Trivia / Hook

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• Acting for Two: Besides Captain Hook, Dustin Hoffman is very briefly seen as Peter's father in a flashback. It's only a Freeze-Frame Bonus in the final film, but a deleted scene from the flashback showed this more clearly. It's a Mythology Gag to the traditional casting of Hook and Wendy's father with the same actor.
• Actor-Shared Background: Like Peter Banning, the late Robin Williams was a longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area.
• All-Star Cast: Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Smith, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins and cameos from Phil Collins, Carrie Fisher, Glenn Close and George Lucas. And thanks to Retroactive Recognition, Dante Basco and Gwyneth Paltrow in a minor role.
• Author Phobia: Like Peter at the beginning of the film, Steven Spielberg has a fear of flying.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Hook was voiced by film and television actor Takao Ito and the older Wendy Darling was voiced by the late actress Tokuko Sugiyama.
• Channel Hop: Steven Spielberg started developing the project at Disney, then it went to Paramount Pictures, then it eventually went to TriStar Pictures.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Since the release of the film, Spielberg has admitted in interviews that he was not proud of it and was disappointed with the final result.
    • In 2011, he told Entertainment Weekly: "There are parts of Hook I love. I'm really proud of my work right up through Peter being hauled off in the parachute out the window, heading for Neverland. I'm a little less proud of the Neverland sequences because I'm uncomfortable with that highly stylized world that today, of course, I would probably have done with live-action character work inside a completely digital set. But we didn't have the technology to do it then, and my imagination only went as far as building physical sets and trying to paint trees blue and red."
    • In a 2013 interview on Kermode & Mayo's Film Review Show: "I wanna see Hook again because I so don't like that movie, and I'm hoping someday I'll see it again and perhaps like some of it."
    • In a 2018 Empire interview: "I felt like a fish out of water making Hook... I didn't have confidence in the script. I had confidence in the first act and I had confidence in the epilogue. I didn't have confidence in the body of it. I didn't quite know what I was doing and I tried to paint over my insecurity with production value. The more insecure I felt about it, the bigger and more colorful the sets became."
  • Phil Collins had some about his cameo as the police officer - mainly because of the amount of publicity it was getting. He claims he feared at the time people would mistakenly think he had a bigger role, and would assume it was cut down because he wasn't good enough.
• Creator Breakdown: Julia Roberts was going through a mental breakdown after her wedding to Kiefer Sutherland was called off. She reportedly fled California and hid out in Ireland until Spielberg himself threatened to fire her if she didn't return immediately. Additionally she had to be hospitalized at one point for nervous exhaustion. Her behavior throughout the shoot gave her the crew nickname of "Tinkerhell" and Spielberg said he'd never work with her again.
• Cut Song: According to lyricist Leslie Bricusse, this film was written as a musical, but due to length and budgetary concerns this was dropped, and only two songs are sung onscreen — "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" as part of the school play and "When You're Alone" by Maggie in Neverland (explained as a lullaby her mom taught them). The happy-whimsical theme that plays throughout and closes the film's action was originally the melody of a song titled "Childhood", which later appeared in a sheet music anthology of Bricusse songs. (Lyrics and a fanmade recording are available here.)
• Dawson Casting: The majority of Lost Boys were played by kids of ten or eleven, with Rufio being played by a teenager to emphasize his role as the leader. However James Madio - who played Don't Ask - was actually fourteen and only a couple months younger than Dante Basco. Gwyneth Paltrow was also around eighteen when she played Wendy in a flashback to her childhood (but then of course continues to play Wendy as she grows older).
• Dyeing for Your Art: Robin Williams had his infamously hairy upper body shaved for this film.
• Enforced Method Acting: Only Robin Williams and Steven Spielberg knew who Peter would give his sword to at the end, so the reactions of the Lost Boys are genuine.
• Fake Brit: Gwyneth Paltrow as the young Wendy in a flashback and Dustin Hoffman as the titular Hook.
• Friendship on the Set: Steven Spielberg and Robin Williams became very good friends during production and remained close for the rest of Williams' life.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • By all accounts, Julia Roberts made life on the set a nightmare. Already going through a messy breakup with her then-fiance Kiefer Sutherland which led to her suffering from depression and caused her to go and hide out in Ireland in the middle of production and she only came back because Steven Spielberg threatened to fire her if she didn't. Upon returning, she proceeded to complain about everything from the script to her outfit (which at one point was to more closely resemble the Disney Tinker Bell's appearance, complete with a blonde wig, only for it to be changed after she became furious with it.) Also, her final scene where she was full-size came about from a Wag the Director moment where she demanded to appear onscreen with at least one other actor due to her frustration at having filmed all of her previous scenes in greenscreen. The end result lead to her career being stunted for a while, the crew to nickname her "Tinkerhell" and for Spielberg to vow never to work with her again.
  • Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman developed a playful rivalry onset. When Hoffman halted the filming of one scene because he lost his motivation, Williams quipped, "Why don't you try acting?" (Which was a Genius Bonus reference to what Laurence Olivier, who disliked method acting, had told method actor Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man after Hoffman continued to demand retakes, unhappy with his performance) After Williams flubbed a line and started speaking gibberish, Hoffman looked to a camera and quipped, "Well, what did you expect from Mork?" Williams did the next take perfectly and said to Hoffman, "Hey, Ishtar's on TV tonight".
• Inspiration for the Work: Screenwriter Jim Hart got the idea when his son showed him a drawing.
  We asked Jake what it was and he said it was a crocodile eating Captain Hook, but that the crocodile really didn't eat him, he got away. As it happens, I had been trying to crack Peter Pan for years, but I didn't just want to do a remake. So I went, "Wow. Hook is not dead. The crocodile is. We've all been fooled". In 1986 our family was having dinner and Jake said, "Daddy, did Peter Pan ever grow up?" My immediate response was, "No, of course not". And Jake said, "But what if he did?" I realized that Peter did grow up, just like all of us baby boomers who are now in our forties. I patterned him after several of my friends on Wall Street, where the pirates wear three-piece suits and ride in limos.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's sold bath toys of Peter Pan, Captain Hook, a Mermaid, and a Lost Boy in their Happy Meals.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift:
  • This was intended to be a musical, but according to lyricist Leslie Bricusse, the filmmakers realized it would be both too long and too expensive, so most of the songs were cut ("We Don't Wanna Grow Up" and "When You're Alone" the exceptions). The happy instrumental theme that closes the film was originally the melody of a song called "Childhood", and a sheet music anthology of his work includes it, with the explanation that everyone loved it but couldn't think of a way to keep it in the film.
  • Roger Ebert pondered why Steven Spielberg just didn't make a proper adaptation of Peter Pan. Funnily enough, that was the original plan. This version would have followed the storylines of the 1924 silent version and the animated film and at one point was going to be a musical starring Michael Jackson, who was interested, but didn't like the idea of a grown-up Peter Pan who's forgotten about his past. He abandoned the idea when his son Max was born.
  I decided not to make Peter Pan when I had my first child. I didn't want to go to London and have seven kids on wires in front of blue screens. I wanted to be home as a dad.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The original teaser trailer. Not only is the content of said trailer an example of this (the shot of the hook raising up in the air is not in the finished product), but the music was specifically composed by John Williams for the teaser and never plays in the final cut.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: Steven Spielberg, known for his great rapport with child actors, also had a difficult time dealing with the Lost Boys due to them being so rambunctious on the set. Years later, Spielberg joked that it almost made him consider not having any more children.
• The Other Marty: Brenda Fricker was originally cast as Granny Wendy before being replaced with Maggie Smith for unknown reasons.
• Playing Against Type: Maggie Smith - who up to that point usually played mean old ladies - as a sweet grandmotherly type.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • All of Dustin Hoffman's children have cameos in the film. Max Hoffman plays Peter at five years old. Jake Hoffman is a little league player at Jack's game. And Rebecca Hoffman plays Jane in the play at the start.
  • Screenwriter Jim Hart's eleven-year-old son Jake plays one of the Lost Boys.
  • In the European French dub, the voice actors of Robin Williams and Julia Roberts, Michel Papineschi and Céline Monsarrat, were married.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd has reviewed the Licensed Game for the NES by Sony Imagesoft and Ocean Software as part of his review of games based on Steven Spielberg movies.
  • Animaniacs (1993): In "Video Revue", Captain Hook appears on the cover of Hook as the Warners sing about the various movies in the video store. At one point, Wakko sings "The Hand That Rocked the Cradle once belonged to Hook, you see, but it got bored and so it joined The Addams Family!"
  • Console Wars: In one episode, Pat and Dan see whether the SNES or the Sega Genesis had the better video game adaptation.
  • The Skrillex song "Bangarang", whose lyrics ("Shout out to my lost boys/we rowdy") and music video are a homage to Peter Pan in general, took its name from the Lost Boys' battlecry in this film.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: The boss of stage 2-3 is a pirate captain who resembles Captain Hook. This was most likely a homage to Hook's portrayal of him, as the game came out the same year as the film.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures:
    • In "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, respectively dressed as Peter Pan and Captain Hook, make cameo appearances outside the WB studio.
    • In "The Return of Batduck", Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell bothers Plucky when he is trying to read a map of the sewers so that he can sneak into the Warner Bros. film studio. He swats her into a wall, and she says "That's what I get for taking small parts." Later, when Plucky makes it into the WB film studio, he comes across Dustin Hoffman, dressed as Captain Hook, who is arguing with Danny DeVito, who is dressed as The Penguin, over who is shorter.
