On the Road (film)
Encyclopedia
On the Road is a 2012 film adaptation of the Jack Kerouac
novel of the same name
directed by Walter Salles
and starring Sam Riley
as Sal Paradise
and Garrett Hedlund
as Dean Moriarty. It is being executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola
. Filming began on August 4, 2010, in Montreal
, Canada
, with a $25 million budget. The story is based on the years Kerouac spent traveling America in the 1940's with his friend Neal Cassady
and several other figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs
and Allen Ginsberg
.
suggested that he play Dean Moriarty while Kerouac would portray Sal Paradise. In the letter, Kerouac envisioned the film to be shot, "with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak". Brando never responded to the letter and later on Warner Brothers offered $110,000 for the rights to Kerouac's book but his agent, Sterling Lord, turned it down. Lord hoped for $150,000 from Paramount Pictures
, which wanted to cast Brando in the film. The deal did not happen and Kerouac was angered that his agent asked for too much money.
Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola
bought the rights in 1979. Over the years, he hired several screenwriters to adapt the book into a film, including Michael Herr
and Barry Gifford
only for Coppola to write his own draft with son Roman
. In 1995, the filmmaker planned to shoot on black-and-white 16mm film and held auditions with poet Allen Ginsberg
in attendance but the project fell through. Coppola said, "I tried to write a script, but I never knew how to do it. It's hard – it's a period piece. It's very important that it be period. Anything involving period costs a lot of money". Several years later, he tried again with Ethan Hawke
and Brad Pitt
to play Sal Paradise
and Dean Moriarty, respectively, but this project also failed to work. In 2001, Coppola hired novelist Russell Banks
to write the script and planned to make the film with Joel Schumacher
directing and starring Billy Crudup
as Sal Paradise and Colin Farrell
as Dean Moriarty, but this incarnation of the project was shelved as well.
and hired Brazilian director Walter Salles
to direct the film. Salles was drawn to the novel because, according to him, it is about people "trying to break into a society that’s impermeable", and that he wants "to deal with a generation that collides with its society". In preparation for the film, he made the documentary Searching for On the Road, in which he takes the same road trip as the lead character in the novel, Sal Paradise
, and talks to Beat poets who knew Kerouac
. Coppola's American Zoetrope
is producing the film, in association with MK2
, Film4
in the U.K. and Videofilmes in Brazil.
Before filming began on August 2, 2010, in Montreal
, Canada
, with a $25 million budget, the entire cast underwent a three-week "beatnik
boot camp
," according to Stewart, which involved reading literature pertaining to the Beat Generation
and was led by Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia. He played an audio interview that was recorded in 1978 with Lu Anne Henderson, Neal Cassady's wife, on whom the book’s character Marylou is based. After a month of shooting Montreal, the production will move to New Orleans where it will shoot for a month before moving to Mexico
for several weeks before returning to Montreal to wrap the final scenes.
will star as the alter ego of author Jack Kerouac
, Sal Paradise
. Garrett Hedlund
has been cast as Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady
) and has been linked to the role since September 2007. Kristen Stewart
will play Mary Lou, and Kirsten Dunst
will play Camille. By the first week of August 2010, Viggo Mortensen
and Amy Adams
had joined the cast, Mortensen for the role of Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs
), and Adams as the character's wife, Jane (Joan Vollmer
). English actor Tom Sturridge
has been cast as Carlo Marx (Allen Ginsberg
), poet and friend to both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.
Salles has reunited with some of the crew members that he worked with on The Motorcycle Diaries, including producer Rebecca Yeldham, screenwriter Jose Rivera
, director of photography Eric Gautier, production designer Carlos Conti, and composer Gustavo Santaolalla
.
