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1. With Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton did something that helped usher in the 1990s indie dream: A relatively obscure screenwriter and character actor at the time, he wrote himself a career-best role, directed the movie himself, and rode it to an Oscar and a lengthy period of unlikely stardom. MIRAMAX FILMS.
- The Film Was Inspired by Thornton's One-Man Show and His Arkansas Upbringing
- A Short Film Featuring Molly Ringwald Came First
- Thornton Wrote The Script While Working on A Sitcom
- Vaughan Cunningham Was Written Specifically For John Ritter
- Martin Scorsese Predicted An Oscar Win
- Thornton Didn't Believe in More Than Two Takes Per Scene
- Thornton Went to Extreme Measures to Capture Karl's Limp
- The Movie Was Filmed on Location in Arkansas
After creating the character of Karl, Thornton turned him into a one-man show,Swine Before Pearls, which helped him raise the money needed to fund the film. "I started doing it as a one-man show," The actor explained to Creative Screenwriting. "I thought, God, that's a pretty cool character. Maybe something did come out of this horrible movie I'm d...
After his one-man show, Thornton first made a short film of his story called Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade. Molly Ringwald originally appeared as the newspaper reporter and George Hickenlooper was the director. Sarah Boss ended up stepping in for Ringwald in the motion picture version and as we know, Thornton was his own director.
In the early 90s, he starred on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire with John Ritter where he spent years working on the full script of Sling Blade. Apparently, he made the finishing touches to his Oscar-winning scripton Christmas Day, sitting at his mother's dining table.
Thornton and Ritter became friends after working together on the sitcom, so the role of Linda's gay friend Vaughan was specifically written for the actor. Ritter even added his own Happy Daystouch to his role by adding the last name of Cunningham. "John is a great orator—he hosts telethons and beauty pageants— he can speak in public," Thornton expl...
Filmed in just 24 days, Sling Blade exceeded expectations bringing in $24 million at the box office after having a $1 million budget. Not to mention Miramax paid an additional $10 million for distribution rights after former executive Harvey Weinstein had only seen 30 minutes of the film. He requested that Thornton make some cuts and hesitant, the ...
Robert Duvall told Vanity Fairthat Thornton liked to get everything captured in no more than two takes in order to keep things fresh. He also didn't believe in rehearsals...he just showed up to set and did the dang thing. "Billy Bob Thornton, I like working with him," Duvall explained. "I call him the Hillbilly Orson Welles...Only two takes.' I lik...
We know there are countless actors in Hollywood who embrace going "method" to really get into their character. Thornton was no exception and actually put crushed glass in his shoes to fully capture the way Karl limped as well as his pained facial expressions.
The entire movie was filmed in the small town of Benton, Arkansas, less than an hour away from Thornton's hometown of Hot Springs.
I'll have to check out Sling Blade, then. My own favorite Billy Bob Thornton movie is A Simple Plan - he plays the brother of the main character, basically the one person you feel bad for in the movie. I was amazed at how well Billy Bob "got" the character (it's based on a book). 2. Reply.
Nov 17, 2021 · SLING BLADE at 25: Billy Bob Thornton's master work. November 17, 2021 in billy russell, features. by Billy Russell, Staff Writer. Sling Blade is such an oddity to me. If I sit down and really dissect the plot of it, I’m surprised that it works as well as it does.
In Sling Blade, a mentally challenged man—described by writer-director-star Billy Bob Thornton as a cross between Frankenstein’s monster and Boo Radley —named Karl Childers is released from a...
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Recently viewed. Sling Blade: Directed by Billy Bob Thornton. With Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter. Karl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.
