The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Interesting facts

• Budget: $10M
• Based on: The Lawnmower Man

The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 science fiction horror film directed by Brett Leonard, written by Leonard and Gimel Everett, and starring Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith, an intellectually disabled gardener, and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence "Larry" Angelo, a scientist who decides to experiment on him in an effort to give him greater intelligence by stimulating his brain using nootropic drugs and virtual reality computer simulations. The experiments give Jobe superhuman abilities, but also increase his aggression, turning him into a man obsessed with evolving into a digital being. The film is an international co-production between the United Kingdom and Japan.

Production

The plot of Stephen King's 1975 short story "The Lawnmower Man" concerns Harold Parkette, who hires "Pastoral Greenery and Outdoor Services Inc." to cut his lawn. Parkette later spies on the serviceman, discovering his lawnmower mows the lawn by itself while he crawls after it, naked, eating the grass. The serviceman is actually a satyr who worships the Greek god Pan.

An earlier short film, also titled The Lawnmower Man, was directed by Jim Gonis in 1987. That film was a direct adaptation of the short story by King.

Milton Subotsky and Andrew Donally first acquired the film rights to Night Shift (1978), the anthology the story appeared in, in 1978. Edward and Valerie Abraham wrote a screenplay for an anthology film adapting "The Lawnmower Man", "The Mangler", and "Trucks" revolving around the theme of humanity's relationship with technology.

Meanwhile, director Brett Leonard and producer Gimel Everett wrote an original screenplay about virtual reality technology titled Cyber God. They were inspired by seeing Jaron Lanier and his VPL Research technology at a San Francisco event called "Cyberthon"; Brosnan later suggested using some of Lanier's lines in the film, and both VPL's DataSuit and EyePhone appear in the film as props.

The new screenplay carried minor elements of King's original story, including the scene where Jobe kills Peter's father with the lawnmower "Big Red", and the aftermath in which the police state that they found some of his remains in the birdbath. The addition of a government agency known as "The Shop" was drawn from separate works of King's, such as Firestarter (1980) and The Tommyknockers (1987).

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