1993 Nominated Grammy Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television John Williams
Young Artist Awards
1993 Won Young Artist Award Best Family Motion Picture
1993 Won Young Artist Award Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture
Charlie Korsmo,Amber Scott,Ryan Francis,Dante Basco,Raushan Hammond,Jasen Fisher,James Madio,Isaiah Robinson,Thomas Tulak,Alex Zuckerman,Ahmad Stoner,Bogdan Georghe,Adam McNatt,René González Jr.,Brett Willis,Brian Willis,Alex Gaona (stunts)
1993 Nominated Young Artist Award Best Actor Under Ten in a Motion Picture Raushan Hammond
1993 Nominated Young Artist Award Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Motion Picture Dante Basco
1993 Nominated Young Artist Award Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Motion Picture Charlie Korsmo
1993 Nominated Young Artist Award Best Young Actress Under Ten in a Motion Picture Amber Scott
What if Peter Pan grew up? That was the premise – and an advertising copy line – of Hook , a 1991 Christmas movie that promised toys for adults in its revisit to Neverland. Some critics said it delivered; others, er, panned it. But audiences found enough magic in the $60,000,000 production to make it a fairly lucrative venture for Tri-Star.
The premise was actually the brainchild of a child – screenwriter Jim Hart’s son Jake. The family regularly played rounds of “What if…??” at the dinner table and one night 12-year-old Jake threw out the line about Peter Pan. It became his dad’s “hook”, so to speak.
Steven Spielberg, often called an adult Peter Pan himself, was signed to direct. The award-winning director counted the film among one of his milestones. “I was finally able to break through my 20-year fear of working with movie stars”, Spielberg told People magazine. “My God, it was so easy!” The director even generously allowed star Dustin Hoffman, in the title role, to offer pointers behind the camera, something most directors won’t tolerate. But Spielberg graciously welcomed Hoffman’s input, calling Hook “the most collaborative movie” he’d ever made.
Dustin Hoffman played Peter Pan’s nemesis, Captain Hook, with gusto. The actor admitted he took the role, which he did with a William F. Buckley vocal impression, because he had always wanted to play an arch villain. “I was dying to do the Joker in Batman, he told People.
Robin Williams played Peter Banning, a.k.a. Peter Pan, a virtual casting to type, since Williams had always been thought of as a sort of man-child. In this revisionist tale, the workaholic Banning, addicted to his cell phone, has lost his memories of his childhood, in which he was Peter Pan. His kids are kidnapped and he must fly off to Neverland to rescue them from the evil clutches of Hook. It’s a gimmicky excuse to get him (and the audience) off to this magical island.
Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell completed the all-star cast. There was talk of strife on the set because of her breakup with fiancé Keifer Sutherland, but Steven Spielberg stood by her throughout. Roberts had a particularly difficult role, having to play Tink suspended on wires for hours at a time against a blue screen, rather than interacting with her fellow performers. To boost her spirits, Williams and Hoffman would stand off-camera and read lines with her.
As the reputation of the $8,000,000 Neverland set quickly spread throughout Hollywood, celebrities began elbowing each other for a chance to visit the Sony sound stage where filming took place. It was not unusual to find Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Demi Moore or even Jordan’s Queen Noor ogling the Lost Boys’ tree house or the huge 70-foot pirate ship.
Casting for the pirates was simple. The crew merely offered the roles to a number of local bikers, again casting to type. The biker / pirates, however, were not treated like celebrities on the set. They were given a list of 35 “Do’s and Don’ts” such as: Don’t talk to the actors, don’t ask for autographs and do not eat or drink the crew’s food (they were instead given pretzels and saltines). Two pirates were the exception: Glenn Close, in an un-credited cameo, cross-dressed as a disloyal pirate and singer-actor Phil Collins also appeared in a bit part.
FAMOUS QUOTES
I've lost my marbles!
Lookie lookie, I got Hookie!
You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, Peter Pan. That's where I'll be waiting.
Rufio Rufio Ru-fi-oooooooooooooooooooooo
Bang-arrang!!!!
Second star on the right, and straight on 'till morning. Neverland!
You are the Pan.
When the first child laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
GOOFS AND BLUNDERS
When Hook's hook is put on after it is carried thru the Neverland Docks, and the sparks are going off, the crew and some equipment can be seen in its reflective surface.
Reflection of camera visible in window handle when it is being opened.
When Hook slices Peter's arm with his hook, the hook is pulled down across his arm one way, yet in the next shot, the blood shows the cut to be at a different angle.
When Peter is hit in the head with a baseball he falls to the ground. When he lands his head is upon green-colored ground, in the next shot his head is upon brown-colored ground.
The green haired and last mermaid, to approach Peter in the water has someone behind her. A person in a wetsuit can be seen among the seaweed, their moving hands stand out most.
In several close-up shots of Captain Hook where Dustin Hoffman is mouth wide open, we can clearly see his fillings, yet it is doubtful that the character may have any on XVIIIth century. In fact, even though fillings already appeared in China on 4th century B.C., they have been widely used only from 1850 on.