, Canada
. Filming continued on location in Gatineau
, Quebec
, on August 17, where the city is standing in for Denver, Colorado
in 1947. The film shot for five days in the middle of October 2010 in and around Calgary, Alberta
. Some scenes were also shot in Mexico and the United States (mainly New Orleans and Arizona). The production shot for a week in early December 2010 in San Francisco. In addition, the production also shot in Argentina
and Chile
with actor Garrett Hedlund, at one point, filming a scene where he drove a 1949 Hudson Hornet
in the Andes
during a blizzard, wearing goggles and screaming out his window while director Walter Salles sat in the passenger seat holding a camera, with another camera mounted on the front of the car.
Hedlund has described filming as "quite a guerilla shoot. At times, there’s just been two handfuls of crew members around us and it’s a very quiet situation". Cinematographer Eric Gautier shot several scenes with a hand-held camera and Salles encouraged the cast to improvise and "to make scenes flow and have a rhythm," said Hedlund.
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
novel of the same name
On the Road
On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...
directed by Walter Salles
Walter Salles
Walter Moreira Salles, Jr. is a Brazilian filmmaker and film producer of international prominence.-Life and career:Salles was born in Rio de Janeiro. He is the son of Elizinha Goncalves and Walter Moreira Salles, a Brazilian banker and ambassador, and the brother of João Moreira Salles, also a...
and starring Sam Riley
Sam Riley
Sam Riley is an English actor and singer.-Early life:Riley was born in Menston in the Metropolitan District of Bradford in West Yorkshire, the son of "a textile agent and nursery-school teacher". He was educated at Uppingham School...
as Sal Paradise
Sal Paradise
Salvatore “Sal” Paradise is the narrator and the protagonist in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sal, an Italian American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies Dean Moriarty, a young and reckless Denver vagrant, on his...
and Garrett Hedlund
Garrett Hedlund
Garrett John Hedlund is an American actor known for his roles in the films Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Country Strong, for his role as Patroclus in the movie Troy and as Sam Flynn in the film Tron: Legacy.-Early life:Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota, the son of Kristine Anne ...
as Dean Moriarty. It is being executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
. Filming began on August 4, 2010, in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, with a $25 million budget. The story is based on the years Kerouac spent traveling America in the 1940's with his friend Neal Cassady
Neal Cassady
Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road....
and several other figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
.
Cast
- Sam RileySam RileySam Riley is an English actor and singer.-Early life:Riley was born in Menston in the Metropolitan District of Bradford in West Yorkshire, the son of "a textile agent and nursery-school teacher". He was educated at Uppingham School...
as Sal ParadiseSal ParadiseSalvatore “Sal” Paradise is the narrator and the protagonist in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sal, an Italian American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies Dean Moriarty, a young and reckless Denver vagrant, on his... - Garrett HedlundGarrett HedlundGarrett John Hedlund is an American actor known for his roles in the films Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Country Strong, for his role as Patroclus in the movie Troy and as Sam Flynn in the film Tron: Legacy.-Early life:Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota, the son of Kristine Anne ...
as Dean Moriarty - Kristen StewartKristen StewartKristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...
as Mary Lou - Kirsten DunstKirsten DunstKirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
as Camille - Viggo MortensenViggo MortensenViggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...
as Old Bull Lee - Amy AdamsAmy AdamsAmy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
as Jane - Tom SturridgeTom SturridgeThomas Sidney Jerome "Tom" Sturridge is an English actor best known for his work in Being Julia, Like Minds, and The Boat That Rocked. As of September 2010, he was filming a role in Walter Salles's highly anticipated film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.-Personal life:Sturridge was born...
as Carlo Marx - Steve BuscemiSteve BuscemiSteven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
- Elisabeth MossElisabeth MossElisabeth Singleton Moss is an American actor. Her notable roles include that of Zoey Bartlet, the third and youngest daughter of President Jed Bartlet, on the NBC television series The West Wing , and secretary turned copywriter Peggy Olson on the AMC original series Mad Men .-Early life and...
