All credits appear at the end of the film. Producers thank the following individuals and organizations in the end credits: The Matagali of Mosesi Namomo of the Village of Yanuya; The Native Land Trust Board of Fiji; Fiji Visitor’s Bureau; The Film Unit, Auckland, New Zealand; Xtreme Forwarding NZ, Ltd.; City of Memphis, Tennessee; Memphis & Shelby County Film & Television Commission; WMC-TV Channel 5, Memphis; Discreet*, a division of Autodesk; Arrington Ranch, Canadian, Texas; State of Texas; Texas Department of Transportation; and Texas Film Commission.
       The working title for the film was Chuck of the Jungle, as stated in a 5 Nov 2000 NYT article.
       According to production notes found in AMPAS library files, actor-producer Tom Hanks originated the idea for Cast Away and began developing the film with screenwriter William Broyles Jr., in the early 1990s when the two collaborated on Apollo 13 (1995, see entry). Broyles traveled to “an island near the Sea of Cortez” with a couple of primitive technology experts to find out what might happen to a person on a desert island. According to an 8 Mar 2001 DV article, during his stay on the island, Broyles found a volleyball that had washed ashore, and, out of loneliness, he decorated the ball with seashells and talked to it, thus creating the character of “Wilson, the volleyball.” Broyles also read personal accounts written by castaways and victims of shipwrecks who survived physical disasters, but whose psychological desperation led to their demise. As stated in the 8 Mar 2001 DV article, director Robert Zemeckis had signed on as a consultant during the screenplay’s early stages, and agreed to direct only after Broyles suggested that Hanks’s character, “Chuck Nolan,” save himself “instead of getting rescued.”
       A 19 Oct 1998 Var article reported that Dreamworks Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox were planning to split production costs, distribution rights, and worldwide box-office revenue on both Cast Away and What Lies Beneath (2000, see entry), another film to be directed by Zemeckis. On Cast Away, Fox planned to handle domestic distribution while Dreamworks would distribute in foreign territories; on What Lies Beneath, the territories would be reversed, with Dreamworks handling domestic and Fox in charge of foreign distribution.
       According to a 9 Jan 2001 London Evening Standard article, the film cost $85 million. Actress Helen Hunt was reportedly paid $1 million for three days of work on Cast Away, as stated in a 7 Feb 2000 People news brief.
       Including a one-year hiatus, production took place over sixteen months, as stated in production notes. Filming began in Moscow, Russia, on 18 Jan 1999, according to 2 May 2000 HR production charts. After a week of filming in Moscow, cast and crew moved to the ninety-nine acre “uninhabited volcanic island” of Monu-riki in “the northwest section of the Fiji islands.” In order to film there, the filmmakers had arranged a “sabu-sabu,” a formal ceremony with the island’s Fijian owners, as well as agreeing to an “environmental code of conduct” during production; amongst other things, the code mandated that they must replace any tree removed during filming with three trees in its place, and provide food and plants for the indigenous Crested Iguana.
       During the first bout of shooting, Hanks was still at a heavier weight from his previous role in The Green Mile (1999, see entry), according to the 5 Nov 2000 NYT. A 9 Mar 1999 LAT news item reported that the actor was injured in Fiji, enduring an infection to a blister on one of his knees that forced Hanks to spend one night in a Los Angeles, CA, hospital and the following week “off his feet.” With initial filming completed, the yearlong hiatus ensued, during which time Zemeckis shot What Lies Beneath and Hanks lost fifty-five pounds while letting his hair and beard grow. Shooting started up again 3 Apr 2000, as reported in a 9 Mar 2000 HR production charts listing. Although the piecemeal schedule was daunting, Zemeckis stated in production notes that the time off allowed him to view what he shot in early 1999 with objectivity when he returned to film the second portion; in addition, the ability to shoot Cast Away in chronological story order benefited the entire crew, as it added a sense of realism, according to Hanks. Final filming in Fiji concluded after one week, “a day and a half ahead of schedule.” The production then moved to Los Angeles, CA, where special effects footage was shot at Sony studios in Culver City. The scenes depicting Chuck’s return to civilization at FedEx headquarters were later filmed in Memphis, TN, where FedEx’s real life owner and founder, Fred Smith, appeared in a cameo. Lastly, production moved to Canadian, TX, where filming concluded in May 2000.
       A 28 Feb 2001 HR article described the special effects in Cast Away, including “digital effects, miniatures, and physical effects” that were combined to create the airplane crash sequence. To depict the FedEx aircraft’s plummet into the ocean, filmmakers shot Hanks in a dry interior, and, at another time, “blasted” the airplane with water; the footage was then combined so that Hanks appeared to go underwater at the point of impact. The lightning, rain and clouds visible outside the airplane’s windshield before crashing were all computer generated, and digital effects were used to remove landmasses surrounding Monu-riki. For a scene in which Chuck views the island from the top of a cliff, the crew found it impossible to import the necessary camera crane into Monu-riki’s rough terrain, so they shot in Malibu, CA, instead, using a “plaster centerpiece” in place of a cliff. The centerpiece was set up in a parking lot, and “the cliff face, where the camera looks down into waves crashing into rocks, was a digital matte painting with computer-graphic water and the reef and sky added in.” HR also noted that “day for night” shooting was used to capture some of the film’s moonlit sequences.
       An 11 Jan 2001 The Times (London) article clarified that FedEx did not provide Cast Away with compensation for product placement; rather, the corporation spent a long time deciding whether or not they would agree to the film’s portrayal of FedEx, since the company’s airplanes had never endured a fatal crash like the one seen in Cast Away, and their reputation as a safe, reliable shipping company was at risk.
       According to a 30 Jan 2001 HR article, the angel wings design featured on “Bettina Peterson’s” FedEx package, and later, Chuck’s raft, was originally created by Andrea Broyles, an artist based in Austin, TX, and the wife of screenwriter William Broyles Jr. The character Bettina Peterson was also named after Andrea, whose middle name was Bettina.
       Critical reception was mostly positive. Hanks’s performance was widely praised, with HR’s Kirk Honeycutt describing it as “tour de force” in his 8 Dec 2000 review, and the DV review of the same date calling it ‘bravura.” In praise of the film’s technical achievements, Stephen Holden stated in his 22 Dec 2000 NYT review that Cast Away contained “the scariest, most believable plane crash ever filmed.”
       The film took in $40.5 million in its four-day opening weekend, marking a “career-best” opening for Hanks, whose previous best was achieved with the three-day opening of Saving Private Ryan (1998, see entry). A 21 Jun 2001 DV news item stated that the film’s U.S. box-office earnings had reached $233 million, with an additional $20.6 million earned in videocassette and DVD rentals.
       Hanks won a Golden Globe award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama,” and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis Sands, and William B. Kaplan also received an Academy Award nomination for Sound, and William Broyles Jr. was named “Screenwriter of the Year” by ShoWest.
       A 4 Jan 2001 LAT news item reported that “Wilson,” the volleyball Hanks befriended in the film, was auctioned off on Fox’s website, fetching $18,400.