Groundhog Day

That's me, Harold Ramie.

I directed Groundhog Day in 1992...

...my sixth collaboration with Bill Murray.

This music, composed by George Fenton...

...was Nino Rota-style.

Rota went great with comedy.

So this is George's version of Nino Rota.

Let's listen.

Somebody asked me:

This scene of Bill Murray was a re-shoot...

...shot months after principal photography.

We edited it and realised people wanted to know...

...how Bill's character got to Pennsylvania...

...and why he was there. We introduced Bill...

...and teased his relationship with Andie MacDowell.

Front coming our way! Look out!

What will that mean to us? One of these big, blue things!

Bill had fun with the chromokey stuff.

It'll meet up with all this moisture out of the Gulf.

They'll mix at high altitudes and cause snow.

It won't hit us here in Pittsburgh. It'll push off and hit Altoona.

Close call.

Let's look at the five-day.

As you can see, nothing to be too scared about.

Bundle up warm, but you can leave your galoshes at home.

I won't be here at 10:00. Tomorrow's Groundhog Day.

I'll be in Punxsutawney for our country's oldest groundhog festival.

According to the legend, tomorrow, February 2nd...

...if the groundhog wakes and sees his shadow...

This actress, Carol Bivens, I like very much.

You must really enjoy it. This is your third year in a row.

Four, Nan.

Four.

He calls her Hairdo. "For your information, Hairdo..."

Stay with us.

We're clear.

Have fun in Punxsutawney.

For your information, Hairdo, a major network is interested in me.

And the actor with the glasses, Willie Garson...

...is a regular on...

...some TV show. Was it Sex and the City?

I think he's on Sex and the City.

He's a good actor.

Stay an extra second in Punxsutawney? Please!

Rita thinks it'd be a great idea...

...to stay for other events. You'll get incredible footage.

We toyed with other devices to introduce Bill's character.

To suggest why this curse was put on him.

He had a disaffected lover at the TV station who cursed him.

None of it made sense. The audience didn't need to know...

...why he gets trapped in the time warp.

Here's a song, "Weatherman," I co-wrote with George Fenton.

We wrote the lyrics.

I became an ASCAP member for writing this.

I get 45-cent royalties now.

George Fenton's an Oscar-winning composer who scored Gandhi.

We chose him due to the Gandhi! Groundhog Day connection.

Pembroke I've worked with...

...since National Lampoon's Vacation.

David Nichols, brilliant set designer.

This is Pittsburgh. I didn't go there.

A second unit did these shots.

This is the actual road to Punxsutawney.

It wasn't in the movie.

Punxsutawney doesn't have a town centre that looks very good on camera.

We wanted a perfect-looking town.

So you see Woodstock, Illinois.

What's wrong with the Groundhog Festival?

We were happy to get Chris Elliott. He was so funny on Letterman.

That's pretty much what he'd done at that point.

I think it's a nice story.

Andie MacDowell we hired due to a wonderful movie...

...that not many people saw:

Object of Beauty, a film by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

I liked her in other stuff, but she was really wonderful in that.

Look in the mirror and see how you look...

...when you do that groundhog thing.

For me? Once?

"He comes out, and there he looks at his little shadow."

Want some blood sausage? I have some--

I like blood sausage.

We scouted Wisconsin and Illinois...

...looking for the perfect town.

We pulled into Woodstock like this van is.

We looked at the town square and thought:

"Perfect! This is what Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania should look like."

That's a courthouse where a very famous case was tried.

A jail's attached to it, the lighter-coloured building.

Eugene Debs was tried there. Clarence Darrow defended him.

This hotel is actually a beautiful opera house.

This scene was done on a freezing day.

The square has a wind-tunnel effect.

That corner was freezing.

Much colder than the rest of the square.

On this day, Andie's face...

...actually started to freeze.

We had to stop shooting.

I booked you in a nice bed-and-breakfast.

Great.

That's an Armani overcoat Bill's wearing that I kept.

