During two months of filming in Alabama, the production endured muggy heat, swarming bugs, a mysterious "killer" mulch that made several people sick, severe thunderstorm warnings, and a tornado watch.
Originally, the film was going to star Elijah Wood, and be set in the same world as The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993). Wood was was too busy filming Flipper (1996), so Brad Renfro replaced him.
During an interview, Buzzfeed News asked Gemma Jackson about her production memories of Brad Renfro. She replied "He was sexually active. He had a girlfriend who was years older than him." When told that Renfro was 13 during filming, she paused, then said "Thirteen, OK. He was very young ... I guess that would now be a problem, wouldn't it?". Renfro was actually 12 during filming.
According to Mark Twain, the source novel is largely autobiographical. Tom Sawyer is based on Twain. Huck was based on Tom Blankenship, a boy Twain befriended in Hannibal, MO. He was the son of a local vagrant, who Twain said "had the greatest heart of anyone he knew". Becky was based on Laura Hawkins, who Twain dated for a while. Injun Joe was based on Joe Douglas, a local vagrant who spent half his time in jail. He was very sweet to the local kids when drunk, but could be scary when he sobered up.
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