Thread by @ATRightMovies

THE TRUMAN SHOW was released 26 years ago this week. Jim Carrey’s first foray onto a dramatic role, and acclaimed as one of the decade’s great satires, the story of how it came to be will give you the feeling you’re being watched…

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In 1991, New Zealand screenwriter Andrew Niccol wrote a script for an original film. Based on an idea of a reality TV show following the life of an unsuspecting person, it was a science fiction thriller in tone, and called The Malcolm Show.

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Scott Rudin Productions bought the screenplay for $1m, Niccol stating that he wanted to direct the film himself. However, when Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute and came on board, they said the estimated $80m budget was too high for an inexperienced director.

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Paramount paid Niccol to step aside and started negotiations with Brian DePalma to direct. When that fell through, Sam Raimi, David Cronenberg, and Terry Gilliam were all considered.

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Bryan Singer reportedly read the script and told Paramount he wanted to direct. At the same time, Niccol recommended Australian filmmaker Peter Weir as a good fit, and the studio went with the more experienced Weir.

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Weir liked the script but thought it too dark and serious. He put forward to Niccol the idea of giving it a lighter, more satirical tone. Niccol was on board and, after producing 16 script rewrites, Weir had a screenplay he was happy with.

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When Niccol was planning to direct, he had considered casting Gary Oldman or Robin Williams in the lead role of star of the show, Truman Burbank. Before Weir even signed on though, he had another name earmarked – Jim Carrey – who reminded him of Charlie Chaplin.

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Carrey was a Hollywood megastar at the time, but known only for comedy. He was interested in the part and, knowing he hadn’t yet proved his dramatic acting abilities, agreed to reduce his standard $20m salary for a movie to $12m.

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The first few days of filming were, reportedly, tense on the set. Carrey’s contract gave him the power to change the script if he wanted, which concerned Weir. However, as soon as he saw Carrey’s ad-libbing abilities, Weir said they got on fine.

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Truman’s wife is Meryl Burbank. Stage and screen actress Hope Davis was in the running before Laura Linney was cast. She said she took inspiration from her mother (who was a nurse) and studies 1950s Sears catalogues to develop Meryl’s serene stature.

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Truman’s real true love is Lauren Garland/Sylvia, who tries to warn him he’s not living in reality. Anabella Sciorra tested for the part before Natascha McElhone was cast.

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To make things meta, Weir considered playing the part of Christof (creator of the show) himself. He also planned for cinemas to stop the film during screenings and cut to a camera placed in the room, so the audience were watching themselves. Both ideas were ditched.

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Instead, established star Dennis Hopper was cast as Christof. However, he left several weeks into filming due to “creative difereces.” Jack Nicholson and Jonathan Pryce were considered to take over, before Ed Harris was cast.

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With production underway, Harris met Weir on the set on a Thursday, and started filming the following Tuesday. He suggested to Weir that he play Christof as a hunchback, but Weir vetoed the idea.

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Harris and Carrey apparently never actually met during filming and, with Harris only 12 years older than Carrey, the makeup team went to great pains to both age Harris, and de-age Carrey.

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Niccol’s original script was set in a recreation of Manhattan and was more psychological. The scene where Truman confronts Meryl was originally more violent, and there was a scene where Truman came across – and ignored – a sexual assault taking place.

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It was also detailed that Christof’s grand plan was for Truman and Meryl to conceive live on air and for their to then be a spin-off show which followed the life of Truman and Meryl’s son.

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To flesh out the concept, Weir created a 10-page document which detailed the history of the TV show. Apparently, Christof was 29 years old when he convinced the Omnicam Corporation to adopt a newborn, and the show was originally called Bringing Up Baby.

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To play into the idea of a fictional world, there are many references to Hollywood. Truman’s surname, Burbank, comes from Studio City in California. And Sylvia’s character, Lauren Garland, is named after Lauren Bacall and Judy Garland.

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Similarly, every street in Seahaven is named after a movie star – for example, (Burt) Lancaster Square and (Humphrey) Bogart Avenue. And Marlon’s best friend, Louis Coltrane/Marlon (Noah Emmerich), is named from jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane.

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One of the composers on the film was Philip Glass. He has a cameo in the film when he shows up as the television composer playing a synth piano while Truman is asleep.

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CGI was still a relatively new innovation and effects supervisor Craig Barron advised it was used sparingly. Digital effects were used to extend some of the buildings to make them appear much taller than they actually were.