Anything I can do.

Would you help me with my pelvic tilt?

Within reason. Want to come to dinner with Larry and me?

Bill's great. Even with scripted material...

...he adds something surprising and unexpected.

Our rapport was he made me laugh...

...while I thought of bizarre ideas...

...that he could wrap his warped brain around.

That bed-and-breakfast was actually a private house.

The family was so happy to have us.

These interiors were built on a warehouse makeshift stage...

...in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

The song "I Got You, Babe"...

...was in every draft of the script from the original.

The project came to me as a spec script by Danny Rubin.

He's something of a Zen Buddhist. The script was very touching.

I didn't want to read it.

I thought the premise sounded thin and formulaic.

Trevor Albert, my producing partner--

I've worked with him since 1978.

He was a Caddyshack production assistant.

He said:

"It's deeper, more spiritual and touching than you can imagine."

I read it and loved it.

So I rewrote it by myself and polished it off...

...with Danny Rubin and we shared writing credit.

Then we enlisted Bill.

He seemed to connect pretty well with the material.

This fine actor is Ken Hudson Campbell or Campbell Hudson.

Ken Hudson Campbell: man in hallway.

He became one of the devices we used to mark time.

- Did you sleep well, Mr. Connors? - I slept alone, Mrs. Lancaster.

Like some coffee?

Is there any possibility of getting an espresso or cappuccino?

Her name is Angela Paton.

I really don't know...

How to spell espresso or cappuccino. This looks fine.

I hope you enjoy the festivities.

- I'm sure I will. - There's talk of a blizzard.

We may catch a break and it will blow right by.

Bill divided his character: Bad Phil and Good Phil.

Starting a scene, he'd say, "Am I Bad Phil or Good Phil?"

Like he hadn't read the script, but he had.

He sometimes had trouble keeping track.

Here we establish Bad Phil.

Did you want to talk about the weather or just chitchat?

Chitchat.

See you later.

Bye.

Will you be checking out today?

Chance of departure today, 100%.

Did I mention I kept that overcoat?

Steven Tobolowsky. He made us laugh so hard...

...in his audition reading, we hired him on the spot.

The homeless man in the background, Les Podewell...

...becomes very important in the story later on.

The Ned character read great.

Steve was overwhelmingly obnoxious in his audition.

Bing! Got the shingles real bad senior year. Almost didn't graduate.

Fans of the movie should notice the backgrounds.

First assistant director Mike Haley was fanatic...

...that extras, the cars going by...

...matched perfectly from day to day.

I sell insurance.

- What a shock. - Do you have life insurance?

The same people cross at the same time, the same cars go by.

I would love to stand here and talk with you.

But I'm not going to. See you.

That's all right! I'll walk with you.

Woodstock was so transformed by our presence.

I think I could've been elected mayor of Woodstock, but--

See Lloyd's store? They were unhappy with us.

They tried to charge us $200,000 for lost business.

I don't think they make that in a year.

Something else.

It's been great seeing you, Needlehead. Take care.

We dug lots of cobbles out and made the puddle Bill steps in.

Woodstock has since put plaques all over.

"This is where Bill Murray stepped in the puddle," etc.

In Punxsutawney, the Groundhog Day ceremony's outside town.

Like a forest preserve.

We loved Woodstock's square for the groundhog ceremony.

The pavilion-- Not that, that large gazebo already existed.

The pavilion that Bill's going toward...

...is an exact copy of Punxsutawney's.

Punxsutawney sent delegates...

...to see if we portrayed the ceremony accurately.

They wanted the movie shot in Punxsutawney.

But they thought Woodstock looked better.

Then they come back and sing some more!

Yeah. They're hicks, Rita.

So did you sleep okay without me?

You tossed and turned, didn't you?

You're incredible.

Who told you?

I love Andie, her emotional honesty.

She seems so smart.

Everything she portrays seems deeply felt.

I loved watching her during filming.

Right over Bill's shoulder are the Groundhog officials.