• Saved from Development Hell: Steven Spielberg started developing the project in the early eighties, started pre-production in 1985 and abandoned it in 1987. Production re-started in 1989 and it was finally released in 1991.
• Star-Derailing Role: Was a brief one for Julia Roberts, along with Dying Young. She was nominated for a Worst Supporting Actress Razzie award and didn't make another film for two years - save for a cameo in The Player. When she returned to acting regularly, her films didn't do well until My Best Friend's Wedding provided a Career Resurrection for her.
• Throw It In!: James Madio revealed that his Lost Boy didn't have a name at first, and he kept badgering Steven Spielberg about it until one day the director replied "don't ask". It caught on with the child actors, and he got called that during the food fight scene. Thomas Tulak in a Reddit Q&A suggested that the character was originally going to be called 'Pockets'.
• Troubled Production: Shooting went 40 days over schedule, the budget went over by by 50%, and Julia Roberts was going through depression at the time, making it difficult to work with her.
• Uncredited Role:
  • Glenn Close has an uncredited cross-dressing Cameo as the pirate Captain Hook locks in a chest as punishment for betting against him.
  • The kissing couple that was briefly lifted into the air by Tinker Bell's pixie dust were George Lucas and Carrie Fisher. Fisher also served as an uncredited script doctor, mainly polishing Tinker Bell's lines. The below was one she came up with as well.
  "You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you"
• Underage Casting: Maggie Smith was only 56 at the time of filming, and plays Granny Wendy at 92 under old age make-up. But in a flashback to Peter meeting Moira, Wendy's age matches hers at the time (since she's played by Gwyneth Paltrow in it).
• Wag the Director: The scene where Tinker Bell grows to human size was written to appease Julia Roberts - who demanded that she have at least one scene with another actor (having to act alongside green screen for the whole film).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Apparently, David Bowie was considered for the role of Hook only for Bowie to turn it down. Carrie Fisher was also the original choice for Tinker Bell. She ended up doing some uncredited rewrites of the script and cameoed alongside George Lucas as the kissing couple on the bridge as Tink and Peter fly above them.
  • Kevin Kline was originally cast as Peter, but Soapdish reshoots scuppered this.
  • Christopher Lloyd and Donald Sutherland were considered for Captain Hook.
  • Danny DeVito, Richard Dreyfuss (who was interested in the production), and Joe Pesci were considered for Smee.
  • Steven Spielberg originally asked Richard Attenborough to play Tootles. Attenborough declined, as he was directing Chaplin at the time.
  • Rebecca De Mornay, Sherilyn Fenn, Samantha Mathis, Meg Ryan and Winona Ryder were considered for Tinker Bell.
  • Peggy Ashcroft was considered for Wendy.
  • Jack was, according to rumours, originally meant to be a fat kid. An obese pre-teen who loved baseball and had grown fat after his father had grown distant from him and he'd turned to food; the original beginning was meant to show Jack struggling to get into trousers and the ending was supposed to show him skinny (well, skinnier!) enough to get into them and that Neverland had brought Jack and Peter together and allowed Jack's life to improve.
  • According to Thomas Tulak, who played one of the youngest Lost Boys, Tinker Bell's costume was originally completely different. He recalls Julia Roberts wearing a blue sequinned dress and blonde wig - and storming onto the set to complain about it.
  • In the original draft of the script, Peter and Moira were in their thirties as opposed to forties. Maggie was also younger, being only a child of five. Spielberg aged up the parents to reflect the feeling of the aging baby boomer generation. Maggie was bumped up to seven to match her actress Amber Scott's age. Peter also wasn't an emotionally Abusive Parent Child Hater to his kids, he was simply an overworked, stressed man. There was originally a much bigger role for the mermaids, and Tiger Lily herself was set to have had a large role in the film. The original script was also more adult in tone, complete with mild swearing and child slaves. Hook's fate in this version is ambiguous. He appears to be going down with his sinking ship but then he and Peter collide "in a tremendous thundering burst of energy" before the script abruptly cuts back to the nursery in London.
  • Joseph Mazzello auditioned for Jack, but he was determined to be too young for the part. Spielberg promised to cast him in a future project, which he fulfilled with Jurassic Park.
  • Sony's Dolby Digital/DTS counterpart, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, was supposed to debut with this movie. But for whatever reason, it got delayed and ended up premiering with Last Action Hero instead; SDDS wasn't popular and has since been largely discontinued.
  • Phil Collins's scene ran longer, according to his autobiography, and was cut down to what's seen in the film. Apparently, Dustin Hoffman found it inferior and urged it to be cut down.
• Word of Gay: Dustin Hoffman and Bob Hoskins ended up deciding that Hook and Smee were actually gay, and opted to play them that way.
• Write Who You Know: Screenwriter Jim Hart claimed he based the Peter Banning on his Wall Street friends.

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