Development When
Max Allan Collins wrote the graphic novel
Road to Perdition, his book agent saw potential in the story as a film adaptation and showed it to a film agent. By 1999, the novel had reached Dean Zanuck, who was the vice president of development at the company owned by his father, producer
Richard D. Zanuck. The novel was sent to the elder Zanuck in Morocco, who was there producing
Rules of Engagement (2000). The Zanucks agreed on the story's prospect and sent it to director-producer
Steven Spielberg. Shortly afterward, Spielberg set up the project at his studio
DreamWorks, though he did not pursue the film's direction due to his full slate. Sam Mendes sought a new project after completing
American Beauty (1999) and explored prospects including
A Beautiful Mind,
K-PAX,
The Shipping News, and
The Lookout. DreamWorks sent Mendes
Road to Perdition as a prospect, and Mendes was attracted to the story, considering it "narratively very simple, but thematically very complex".
Writing Spielberg first contacted screenwriter
David Self to adapt the story into a feature film. Some characters' names were slightly changed from their original versions in the graphic novel: the surname of the real-life gangsters
John Looney and his son Connor were changed to Rooney, and the surname of Tom Hanks' character and his family was streamlined from the original O'Sullivan to simply Sullivan. One significant addition to the script was the creation of Maguire to provide a persistent element of pursuit to the Sullivans' departure from the old world. Mendes described
Road to Perdition as a "poetic, elegiac story, in which the pictures tell the true story". The author also applauded the film's version of Rooney as "more overtly a father figure" to Sullivan.
Casting Tom Hanks was sent a copy of the graphic novel by
Steven Spielberg while he was filming
Cast Away. Initially too busy to make sense of the story, Hanks later received David Self's adapted screenplay, which he became attached to. Hanks, a father to four children, described Michael Sullivan's role, "I just got this guy. If you're a man, and you've got offspring ... emotionally, it's devastating." To capture the "seedy countenance" of the character, Jude Law was given a sallow skin tone that reflected the wear from working in a darkroom. Law's teeth also received a lower gumline and had a rotted look.
Anthony LaPaglia was cast as Al Capone and filmed a single scene, which was omitted from the final cut, and can be found in the DVD's deleted scenes. Mendes believed that Capone was more menacing as an unseen presence. Actor
Alfred Molina was approached to portray Capone, but Molina was forced to turn the role down due to scheduling conflicts with
Frida (2002).
Filming Mendes sought to produce a
period film that avoided gangster genre clichés. Mendes chose to film
Road to Perdition on location in Chicago, IL, including downtown at the University Club of Chicago, the
Chicago neighborhood of
Pullman, the
Charles G. Dawes House in
Evanston, Illinois, as well as the far west Chicago suburb of
Geneva,
Illinois.
General Jones Armory, the state's largest location mainstay, which houses units of the
Illinois National Guard, was provided to the studio by the Illinois State Film Commission. Sets were built inside the armory, including the interiors of the Sullivan family's home and the Rooney mansion. The availability of an inside location provided the crew complete control over the lighting environment, which was established with the rigging of
scaffoldings. Mendes collaborated with costume designer Albert Wolsky, production designer
Dennis Gassner, and cinematographer
Conrad Hall to design the film's style. Wolsky designed costumes that were "very controlled, with soft outlines and very soft silhouettes." Gassner built sets that could capture the cold look of the era. Mendes sought a muted palette for the film, having dark backgrounds and sets with dark, muted greens and grays. Mendes filmed
Road to Perdition using the
Super 35 format. Hall also shot at wide apertures that retained one point in the
depth of field sharply focused. Hall considered the technique to provide an emotional dimension to the scenes. The cinematographer also used unconventional techniques and materials to create unique lighting effects. One of Hall's methods was to use black silk in daylight exterior scenes to filter the light enough to create an in-shade look.
Music ==Themes==