Trivia / The Company of Wolves

• Ability over Appearance: Producers originally wanted a teenaged actress to play Rosaleen. Preteen Sarah Patterson got the role - despite likely being too young to understand some of the film's symbolism. As such the film has much more weight by having an actual twelve year old girl dreaming about this.
• Acting for Two: In the scene with the Rolls Royce, an alternate, unnamed, more hussied out version of Rosaleen with makeup and a blonde wig is the Devil's chauffeur.
• Approval of God: Angela Carter, the author of the anthology book the film is based on, liked the film very much even though it differed from the original screenplay she helped write (the first draft can be read in The Curious Room, a 1996 collection of Carter's plays and scripts).
• Dyeing for Your Art: It took seven hours to apply the make-up prosthetics to Stephen Rea's face for the transformation.
• Never Work with Children or Animals:
  • Averted. Not just with the dogs, but filming went fairly smoothly with the actual wolves, as well. Neil Jordan commended Sarah Patterson on her bravery during the scene where she had to sit right next to and pet one of the wolves.
  • During the shooting of the scene where the duck is used as bait to lure in the wolf, a real wolf was used. However, when shooting the scene, as the wolf approached the hole, the duck quacked and the wolf ran away, and refused to go near the hole again. The scene then had to be shot with another wolf the next day.
• No Budget: Just around £2.3 million. In the DVD Commentary, Neil Jordan notes the difficulty of having to create the look of the film on a limited budget, having to create a fairytale forest out of essentially "twelve trees".
• Production Posse: Neil Jordan and Stephen Rea. This marked their second film together. This would have been the case with Jordan and Angela Carter - but she passed away before they could work together again.
• Reclusive Artist: Sarah Patterson didn't become an actress full time and rarely gives interviews.
• Self-Adaptation: Angela Carter co-wrote the screenplay with Neil Jordan.
• Spiritual Successor: To the Czechoslovakian film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.
• Uncredited Role: Terence Stamp is uncredited in his role as the devil. Jim Carter also went uncredited for his role as the Young Bride's second husband in "The Story of the Bride and Groom".
• Underage Casting: Sarah Patterson actually was twelve when the film was made, while it's implied Rosaleen is supposed to be slightly older (the filmmakers originally intended to cast a teenage actress). Alice's age isn't stated but Georgia Slowe was 17/18 during filming.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original ending would have had Rosaleen waking up, diving onto the floor of her room and being swallowed up as if it were water. The limited special effects of the time made this impossible to pull off.
  • The Huntsman was going to tell Rosaleen a story similar to Peter and the Wolf. It was then changed to Rosaleen telling a story about a woman "from the world below".
  • Another scene was planned for the church, which would have involved an animal congregation.
  • Rosaleen was going to be a lot more overtly sexual in the script, but that was toned down when an actual twelve-year-old actress got cast.
  • Neil Jordan had wanted Andy Warhol to play the role of the Devil. Producer Stephen Woolley travelled to New York City to meet Warhol, who had recently been shot, and Warhol agreed to do this movie. However, fearing for his life if he traveled, he would only play the role if his scenes were shot in New York City. This was impossible, and so Jordan cast his friend Terence Stamp in the role. Stamp agreed to do the role if Jordan bought him a suit, which he did, much to Stamp's amusement.

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