How the film "Bolshoi" was filmed: footage from filming and 13 interesting facts about the film (14 photos)

“Big” is hardly the only film where the hero suddenly changes his age and finds himself in someone else’s body. But even today he remains one of the most prominent representatives of this genre.





1. The history of the film “Big” began with Steven Spielberg’s younger sister, Anne, because it was in collaboration with Gary Ross that she wrote the very first version of the script for this film.

They wanted to bring in Steven Spielberg himself as a director. Moreover, everyone was simply sure that Steven Spielberg himself would sit in the director’s chair. That is why his sister was hired as a screenwriter. And by the way, this was, in principle, the last film in which Anne Spielberg participated. After that, she left cinema forever.

But Steven Spielberg refused to make the film "Big". Then producer James Brooks called Penny Marshall, who already had experience with similar films.



Penny Marshall

2. Penny Marshall invited Tom Hanks to play the role of the main character (Joshua, who became an adult), but he refused (yes, yes, he refused). Also, Penny saw such actors as Kevin Costner, Warren Beatty and Dennis Quaid in the role of Josh. But they all refused because they didn’t want to play a child in the body of an adult.





But John Travolta, after reading the script, wanted to play this role. Moreover, he was so persistent that he simply annoyed everyone. But Travolta himself was not suitable for this role, so he was refused. And at that time, Travolta’s career was in great decline, and the creators did not want the actor to spoil their film with his appearance.

Also, actor Andy Garcia showed interest in playing the role of Josh, but he was turned down due to the fact that he was Puerto Rican.

As a result, Penny Marshall turned to her old friend Robert De Niro, and he even agreed. True, he agreed to work for a fee of $6 million. The producers did not agree to such a step and invited Penny to share her fee with him. Moreover, the director was even ready to give up part of her fee in favor of De Niro, but the actor himself did not agree to this.



3. But why did Tom Hanks end up playing Josh if he initially turned down the role? Was he really offered more money? No. Everything is much more interesting. When Hanks learned that Robert De Niro himself was ready to play the main role in this film, he sharply reconsidered his opinion.

4. David Moscow, who played 12-year-old Josh, was originally supposed to play Billy (the main character's friend) since he didn't look like Robert De Niro at all. But when Tom Hanks was cast in the role, David was given the role of Josh himself.



True, this can hardly be called a success, since Billy has much more screen time.

5. Today Barry Zonenfield is known as the director of such popular films as “The Addams Family”, “Men in Black”, “Get Shorty”, etc. But by the end of the 80s, he had not yet made a single film as a director, and was known only as a cinematographer. He also became the cameraman for the film “Bolshoi”.



Barry Zonenfield

According to him, he constantly quarreled with Penny Marshall, as they had disagreements over exactly how the film should be made. Barry liked to work from a pre-planned plan, while Penny liked to shoot several options and then choose the best one.

It even got to the point that Penny Marshall decided to fire the intractable cameraman, but the studio bosses refused to do so.

6. The game Josh plays at the beginning of the film does not exist. This animation was made specifically for the film. But after the success of the film, many people wanted to play this game.



Speaking of games. Friends, since on this channel I now only cover the topic of nostalgic films, I decided to create a separate channel, “Retrogamer 90,” which is dedicated exclusively to nostalgic games. So if you love the good old games, and would like to get nostalgic, and perhaps learn something new about the hits of the past, then join us. I will be glad to see you among my subscribers.

7. To help Tom Hanks play a child better, Penny Marshall asked David Moscow (the actor who played 12-year-old Josh) to act out some of Josh's adult scenes. Penny recorded all these scenes on a video camera, and then gave the tape to Hanks. It was from these shoots that Hanks practiced his role.



8. Initially, the director could not decide what color the hair of actress Elizabeth Perkins, who played Susan, would be. Therefore, we had to shoot several identical scenes, changing the red and light (blond) wig on the fly.

9. The scene where adult Josh fools around with his friend Billy, shooting paste at each other from cans, was born almost by accident, since it was not written into the script.



In order for the Child Actors to interact better with Tom Hanks, Penny Marshall organized a small get-together where Hanks had to party with the kids all day in a room filled with toys. That's when the idea to make a scene with pasta was born.



10. Jon Lovitz, who played adult Josh's co-star Scotty Brennen, was originally scheduled to film more scenes, but the actor's flu forced him out of production for several weeks, forcing his role to be canceled. greatly reduced.

As the actor himself admitted, he actually recovered quite quickly, but since he believed that the film would be a failure, he decided to extend his sick leave in order to appear in the film as little as possible.



But when John found out that the film became successful, collecting an excellent box office, he was very upset, because in fact, he almost completely removed himself from this film.

11. Surely many of you remember the scene in the store where Josh and his boss play 4-foot on a large floor piano. The real piano was quite small for two grown men to play with their feet together, so a professional had to be hired to make a large replica of the instrument.



Tom Hankus and Robert Loggia were given full-scale models of the piano so they could practice the necessary movements.

12. By the way, it was originally planned that understudies would be used while playing the floor piano. Hanks and Loggia themselves only had to dance to the beat in close-ups.



But the actors flatly refused to use doubles and decided that they would handle this task themselves. And they really did it, and from the very first take.

13. With a budget of 18 million dollars, the film “Big” grossed 151.6 million, which was definitely a success. Moreover, the film was one of the top five highest-grossing films of 1988, and also became the first film directed by a woman to gross over $100 million.