Trivia / Cast Away

• California Doubling: The movie was filmed on one of the small uninhabited islands belonging to Fiji, even though the movie's island is supposed to lie somewhere south of the Cook islands (which are very close to Fiji).
• Defictionalization: Yes, Wilson does make replicas of the movie "Wilson". Except you can actually play volleyball with them.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Because of the dramatic change in appearance Tom Hanks needed to pull off for this movie, production was divided into two blocks. Prior to the first block, Hanks gained weight in order to make the subsequent weight loss seem even more dramatic. After the first block was completed, the production took a break so that Hanks could lose 30 pounds, grow out his hair and beard, and gain a deep tan to show before the second block started production. Hanks has attributed his later diagnosis with Type-II Diabetes with the weight loss he went through for this film.
  • The break between the two blocks was long enough that Robert Zemeckis shot What Lies Beneath, Hanks produced Band of Brothers, and Helen Hunt shot Pay It Forward in that time.
• Inspiration for the Work:
  • Tom Hanks said he first got the idea for the film after reading an article about FedEx. "I realized that 747s filled with packages fly across the Pacific three times a day. What happens if one of those goes down?," he said. He took that idea and combined it with his interest in how to survive without the five required elements for living — food, water, shelter, fire, and companionship.
  • Wilson the volleyball was created by the screenwriter William Broyles Jr., who actually stranded himself for a week on the Gulf of California and found a volleyball washed up on the shore.
• On-Set Injury: Tom Hanks actually sliced his leg open on an underwater coral reef while filming and nearly bled out as a result. Making matters worse is that the leg got infected, and in the film, we get a horrifying close-up of it!
• The Red Stapler: Wilson Sporting Goods made and sold "Wilson" volleyballs (as in, with the face printed on them).
• What Could Have Been: An early draft of the script had Chuck having two different personalities talking to each other, Good Chuck and Bad Chuck.

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