Secondhand Lions

The unwanted Anne looks for a home under the roof of two strangers in Anne of Green Gables. A powerful kinship develops when a young boy befriends the peculiar old man living upstairs, in Hearts in Atlantis.

Ever wondered just what it takes to get a script made into a movie? The Secondhand Lions DVD extras includes an interesting 26 minute insiders peek into the screenplay’s journey from Director/Writer Tim McCanlies’ computer in Texas to the final okay from Hollywood movie executives. Considering it took nearly a decade to bring the story to film, Haley Joel Osment, who talks about growing up on screen, would have been far too young to play the awkward adolescent along side the legendary Michael Caine and Robert Duvall.

A behind-the-scene’s commentary about the movie credits the more experienced stars with encouraging not only Haley’s work but that of several young local actors as well. While there are no lion hunting games or funny bloopers to catch the attention of younger viewers, there is an extended alternate ending that introduces additional characters and contains a lot more pomp and pageantry than the film’s screened ending. Deleted scenes, director’s notes and numerous TV spots round out the DVD’s featurettes.—Kerry Bennett