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The film was shot on location in a town called Seaside in Florida. As soon as Weir arrived there during location scouting, he knew it was the right place and told the crew to unpack. They began pre-production within days.

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The founders of Seaside were a couple, Robert and Daryl Davis. Robert inherited the land from his grandfather and he and his wife built the first home there. The Davis’ appear in the film, too. They’re the couple we see at the picnic table.

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Another Seaside cameo comes in the form of two police lieutenants who visited the set to direct traffic. When Weir saw how well officers Ron and Don Taylor got on with the crew, he hired them to play Truman’s twin brother neighbours.

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In creating the idyllic look of Seahaven, Weir took inspiration from classic American painter Norman Rockwell. Specifically, Weir studied Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post covers for inspiration.

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Weir was also influenced by TV visuals, especially commercials. Many shots have characters lean into the camera and interior scenes are heavily lit. Weir said "in this world, everything was for sale."

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The attention to detail in the script is astonishing. Truman tells a story of Marlon missing classes at school as he had pneumonia, and spending a summer working for Kaiser Chicken. These are times Louis, the actor playing Marlon, was on vacation.

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The (fake) opening credits state it is Day 10,909 of the show, putting Truman 48 days short of turning 30, and we see a newspaper stating it is 13th December 1996, meaning was born January 29, 1967.

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At the point Truman gets suspicious, we see set director Simeon (Paul Giamatti) start looking at jobs in the classified ads of the L.A. Times. And the light that Truman finds has ‘Sirius’ written on it, indicating it was a light used to create the star, Sirius.

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When Truman visits his mother, we see she has a photo of Truman dressed as a clown behind bars, as he has been his whole life. And we find out Truman takes Vitamin D tablets, as the closed set he lives on has no real sunlight.

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The travel agent turns up wearing a bib, which she quickly removes. It’s a makeup bib as the actress has just had her makeup done and walked onto the set. And the motto on the double archway is Latin for “One for all, all for one" the premise of the Truman Show.

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All music we hear in Seahaven (including the radio station Truman listens to) is classical music and public domain songs. This is so the TV studio doesn't have to pay licensing fees to the copyright owners.

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And, if you pay attention, you’ll notice almost every scene features black circles in inconspicuous places throughout Seahaven. These are containers for cameras so every move Truman makes can be monitored.

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The scene where Truman draws an astronaut helmet on the bathroom mirror with soap was Carrey’s idea, and he improvised the whole thing. Another take was shot where he drew long curly hair and a dress.

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Another hidden camera comes in the form of Truman’s diamond ring, which he takes from his father before he drowns. When his father returns, Truman hands back the ring. This explains why Christof’s crew struggle to track Truman down in the climax.

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As Truman looks to escape, the real-life viewers are watching across the country. The lines between the barmaids were originally said by a mother and daughter but after test screenings, Weir thought it was lacking. He had the actresses come back in and re-shot the scene.

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Another deleted scene gave Marlon a (kind of) redemption. There was a moment filmed during the hunt where Marlon finds Truman and, after hesitating, lets him go.

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The boat Truman uses to escape is called the Santa Maria, the name of one of Christopher Columbus' ships when sailing on his voyage of discovery.

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Truman almost dies when he’s in the boat and Christof unleashes a storm on him. Carrey later said that when he went under the water he ran out of breath and almost passed out but managed to cling to the wall. “I almost died. That was the real deal" he said.

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Truman finds the door to leave his prison, the look of which was inspired by Au clair de lune, a painting by René Magritte. It also mirrors the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, where a ship sails to the end of the world and hits a wall with a doorway.

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The film ends when Truman walks through the door but in the original script he was met by Christof and the actors, who can’t look him in the eye. Truman would attack Christof and get hauled off, before being reunited with Sylvia.

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The famous poster of Truman’s face made up of a collage of hundreds of smaller images of stills from the movie, was created by artist Rob Silverman at a reported cost of $75,000.

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Paramount scheduled the film for release on November 14, 1997. Once they saw the finished cut though, they realised it could do well at the awards. Not wanting to go head-to-head with Titanic, the release date was pushed back to summer 1998.

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On its release, The Truman Show was a big hit. On a production budget of $60m, it grossed $264m worldwide and was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Director. It has gone on to sit among the most popular work of both Peter Weir and Jim Carrey.

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Finally… in 2008, psychiatrist and author Joel Gold said he’d met five patients with mental disorders who believed they were living in a reality TV show - he called it Truman Syndrome. Andrew Niccol said “You know you've made it when you have a disease named after you.”

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