Released: December 10, 2003

Directed By: Tim Burton

Screenplay By:  John August

Based on the Book: “Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions” by Daniel Wallace

Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Alison Lohman, Robert Guillaume, Marion Cotillard, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito and a bunch of other actors.

Plot: A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father’s life.

Taglines:   An adventure as big as life itself.

How did this movie do?
Budget: $70 Million
Box Office: $123 Million

• Nominated for an Academy Award – Best Original Score, Danny Elfman

• For the role of Edward Bloom, Burton spoke with Jack Nicholson, Spielberg’s initial choice for the role. Burton had previously worked with Nicholson on Batman (1989) and Mars Attacks! (1996). In order to depict Nicholson as the young Bloom, Burton intended to use a combination of computer-generated imagery and prosthetic makeup.
  
  
• Ewan McGregor was cast as Young Ed Bloom when producers noticed the striking similarity between him and pictures of a young Albert Finney, who plays Senior Ed Bloom.

• CAMEO: While filming in Alabama, the crew tracked down Billy Redden, one of the original banjo players from Deliverance (1972). Redden was working as a part-owner of a restaurant in Clayton, Georgia, and he agreed to reprise his role in the Spectre vignette.
  
  
• CAMEO: Original Big Fish author Daniel Wallace makes a brief appearance as Sandra’s economics teacher in the “Courtship of Sandra Templeton” sequence.
  
  
• The film’s theme of reconciliation between a dying father and his son had special significance for Burton, as his father had died in 2000 and his mother in 2002, a month before he signed on to direct.
  
  
• The Witch’s makeup took approximately five hours to apply.
  
  
• Matthew McGrory (Karl the Giant) appreciated the shoes the costume department made for him out of luggage. While he was alive he held the Guinness World Record for the largest feet: size US 29.5. McGrory passed away two years after this film was released at age 32, from natural causes.
  
  
• When Norther Winslow shows his half-finished poem to Edward (Grass so green/Skies so blue/Spectre is really great!), the handwriting is director Tim Burton’s.
  
  
• The circus fat man was played by famed sideshow attraction Howard Huge (Bruce Snowdon). This movie was his final appearance as a professional fat man. His weight peaked at 712 pounds during his career which spanned more than 25 years. When he died in 2009, he reportedly weighed ‘only’ 609 pounds.
  
  
• While Spectre is a fictional town, the ZIP Code shown on the deed to Jenny’s house is real. 36104 is one of the ZIP Codes for Montgomery, Alabama. You can however, Google “The Town of Spectre” and see the private island where the set is now abandoned.
  
  
• Three years is a prominent amount of time that appears in the film on multiple occasions. Examples include Will and his father, Edward, not talking to each other for three years, Edward mentioned he had to stay in his bed for three years, he worked for Calloway’s circus for three years, and he mentioned he had to stay in the army for three years.
  
  
• Miley Cyrus has a small role as one of Edward’s childhood friendship group.
  
  
• Tim Burton kept the ventriloquist dummy from the war sequence and has it at his home. He named it Lang.
  
  
• Edward’s car is a 1966 Dodge Charger. 1966 was the first year that Dodge made the Charger.
  
  
• The big white house in the movie is featured on the home renovation show Home Town Takeover (2021) on HGTV in Wetumpka, Alabama.
  
  
• The screenplay has been adapted to a stage musical with songs by Andrew Lippa, first performed in 2013. The setting and characters are slightly different. E.g., Edward is originally from Spectre rather than first visiting it when he is a young man.
  
  
• Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor) walks through a dark forest, has his hat stolen by a crow, gets pinched by wasps and then attacked by jumping spiders before arriving at a small town, called Spectre. The entire town was custom built for Big Fish at Jackson Lake Island in Alabama. The trees were created by Stan Winston Studio, forming a wire mesh around a steel skeleton and then blowing styrofoam into the mesh. They were then sculpted, sealed, and painted to look appear realistic. In the scene where spiders jump on Bloom most of the attacking spiders were cable- and servo-controlled puppets, though some of them were applied directly to the costume.