jonathan Demme then The Purple Rose of Cairo by Woody Allen but is cut each time during editing. And so it is with a role as a young Amish in witness that the future Aragorn of Lord of the Rings appears for the first time on the screen. However, he will have to wait 6 years and The Indian runner by Sean Penn in 1991 to really get noticed.

Harrison Ford's only Oscar nomination

In a 1986 Oscars ceremony dominated head and shoulders by Out of Africa by Sydney Pollack, witness However, leaves with two statuettes for its screenplay and its editing. And among his 6 other nominations, we find a historic one: the only one of Harrison Ford's entire career! But it was William Hurt who walked away with the Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman.

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