10 Interesting Facts About Hollow Man And Its Sequel

In the year 2000, audiences were given a darker and much bloodier take on H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. Kevin Bacon starred in Hollow Man, the story of a scientist who becomes invisible and gradually descends into madness; going on a killing spree of all his once-friends and co-workers.

Six years later, the cult film would get a straight-to-video sequel starring Christian Slater. His story was that of a soldier who was subjected to the same formula thus also turning him into a murderer. Both films put their own stamp on the concept and have many interesting details both on and off-screen.

10 Kevin Bacon Hates Twinkies

At a few points, it is shown that Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Caine has a craving for Twinkies. Even the opening showed that coffee and twinkies were helpful in staying up so he can crack his formula.

This detail is already a fun quirk for the character but it’s made funnier when one listens to the DVD commentary. Kevin Bacon admits that he hated doing the scenes with Twinkies because he finds the taste abysmal.

9 Alternate Casting Choices

In the end, Kevin Bacon was chosen due to his talent for playing charismatic yet terrifying characters. This was effective because from beginning to end, Kevin Bacon carries the film. There are scenes where he is a terrifying slasher villain and some he’s darkly funny much like the Joker from Batman.

It makes one curious how different would Hollow Man be if other actors were chosen. At one point Guy Pearce and Edward Norton were looked at for Sebastian; meanwhile, Linda and Matt were almost cast with Jennifer Lopez and Robert Downey Jr. instead of Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin.

8 Hollow Man 2 References The Book

Of course, the classic mask with sunglasses is homaged in both movies. In Hollow Man 2, the main villain played by Christian Slater is named Michael Griffin; this is clearly a reference to Jack Griffin. Jack Griffin was the original invisible scientist from H.G. Well’s original novel and 1933’s The Invisible Man.

In a way, Michael Griffin is a culmination of a few of the Griffins. A power-hungry killer à la the original, a soldier similar to Invisible Agent‘s Frank Griffin Jr., and the twistedness of Robert Griffin from The Invisible Man’s Revenge.

7 An Alien Played The Gorilla

Before the audience is introduced to a Hollow Man, there is a Hollow Ape. The audience sees the gorilla named Isabelle experience a painful transformation back to visibility which was all CGI. However, when Isabelle is taken back to her cage, she is portrayed through a practical effect.

Isabelle is played by Tom Woodruff Jr. who is an apprentice of Stan Winston and a master of practical effects. For years, he was the physical actor for xenomorphs in multiple Alien movies and worked with Kevin Bacon before by bringing the Graboids to life in Tremors.

6 That Footage Looks Familiar

Hollow Man 2 was made on a drastically smaller budget than the first. As a result, the filmmakers could not give Christian Slater’s Michael Griffin is a big transformation scene. So, Hollow Man 2 uses recycled and doctored footage from Kevin Bacon’s transformation.

This is why Griffin’s transformation is covered up with so many edits and bright flashes. The flashback is also quite short but it’s easy to notice the reused footage from the first movie.

5 Legal Problems With The Title

From the very beginning, the movie was to be titled Hollow Man rather than The Invisible Man. This caused legal problems and the producers had to purchase the rights to a book called The Hollow Man.

The movie has absolutely nothing to do with the book since that story is about a man who can hear people’s thoughts. So the fact that rights to the title Hollow Man had to be purchased like that is a bit silly.

4 The Original Script Inspired The Sequel

Like with many movies, the original draft for Hollow Man was much different than the filming script. Whether it’s for budget constraints or the filmmakers wanted something different; movies go through changes to meet the collective satisfaction of writers, the director, and producers.

When it comes to franchises, sequels like to take scrapped ideas from previous films and try to execute them. Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies have done this for years. Hollow Man 2 took on elements from the original draft of the first Hollow Man.

3 Big Budget VS Low Budget

As mentioned, Hollow Man 2 had a shoestring budget in comparison to the first movie. In fact, there are only a little less than three hundred visual effects shots in Hollow Man 2. Within that amount, eighty of them were mostly just digital removal of wires.

The first movie was pretty much an entire runtime of VFX shots since most of the movie is from Caine’s perspective. Hollow Man 2 saved most of its budget for the scenes that absolutely needed it. So while the invisibility effects weren’t as good, they were far from bad for a low-budget film.

2 Kevin Bacon Underestimated The Job

With the role of an invisible man, Kevin Bacon signed on thinking it would be an easy job. That he was just going to be in an audio booth for most of the production. He was very wrong as it turned out to be one of his toughest acting jobs. To pull off the invisibility, he was always there on set with different color suits and makeup on.

For brighter scenes, he wore a green suit and green makeup. For the watery segments, he wore all jet black. Then for shots like moving through smoke, he wore all blue. On top of all that makeup, he would wear the practical rubber mask that earns him the name Hollow Man.

1 Paul Verhoeven Was Not Happy With Hollow Man

Despite earning double its budget back and gaining a cult-following, director Paul Verhoeven was not happy with the film. While behind-the-scenes footage shows he put much passion into it, he felt that it was too much of a studio movie.

In a way, he has a point: it was vastly different from what the director is known for. Paul Verhoeven was famous for his high-octane and irreverent action movies such as Total Recall, Starship Troopers, and Robocop. All very wild and humorous with a dark edge to them. Hollow Man definitely keeps Verhoeven’s love of gore and twisted humor but the final product still didn’t quite please him.

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