20 facts you might not know about 'Groundhog Day'

Screenwriter Danny Rubin was reading “The Vampire Lestat,” a story from Anne Rice’s series of vampire novels. This got him thinking about immortality. Realizing it might be hard or expensive to make a film about something growing as a person over centuries, Rubin married the idea to one he had previously about a guy who lived the same day over and over.

Rubin had sold a screenplay for the thriller Hear No Evil, and he was ready for the next step in his career. His agent suggested he write a script he could use as a “calling card,” according to accounts from Vulture and Fifteen Minutes With, that was less a movie to get produced and more a film that could grab attention and get him meetings. Rubin opened a calendar, saw Groundhog Day, and thought it would be a good holiday to center his “calling card” script on.

It’s a little early to jump to the ending of Groundhog Day, but don’t worry because this is an ending that didn’t happen. When Rubin wrote the story, Bill Murray's Phil breaks the time loop and confesses his love to Rita (Andie MacDowell). At this point, Rita is not ready for love and rejects Phil. The twist is that she enters a time loop of her own, and the film ends on that existential note.

The script for Groundhog Day ended up in the hands of Ramis’ agent, who passed it along to his client, who was an established comedy director by then. Ramis read the script and liked it — to a degree. The director liked the script's romance and spirituality, but he said he didn’t laugh when reading the script. Rubin had two offers for his script, one from an indie studio where he would maintain creative control or Ramis and Columbia. The writer went with Ramis.

Rubin lost some control over Groundhog Day, but he was able to be a part of the screenwriting process alongside Ramis. Ramis wanted to add some humor and suggested the twist of Rita being stuck in a loop at the end be removed, which it was. After Rubin completed a new draft, Ramis took over the project. Rubin was not involved. At this point, Ramis removed the character of Rita’s boyfriend, Max, Phil’s narration, and any sojourns outside of Punxsutawney that Rubin had included.

Rubin had hoped for Kevin Kline to play Phil Connors, but as the screenwriter, he didn’t have any say. Ramis did, but his first choice was Tom Hanks. Hanks turned down the role. He reasoned that, given his tendency to play good-hearted people, the audience would invariably wait for his version of Phil to turn good (h/t The Atlantic).

After Hanks passed, Michael Keaton was offered the role. While he thought it was the kind of character he could play, he said he did not “understand” the film. Thus, Keaton turned the role down, and he later told Entertainment Weekly in 2014 that he regretted doing so. In the end, Ramis’ longtime collaborator Bill Murray took the part.

Originally, comedians were auditioning to play Rita. However, the producers realized that they didn’t want another comedic performer vying for laughs with Murray, a mercurial actor who likes to improvise. Tori Amos was apparently considered for the role, but ultimately, it went to Andie MacDowell, who was hired for her “warmth” opposite Murray.

The actor who plays Buster Green, the man who presides over Punxsutawney’s Groundhog Day festivities? That would be Brian Doyle-Murray. He is Bill Murray’s brother and often appears in his films.

Fred, one of the two young newlyweds in the movie (who happily receive WrestleMania tickets), is played by none other than Michael Shannon. The future Oscar nominee was making his on-screen debut as an actor. He spent most of his shooting in the background at the diner, as he needed to be there for future scenes.

Rubin had bandied about reasons as to why Phil was stuck in a time loop, but ultimately, he had decided to nix it. The studio, however, felt that the movie needed to explain Phil’s plight, or they wouldn’t green light the film. Rubin, Ramis, and producer Trevor Albert tried to appease the studio — throwing out ideas about a curse from a jilted lover or a malfunctioning machine created by a scientist — but Ramis never had any intent to include an explanation in his film.

Ramis wanted to shoot the movie in a real small town, but Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, didn’t suffice. It wasn’t photogenic enough. Also, it was 80 miles from the nearest large city. Ramis hoped to shoot near Chicago, and after roughly 60 cities were scouted, they shot in Woodstock, Illinois. It even had its own pothole already!

After they decided not to shoot in the actual Punxsutawney, the folks from the city would not allow Punxsutawney Phil to be used in the movie. Instead, the production trapped a wild groundhog in the woods, named it Scooter, and used it for their film.

When filming began, the cast and crew were dealing with winter weather. Murray has said that it was routinely around 20 degrees outside, and filming days would last as long as 12 hours. For the scenes between Phil and Ned, Ramis wasn’t sure how he wanted the weather to be, so he decided to shoot their encounters nine times in nine different weather scenarios.

Ramis and Murray had worked together for decades, but that didn’t mean they were best friends. They clashed on the film in various ways. Ramis was focused on making a comedy movie, while Murray was more interested in the philosophical elements of the story. In Ramis’ words, within a 2004 New Yorker profile, Murray “was just really irrationally mean and unavailable.” The two had such a bad falling out that they did not speak again until just before Ramis died in 2014.

In a (futile) attempt to appease his star, Ramis let Murray work with Rubin on a draft of the script. The duo even went to the real Groundhog Day festival in Punxsutawney. When Ramis would call to check in on their progress, Murray told Rubin to say that he was not there. Rubin, too, found himself frustrated with Murray’s process.

How long did it take for them to land on “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher as the song that plays on the radio every morning when Phil wakes up? Rubin included “I Got You Babe” from the beginning, in the first draft, appreciating that it was repetitive and about love — two things he found thematically resonant.

Finding an accurate budget for Groundhog Day is a little tricky, with estimates ranging from $14 million to $30 million. We do know the box-office returns, though. It made $70.9 million domestically and $105 million worldwide. This made it the 10th-highest-grossing movie in North America and the 19th highest-grossing globally.

Groundhog Day is now considered an all-time classic. It’s been named one of the best ‘90s films and one of the best comedies ever. AFI called it the 34th-best comedy movie of all time. The film also made Punxsutawney a tourist destination, increasing the attendance for its Groundhog Day festivities from hundreds of visitors to tens of thousands. Of course, the phrase “groundhog day” has become a part of the lexicon.

We are not told why Phil is stuck in a time loop, and we are never told just how long he is there. People have accepted that. Ramis used to say 10 years, but then he bumped it up to 30 or 40 years to give Phil time to become an expert in things like ice sculpting and playing the piano. 

In an early draft, Rubin had Phil estimate he had been there for 70 or 80 years. Later in life, once Ramis had married a Buddhist woman and adopted some of that philosophy, he started to quote a Buddhist doctrine that says it takes 10,000 years for a soul to evolve to the next level. In the end, there is no definitive answer.