Gran Torino - Production

Production

Gran Torino was written by Nick Schenk and directed by Clint Eastwood. It was produced by Village Roadshow Pictures, Media Magik Entertainment and Malpaso Productions for film distributor Warner Bros. Eastwood co-produced with his Malpaso partners Robert Lorenz and Bill Gerber.

Eastwood has never stated publicly why he wanted to make the film. Louisa Schein of AsianWeek speculated that he may have identified with the paternal aspect of Walt Kowalski.

Filming began in July 2008. Hmong crew, production assistants, consultants, and extras were used. The film was shot over five weeks. Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, the editors, cut the film so it was under two hours long. The crew spent over $10 million while filming the movie in Detroit.

In the early 1990s, Schenk became acquainted with the history and culture of the Hmong while working in a factory in Minnesota. He also learned how they had sided with the South Vietnamese forces and its U.S. allies during the Vietnam War, only to wind up in refugee camps, at the mercy of northern Communist forces, when American troops pulled out and the government forces were defeated. Years later, he was deciding how to develop a story involving a widowed Korean War veteran trying to handle the changes in his neighborhood when he decided to place a Hmong family next door and create a culture clash. He and Dave Johannson, Schenk's brother's roommate, created an outline for the story. According to Schenk, each night he used a pen and paper to write the script while in Grumpy's, a bar in northeast Minneapolis, while not working at his day jobs. He recalled writing 25 pages within a single night in the bar. He recalled asking the bartender, who was his friend, questions about the story's progress. Some industry insiders told Schenk that he could not produce a film starring an elderly main character, as it could not be sold, especially with an elderly main character who used language suggesting that he held racist views. Through a friend, Schenk sent the screenplay to Warner Bros. producer Bill Gerber. Eastwood was able to direct and star on the project as filming for Invictus was delayed to early 2009, leaving sufficient time for filming Gran Torino during the previous summer. Eastwood said that he had a "fun and challenging role, and it's an oddball story."

According to Schenk, aside from changing Minneapolis references to Detroit references, the production headed by Eastwood "didn't change a single syllable" in the script. Schenk added that the concept of the producer's not making any substantial revisions to a submitted script "never happens." Eastwood said that he stopped making significant revisions after attempting to change the script of Unforgiven and later deciding to return to the original revision, believing that his changes were "emasculating" the product.