, as Galatea Dunkel - Alice BragaAlice BragaAlice Braga Moraes is a Brazilian actress. She has appeared in several Brazilian films, most notably as Angélica in 2002's highly acclaimed City of God and as Karina in 2005's Lower City...
, as "Terry" - Danny Morgan as Ed Dunkel
- Terrence HowardTerrence HowardTerrence Dashon Howard is an American actor. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, which subsequently led to a number of roles in films and high visibility among African American audiences. Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of well-reviewed television...
- Rocky MarquetteRocky Marquette- Biography :Early LifeRocky Marquette was born in Muskegon, Michigan. He studied at Reeths Puffer High School and then attended college at Grand Valley State University on a Shakespeare scholarship.Film Career...
as Alfred - Marie-Ginette Guay as Gabrielle Levesque (Aunt of Sal Paradise)
Character key
| Actor | Character name |
|---|---|
| Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic... |
Sal Paradise Sal Paradise Salvatore “Sal” Paradise is the narrator and the protagonist in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sal, an Italian American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies Dean Moriarty, a young and reckless Denver vagrant, on his... |
| Gabrielle Kerouac (Jack's mother) | Sal's aunt |
| Alan Ansen Alan Ansen Alan Ansen was an American poet, playwright, and associate of Beat Generation writers. He was a widely-read scholar who knew many languages. Ansen grew up on Long Island and was educated at Harvard. He worked as W. H... |
Rollo Greb |
| William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th... |
Old Bull Lee |
| Joan Vollmer Joan Vollmer Joan Vollmer was the most prominent female member of the early Beat Generation circle. While a student at Barnard College she became the roommate of Edie Parker and their apartment became a gathering place for the Beats during the 1940s, where Vollmer was often at the center of marathon, all... |
Jane |
| Lucien Carr Lucien Carr Lucien Carr was a key member of the original New York City circle of the Beat Generation in the 1940s; later he worked for many years as an editor for United Press International.-Early life:... |
Damion |
| Neal Cassady Neal Cassady Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road.... |
Dean Moriarty |
| Carolyn Cassady Carolyn Cassady Carolyn Elizabeth Robinson Cassady is an American writer associated with the Beat Generation through her marriage to Neal Cassady and her friendships with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other prominent Beat figures... |
Camille |
| Hal Chase | Chad King |
| Henri Cru | Remi Boncoeur |
| Bea Franco | Terry |
| Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression... |
Carlo Marx |
| Diana Hansen | Inez |
| Alan Harrington | Hal Hingham |
| Joan Haverty | Laura |
| Luanne Henderson | Marylou |
| Al Hinkle | Ed Dunkel |
| Helen Hinkle | Galatea Dunkel |
| Jim Holmes | Tom Snark |
| John Clellon Holmes John Clellon Holmes John Clellon Holmes , born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was an author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel Go. Considered the first "Beat" novel, Go depicted events in his life with his friends Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. He was often referred to as the "quiet Beat"... |
Tom Saybrook |
| Herbert Huncke Herbert Huncke Herbert Edwin Huncke was a writer and poet, and active participant in a number of emerging cultural, social and aesthetic movements of the 20th century in America... |
Elmer Hassel |
| Frank Jeffries | Stan Shephard |
| Gene Pippin | Gene Dexter |
| Ed Stringham | Tom Saybrook |
| Allan Temko Allan Temko Allan Bernard Temko was a Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic and writer based in San Francisco.Born in New York City and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey, Temko served as a U.S... |
Roland Major |
| Bill Tomson | Roy Johnson |
| Helen Tomson | Dorothy Johnson |
| Ed Uhl | Ed Wall |
Previous attempts
A film adaptation of On the Road has been in the works for years. In 1957, Jack Kerouac wrote a one-page letter to actor Marlon BrandoMarlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
suggested that he play Dean Moriarty while Kerouac would portray Sal Paradise. In the letter, Kerouac envisioned the film to be shot, "with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak". Brando never responded to the letter and later on Warner Brothers offered $110,000 for the rights to Kerouac's book but his agent, Sterling Lord, turned it down. Lord hoped for $150,000 from Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, which wanted to cast Brando in the film. The deal did not happen and Kerouac was angered that his agent asked for too much money.
Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
bought the rights in 1979. Over the years, he hired several screenwriters to adapt the book into a film, including Michael Herr
Michael Herr
Michael Herr is a writer and former war correspondent, best known as the author of Dispatches , a memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War...
and Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness....
only for Coppola to write his own draft with son Roman
Roman Coppola
Roman Coppola is an American film director and music video director.-Early life:Coppola was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the son of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was born in the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine while his father was in Paris...
. In 1995, the filmmaker planned to shoot on black-and-white 16mm film and held auditions with poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
in attendance but the project fell through. Coppola said, "I tried to write a script, but I never knew how to do it. It's hard – it's a period piece. It's very important that it be period. Anything involving period costs a lot of money". Several years later, he tried again with Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
and Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
to play Sal Paradise
Sal Paradise
Salvatore “Sal” Paradise is the narrator and the protagonist in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sal, an Italian American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies Dean Moriarty, a young and reckless Denver vagrant, on his...
and Dean Moriarty, respectively, but this project also failed to work. In 2001, Coppola hired novelist Russell Banks
Russell Banks
Russell Banks is an American writer of fiction and poetry.- Biography :Russell Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on March 28, 1940. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is also...
to write the script and planned to make the film with Joel Schumacher
Joel Schumacher
Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...
directing and starring Billy Crudup
Billy Crudup
William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...
as Sal Paradise and Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell
Colin James Farrell is an Irish actor, who has appeared in such film as Tigerland, Miami Vice, Minority Report, Phone Booth, The Recruit, Alexander and S.W.A.T....
as Dean Moriarty, but this incarnation of the project was shelved as well.
Pre-production
Coppola saw The Motorcycle DiariesThe Motorcycle Diaries (film)
At the end of the film, after his sojourn at the leper colony, Guevara confirms his nascent egalitarian, anti-authority impulses, while making a birthday toast, which is also his first political speech. In it he evokes a pan-Latin American identity that transcends both the arbitrary boundaries of...
and hired Brazilian director Walter Salles
Walter Salles
Walter Moreira Salles, Jr. is a Brazilian filmmaker and film producer of international prominence.-Life and career:Salles was born in Rio de Janeiro. He is the son of Elizinha Goncalves and Walter Moreira Salles, a Brazilian banker and ambassador, and the brother of João Moreira Salles, also a...
to direct the film. Salles was drawn to the novel because, according to him, it is about people "trying to break into a society that’s impermeable", and that he wants "to deal with a generation that collides with its society". In preparation for the film, he made the documentary Searching for On the Road, in which he takes the same road trip as the lead character in the novel, Sal Paradise
Sal Paradise
Salvatore “Sal” Paradise is the narrator and the protagonist in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sal, an Italian American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies Dean Moriarty, a young and reckless Denver vagrant, on his...
, and talks to Beat poets who knew Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
. Coppola's American Zoetrope
American Zoetrope
American Zoetrope is a studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Founded on December 12, 1969, American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV...
is producing the film, in association with MK2
Marin Karmitz
Marin Karmitz is a French jewish businessman whose career has spanned the French film industry, including director, producer, film distributor, and operator of a chain of cinemas....
, Film4
Film4
Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...
in the U.K. and Videofilmes in Brazil.
Before filming began on August 2, 2010, in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, with a $25 million budget, the entire cast underwent a three-week "beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
boot camp
Training camp
A training camp is a place, usually with an army-camp-type environment, where people go to learn skills, usually skills involving physical action rather than book subjects, usually for an armed force or an action sport...
," according to Stewart, which involved reading literature pertaining to the Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
and was led by Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia. He played an audio interview that was recorded in 1978 with Lu Anne Henderson, Neal Cassady's wife, on whom the book’s character Marylou is based. After a month of shooting Montreal, the production will move to New Orleans where it will shoot for a month before moving to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
for several weeks before returning to Montreal to wrap the final scenes.
