10 interesting facts about the movie "Groundhog Day"

Today in the USA and Canada, the weather forecast is not made by meteorologists, but by groundhogs. Innocent animals are forcibly pulled out of their burrows, and they, without knowing it, predict whether spring will come soon. This custom is more than 150 years old, but the general public of other countries became aware of it relatively recently — after the release of the comedy "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray. We believe that many people have watched this film, so little-known facts about it should interest you.

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1. It was planned that correspondent Phil Connors, who comes to Punxsutawney to shoot a report about a local groundhog predictor, will be performed not by Bill Murray, but by Tom Hanks. However, the director decided that Hanks was "too cute" to play a cynical journalist.

2. In the original version of the script, the main character was stuck in Groundhog Day from the first frames of the film. But then the script was rewritten to make it easier for the viewer to get involved in the plot twists and turns. In addition, it was decided to refuse to explain the reason why Connors suffered such a fate.

3. The film was shot not in Punxsutawney, but in the town of Woodstock, Illinois. The place where the main character repeatedly falls into a puddle has turned into a local landmark and even got a memorial plaque with the inscription: "Bill Murray came here."

4. The film was directed by Harold Ramis, with whom Murray shone in "Ghostbusters". From the very beginning, Ramis wanted to shoot exclusively in the comedy genre, and Murray insisted that a philosophical line should be traced in "Groundhog Day". The actor constantly bothered the director with all sorts of suggestions, and he was so tired of it that he entrusted communication with Bill to the script writer Danny Rubin. Most likely, this reaction was the reason that the old comrades did not communicate for a long time after filming.

5. The shooting of the scene in which an irritated Phil smashes the alarm clock to smithereens did not go as expected. Murray's blow barely cracked the watch, so I had to break it with a hammer and apply the magic of editing. At the same time, even the hammer failed to stop the persistent melody, and this moment was preserved, although it was not in the script.

6. Tip Top Cafe, which was built specifically for the film, decided not to demolish. Now there is a Mexican restaurant there.

7. When filming a scene in which Phil rides with a groundhog in a car, the actor suffered a production injury. The rodent bit him twice on the arm, and quite hard.

8. Harold Ramis said that he was inspired to create "Groundhog Day" by the work of Friedrich Nietzsche called "Cheerful Science". The book tells about the fate of a man who is forced to live the same day over and over again. And the screenwriter Danny Rubin noted that he wrote the script, being impressed by the novel "Interview with a Vampire" by Anne Rice, which soon made a film of the same name.

9. After the premiere of the film, which took place not on Groundhog Day, but on the eve of Valentine's Day, February 12, 1993, Americans' interest in the holiday increased. In 1997, 35 thousand people came to the festival, which is held annually in Punxsutawney, despite the fact that the population of the town is only 6 thousand.

10. 14 years after the premiere, Groundhog Day was entered into the US National Film Registry as "a work of cinematography of cultural, historical and aesthetic significance." In 2006, Premiere included the film in the list of the 50 best comedies of all time, and soon the picture took eighth place in the top ten fantasy films according to the American Film Institute.