Casting
Sam RileySam Riley
Sam Riley is an English actor and singer.-Early life:Riley was born in Menston in the Metropolitan District of Bradford in West Yorkshire, the son of "a textile agent and nursery-school teacher". He was educated at Uppingham School...
will star as the alter ego of author Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, Sal Paradise
Sal Paradise
Salvatore “Sal” Paradise is the narrator and the protagonist in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sal, an Italian American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies Dean Moriarty, a young and reckless Denver vagrant, on his...
. Garrett Hedlund
Garrett Hedlund
Garrett John Hedlund is an American actor known for his roles in the films Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Country Strong, for his role as Patroclus in the movie Troy and as Sam Flynn in the film Tron: Legacy.-Early life:Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota, the son of Kristine Anne ...
has been cast as Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady
Neal Cassady
Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road....
) and has been linked to the role since September 2007. Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...
will play Mary Lou, and Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
will play Camille. By the first week of August 2010, Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...
and Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
had joined the cast, Mortensen for the role of Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
), and Adams as the character's wife, Jane (Joan Vollmer
Joan Vollmer
Joan Vollmer was the most prominent female member of the early Beat Generation circle. While a student at Barnard College she became the roommate of Edie Parker and their apartment became a gathering place for the Beats during the 1940s, where Vollmer was often at the center of marathon, all...
). English actor Tom Sturridge
Tom Sturridge
Thomas Sidney Jerome "Tom" Sturridge is an English actor best known for his work in Being Julia, Like Minds, and The Boat That Rocked. As of September 2010, he was filming a role in Walter Salles's highly anticipated film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.-Personal life:Sturridge was born...
has been cast as Carlo Marx (Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
), poet and friend to both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.
Salles has reunited with some of the crew members that he worked with on The Motorcycle Diaries, including producer Rebecca Yeldham, screenwriter Jose Rivera
José Rivera (playwright)
José Rivera is a playwright and the first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Oscar.-Early years:Rivera was born in the Santurce section of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1955. He was raised in Arecibo where he lived until 1959. Rivera's family migrated from Puerto Rico when he was 4 years...
, director of photography Eric Gautier, production designer Carlos Conti, and composer Gustavo Santaolalla
Gustavo Santaolalla
Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla is an Argentine musician, film composer and producer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in two consecutive years, for Brokeback Mountain in 2005 and Babel in 2006.-Life and career:...
.
Principal photography
Filming began on August 4, 2010, in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Filming continued on location in Gatineau
Gatineau
Gatineau is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is the fourth largest city in the province. It is located on the northern banks of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario, and together they form Canada's National Capital Region. Ottawa and Gatineau comprise a single Census...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, on August 17, where the city is standing in for Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
in 1947. The film shot for five days in the middle of October 2010 in and around Calgary, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
. Some scenes were also shot in Mexico and the United States (mainly New Orleans and Arizona). The production shot for a week in early December 2010 in San Francisco. In addition, the production also shot in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
with actor Garrett Hedlund, at one point, filming a scene where he drove a 1949 Hudson Hornet
Hudson Hornet
The Hudson Hornet is an automobile that was produced by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan between 1951 and 1954. The Hornet was also built by American Motors Corporation in Kenosha, Wisconsin and marketed under the Hudson brand between 1955 and 1957.The first-generation Hudson...
in the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
during a blizzard, wearing goggles and screaming out his window while director Walter Salles sat in the passenger seat holding a camera, with another camera mounted on the front of the car.
Hedlund has described filming as "quite a guerilla shoot. At times, there’s just been two handfuls of crew members around us and it’s a very quiet situation". Cinematographer Eric Gautier shot several scenes with a hand-held camera and Salles encouraged the cast to improvise and "to make scenes flow and have a rhythm," said Hedlund.